It was a sweet homecoming five years in the making for Wayne State.
When the Warriors started their program in 1999-2000, they called the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum home. That would be the only year they would play in the city of Detroit until this past summer, when the university inked a three-year contract to return to the Coliseum.
And even though their 8-0 win Tuesday night over the Oakland University club team, national runners-up last year and ACHA national champions in 2004, was only an exhibition win, it gave the Warriors time to tweak a few things as they ready for regular-season play this weekend.
“Conditioning,” WSU head coach Bill Wilkinson said when asked about what a game like this helps the players work on. “The arena was very warm and it made the guys have to work for everything they got. Oakland’s a very good hockey team, as their record shows, but they’re a team that we should beat 8-0.”
Jon Grabarek, Jason Bloomingburg and John May all scored two goals apiece for Wayne State, which used all three of its goalies. Jason Baclig and Mike Forgie tallied the other scores. Grabarek and May each had two assists, as did Adam Krug and Tylor Michel.
Golden Grizzlies goalie Chris Joswiak made 40 saves in goal for OU. For the Warriors, Matt Kelly stopped 11 in 29:46, Will Hooper made seven stops in 22:07 and seldom-used Kevin Bonikowski did not see a shot in the final 8:07 of the third period.
Though defeated, Oakland was not despondent.
“There’s a reason why those guys over there are on scholarships and my guys pay to play,” OU first-year head coach Sean Hogan said. “We had our chances, and maybe if we score on one or two of them, it’s a different game. I’m not saying we’d win, but it might not have been 8-0.”
“We’ve still got a ways to go,” admitted Wilkinson. “I didn’t approach this game as I would a league game, but we wanted to work on some new systems and put them into a game scenario.”
This weekend, WSU travels to Dayton, Ohio, to play in the Lefty McFadden Invitational with Michigan State, Miami and North Dakota. Oakland plays a pair at home against Robert Morris College’s club team.
