Stallions Are Thorn In Side
February 17, 2009
The Western Michigan Stallions will not make the CSCHL playoffs and are now ranked below Eastern Michigan in the ACHA national rankings, but the Eagles can't seem to beat them on a consistent basis. The last season series took place this weekend but EMU could only manage a split which gave Western a 3-1 series record this season.
On Friday at the Ice Cube, the Eagles came out strong. Joe Schweiger opened the scoring at the 2:56 mark then the flood gates opened and the Eagles scored the next five goals, including a hat trick from Schweiger. The other three goals were scored by Palmer, Nilsson and Schultz. That gave Eastern a commanding 6-0 lead. In the second it only took 1:03 to add to the goals when Brad Leach took a pass from Jeremy Osburn with an assist from Ian Chornoby. Then at the 5:37 mark Joakim Nilssonn added the seventh goal from Osburn and Leach. It wouldn't be until the 6:03 mark of the second when Western's Alex Handley would score their first goal of the game. Before the second was over, John Schultz would add another goal on the power play. The second ended with a 9-1 EMU lead. It only took Eastern 21 seconds in the third to hit double digit scoring as Jon Sutton scored from Kevin Lapointe and Adam Desana. The Stallions would score three goals before the period ended, but the game was out of reach for them and the Eagles embarrassed them with a 10-4 win.
The Eagles knew that Saturday would not be as easy as Friday's game. The teams were held off the scoreboard in the first period and then at the 7:57 mark of the second Western scored their first goal. One more goal was scored in that period by the Stallions which sent the teams to the second intermission with a 2-0 Western lead. Eastern just couldn't seem to get anything going in the third period and WMU would add another goal with 2:37 left in the game. That would be all the scoring and Western returned the favor from Friday by embarrassing the Eagles with a 3-0 shut out.
This weekend the Eagles wrap up the regular season with a home and home against University of Michigan Dearborn. UMD is playing to stay in the ACHA national tournament and if Eastern can win at least one game, they will finish the season in 7th place in the CSCHL. UMD will be missing their best goalie, Stephen Yu, so if the Eagles offense continues to shine, it should be no problem to win.