NMU Hockey glides past Bowling Green

Courtesy of NMU Athletics

MARQUETTE, Mich. – The Northern Michigan University hockey team cruised to a 4-1 Western Collegiate Hockey Association win over Bowling Green State Friday at the Berry Events Center.

NMU improved to 13-18-2 overall with an 11-13-1 WCHA record. Bowling Green fell to 13-14-6 with a 10-11-4 league mark.

“I didn’t think it was a 4-1 game and as the game went on I thought the got better. We had some big plays by some big guys, I thought Mathias was very good and we capitalized on some chances,” said NMU head coach Walt Kyle. “At the end of the day, we ask our guys to come and bring energy and we ask our best guys to try to be our best guys and I thought that happened.”

Senior forward and captain Stephan Vigier got the Wildcats on the board at the 6:59 mark of the first when he took a feed from junior defenseman Luke Eibler and redirected the puck into the net. It was Vigier’s 15th goal of the season and Eibler’s 13th assist.

Eibler then scored his second goal of the season at 10:47 of the second when he took a feed from junior forward Reed Seckel. It was Seckel’s 10th assist of the season.

Freshman defenseman Brock Maschmeyer then scored his third goal of the season less than two minutes later (12:26) when he took an assist from freshmen forwards John Siemer. It was the ninth and fourth assists of the season for the freshmen, respectively.

Siemer then scored his sixth goal of the season on assists from sophomore forward Darren Nowick and Hanson who notched their fourth and fifth assists of the season at the 12:11 mark of the third.

Ryan Carpenter put Bowling Green on the scoreboard taking advantage of the power play at 17:50 of the third. Mark Cooper and Sean Walker assisted on the play.

NMU and Bowling Green each had 25 shots on goal as the Wildcats went 0-2 on the power play and 1-2 on the penalty kill.

Freshman goalie Mathias Dahlstrom picked up the win for the Wildcats improving to 12-16-2 on the season. Dahlstrom made 24 saves in net for NMU playing the full 60-minutes. Tommy Burke took the loss for the Falcons falling to 9-6-6 on the year. Burke made 21 saves in 57:53 of work.

The Wildcats will look for the series sweep on Saturday as they wrap up their final regular season home series at 7:07 p.m. at the Berry Events Center. Prior to their game Saturday, NMU will honor the senior members of the squad in the annual Senior Night celebration.