Co-captains Mike Bishai and Dana Lattery tallied three points each and senior Chad Kline scored 1:11 into overtime as Western Michigan defeated Alaska-Fairbanks Saturday night, 5-4.<\/p>\n

Kline lifted a wrist shot over the right shoulder of UAF goaltender Lance Mayes to end a game that saw WMU score four unanswered goals after starting the game down 2-0. Senior goaltender Mike Mantua had 25 saves for the Broncos, including a brilliant penalty kill that saw the WMU down one man for five minutes. Mayes also finished with 22 saves.<\/p>\n

UAF coach Guy Gadowsky gave credit when credit is due.<\/p>\n

“I felt it was an excellent hockey game,” he said. “I think we deserve a little credit for coming back when down 4-2, we had a chance to ice the game with a 5-on-3 power play late in the third and we didn’t do that, we had a terrible breakdown on a defensive zone face off in overtime, and they certainly deserve the win.”<\/p>\n

WMU coach Jim Culhane was glad for the victory, but still isn’t satisfied with the team’s performance.<\/p>\n

“Walking out the door, we’ll take the two points, but there is still a lot of work to do,” Culhane said.<\/p>\n

WMU had two key chances to score early off UAF defensive turnovers when Kline’s shot at 3:06 dribbled wide of Mayes and Jeff Campbell’s wrist shot from the slot was also denied. UAF got on the board first when sophomore Cam Keith took a rebound from Blaine Bablitz’s shot and beat Mantua between the legs to give the Nanooks a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n

UAF would score again 33 seconds later when senior Bobby Andrews broke in alone from the right side of the ice and beat Mantua low to give UAF a two-goal lead midway through the first period.<\/p>\n

Again, defensive mistakes almost hurt the Broncos on the scoreboard during the game when freshman Mat Ponto deflected a clearing attempt off a UAF forward, only to have the puck fall behind Mantua before he covered it up.<\/p>\n

Freshman Pat Dwyer took a pass from Bishai and one-timed it past Mayes from the top of the crease at 18:25 to decrease the UAF lead to 2-1.<\/p>\n

WMU would score their second of four consecutive goals early in the second period when sophomore Nic Boileau took a drop pass from Paul Davies and roofed the puck past Mayes to even the score at two goals a piece.<\/p>\n

After UAF freshman Aaron Voros received a five-minute boarding major at 9:29, WMU capitalized when defenseman Mike Jarmuth’s shot hit the post and trickled in past Mayes to give the Brown and Gold a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n

Voros would receive another penalty at 19:21 for interference, and the Broncos took advantage once again. Campbell took a feed from Bishai and Lattery and dented the twine to give WMU a 4-2 lead.<\/p>\n

UAF finally received a break early in the third period when Bishai took the puck into the UAF zone two-on-one and fed Campbell with a nice pass, only to have the shot slowly dribble by a clearly beaten Mayes.<\/p>\n

Following WMU senior Anthony Battaglia’s cross-checking penalty at 2:07, the Nanooks made the game a one-goal affair when Mantua wandered out of the net trying to see around a screen, only to have Bablitz wrap-around behind the net and score to decrease the WMU lead to 4-3.<\/p>\n

UAF would score 57 seconds later after freshman Jared Sylvestre went top- shelf from the top of the crease over a laid-out Mantua to even the score at four each.<\/p>\n

Everything seemed, like the previous game, to go UAF’s way until Jeremy Cheyne was assessed a five-minute major and a game disqualification for spearing at 8:58 and Bishai was given a minor penalty for charging at 10:02, giving the Nanooks a five-on-three advantage for two minutes, including a five minute power play. The Bronco penalty-kill proceeded to deny the Nanooks’ every shot and brought the crowd of 2,648 at Lawson Ice Arena to its feet.<\/p>\n

Culhane was excited about the great job the special teams did late.<\/p>\n

“All six defenseman on the penalty kill were the difference in the game,” he said. “How exciting for senior Chad Kline to score a goal in overtime to give us the win.”<\/p>\n

The Broncos proceeded to carry the momentum into the overtime session when Kline took advantage of a UAF defensive breakdown and beat Mayes high glove side to give WMU a thrilling 5-4 victory, and helping the Broncos salvage two points in the series.<\/p>\n

The 1-1-0 Broncos host a home-and-home series with I-94 rival Michigan next weekend, while 3-1-0 Nanooks continue their bitter intra-state feud with Alaska-Anchorage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Co-captains Mike Bishai and Dana Lattery tallied three points each and senior Chad Kline scored 1:11 into overtime as Western Michigan defeated Alaska-Fairbanks Saturday night, 5-4. Kline lifted a wrist shot over the right shoulder of UAF goaltender Lance Mayes to end a game that saw WMU score four unanswered goals after starting the game […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2198"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}