Eagles Ready For Playoffs
February 22,
2009
The Eagles last
game of the regular season wrapped up Saturday night in Dearborn
as they completed a sweep of the University of Michigan Dearborn
Wolves. The sweep should help their momentum as they
prepare for the CSCHL playoffs next weekend.
The series began
at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube on Friday as the Wolves looked to keep
a secure hold on their 14th place in the ACHA national
tournament standings and finish in 7th place in the CSCHL.
The game began as a pretty even contest and looked like the
first period would end tied, but with 22 seconds left, EMU's
Jeremy Osburn would put the Eagles on the board with a power
play goal. The second had the teams fairly even again
until the 10:53 mark when the Wolves' Michael Macari would score
short handed. Less than a minute later Eastern's Jeremy
Osburn would put the Eagles ahead again on another power play
with the help of Joe Schweiger and Brad Leech. With 4:58
left in the second, Joakim Nilsson found himself on a break away
that resulted in another goal, then less than two minutes later
EMU's Chris Deroche found the back of the net with the help of
Ian Chornoby and Kevin Lapointe. That sent the teams to
the second intermission with the Eagles leading, 4-1. In
the third UMD fought hard to come back and scored at the 10:48
mark on the second goal of the game from Michael Macari, but
Eastern answered back less than a minute later when Anthony
Pattenaude scored his first goal of the season. The game
turned nasty in the last few minutes and resulted in two fights
which led to the disqualification of Cam Wilson and Brad Leach
along with two UMD players. It was too little too late for
the Wolves though, and Eastern took the game with a convincing
5-2 score.
Saturday's game
in Dearborn began much like Friday's when the teams were held
off the scoreboard for much of the period. Then with 4:21
left, Rodney Stewart found an opening with the help of Joe
Petriches and Jeremy Osburn. Before the period was over
the Eagles would add another goal when Osburn continued his
outstanding play and scored a short handed goal with the help of
John Schultz. The Eagles felt confident going into the
second period with a 2-0 lead but just 2:31 in, UMD's James
Telfer would score to bring his team within one goal, then less
then two minutes later added another one to tie it. It
looked like the Wolves were finding some momentum as Adam Stoner
put them ahead with a goal at the 7:19 mark, but then Kevin
Lapointe changed the face of the game. With 2:59 left in
the second, Lapointe would find the net on the power play with
the help of John Schultz and Rodney Stewart. Then with
1:03 left, Lapointe would score another goal on the power play,
this time with the help of Schweiger and Schultz. That
ended the second in favor of the Eagles, 4-3. The Eagles
knew UMD would not go down easy and that would be the case as
the Wolves tied the game with 11:53 on the clock. That
would be enough to send the game to sudden death overtime.
Less than a minute into overtime, Eastern's Adam Desana found
the puck on his stick and quickly took a shot that found the net
and won the game for the Eagles, 5-4.
The win's are
huge for the Eagles as they needed the momentum for the playoffs
and gained confidence sweeping the 14th ranked Wolves. For
UMD is was a big disappointment, possibly ending their run for
the national tournament and handing them an eighth place finish
in the CSCHL behind EMU.
The Eagles
finished the season in 7th place and face off against Iowa State
in the first game of the CSCHL playoffs. The game begins
at 4:30 p.m. on Friday at the University of Michigan Dearborn
Field House & Ice Arena in Dearborn. GO EAGLES!!!
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