No. 2 CMU Division III men's hockey grabs 4-1 win over No. 5 Adrian College
The Central Michigan Division III men's hockey team battles for puck with University of Michigan-Flint Friday night at the Isabella County Ice Arena in Mount Pleasant.
In its second and final meeting in the regular season, the Division III No. 2 Central Michigan University men’s hockey team secured its 13th win of the season against Adrian College, 4-1.
This is win number 23 for the Chippewas (23-4, 12-4 in the Michigan Collegiate Hockey Conference). It is the fourth straight loss for the Bulldogs who drop to 10-6 (8-6 in MCHC).
The win came with a feeling of disappointment from head coach James Cadzow.
“If you don’t adhere to the structure, everything looks a mess, which is what you got tonight,” Cadzow said. “After coming back from the break, I thought we were ready to go. Last night it was a good game from us, but tonight was a letdown. We were able to capitalize on a few chances that we created, but we need to be better.”
As the game went underway, the physicality of the game was noticeable according to junior forward Dalton Sutherland.
“They’re the most physical team we’ve played all year,” Sutherland said. “We had an idea of that coming into the game. But it was definitely more than any other team we faced as far as toughness.”
In the first period, both CMU and Adrian fought to see who would get on the scoreboard first, but CMU would accomplish that when sophomore defensemen Brennan Martin took the puck coast to coast to score his ninth of the season with 9:33 left.
The second period had more offensive success for CMU as they would put two more biscuits in the basket as junior forward Dalton Sutherland would get the redirect goal after an attempt from senior defensemen James Gleason from the slot.
It would land as Sutherland’s 40th goal of the season, 20 goals higher than any other season he’s had.
Forwards Ryan Tyrer, senior, and Nathan Allgaier, graduate, would each grab a goal for CMU, putting the team up 4-0 on the Bulldogs.
Tyrer secured his 18th goal of the season with 10:40 left in third and Allgaier earned his 27th goal of the year with 7:32 left. He’s now eight goals higher than any previous seasons with the Chippewas.
The third period was a battle for CMU to put away Adrian to clinch the win and they did just that, with the exception of Bulldog junior defensemen Tim Foley when he snuck a goal, his fifth of the season, past CMU goalie Trevor Whitehead with just under four minutes left in the game.
“We played well enough to win,” Cadzow said. “We’re better than that. We can play hard for three periods and we just don’t want to. So, when I say we played ‘well enough’ that’s not good enough. We should expect more out of ourselves and I just don’t see it all the time from the guys.”
And Sutherland would say the same.
“At some points, it felt like we were playing good solid hockey and Cadzow was happy with that, but at other times, we were playing sloppy and they were out playing us,” Sutherland said. “That’s not how it should be, but good teams find a way to win and we did that tonight.”
