March 5, 2008

Game Notes in PDF Format

GAME STORYLINES
The Wayne State University men's hockey team (9-23-2, 5-13-0 CHA) enters its final home series at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum this weekend against #20 Niagara (19-9-4, 11-5-2 CHA) hoping to end a three-game losing streak. Both Friday's game and Saturday's finale are slated to begin at 7:05 p.m. ET.

Fans can watch live webcasts both nights on the Internet via B2 Networks.

Wayne State was swept at Bemidji State last weekend, falling 7-5 on Friday and 5-3 on Saturday. Niagara earned a pair of convincing victories (6-3 and 7-1) at home against Robert Morris.

The Warriors will head to Niagara next weekend for the 2008 College Hockey America Tournament and face Alabama-Huntsville on Friday, March 14, for their third consecutive quarterfinal meeting with the Chargers. Wayne State has lost in the opening round to UAH each of the last two years, including a 4-3 overtime defeat in 2007.

BEHIND THE BENCH
Bill Wilkinson is in his ninth season as Wayne State's head coach and his 26th year as a collegiate head coach. Wilkinson's overall record stands at 435-467-81, while his mark at WSU is 122-166-28. He entered the 2007-08 season ranked 23rd on the NCAA all-time wins list.

In seven seasons at the helm of the Purple Eagles, head coach Dave Burkholder has a career record of 125-105-22.

THROUGH THE YEARS
Wayne State trails in the all-time series, 14-19-4, including four straight losses to Niagara this season. This will be the Purple Eagles' first visit to the Fairgrounds Coliseum since February 2007, as the Warriors played a "home" game this season against the Purple Eagles at the Taylor SportsPlex on Jan. 18, prior to a neutral site meeting at the Palace of Auburn Hills the following afternoon. Wayne State is 7-5-3 all-time at home against Niagara.

IN THE POLLS
Wayne State was selected to finish fourth in the College Hockey America preseason coaches poll, while Niagara was predicted to finish first. The Purple Eagles are also ranked 20th in the USCHO.com/CSTV Division I national poll.

ON THIS DATE
Wayne State's only prior action on these dates was in 2003 when the Warriors swept a home-and-home series with Findlay, earning a 3-0 win in Detroit on March 7 and a 6-3 road victory on March 8.

SCOUTING NIAGARA
The Purple Eagles have lost just once (8-1-3) in their last 12 games, a span that began with a pair of wins over Wayne State in January. Niagara has locked in the second seed for the CHA Tournament, which will be played on NU's home ice at Dwyer Arena next weekend.

Junior Vince Rocco is pacing the Niagara offense (14-25--39), senior Matt Caruana has a squad-best 15 goals, and the two forwards rank third and fourth in the conference, respectively, in points. Junior Ted Cook, who is tied with Rocco for second on the team with 14 goals, leads the CHA with nine power-play markers. As a team, Niagara's offense ranks sixth in Division I (3.41) and its power-play unit is converting at a rate of 22.6 percent, fifth-highest in the country.

Junior goaltender Juliano Pagliero, who is 15-6-4 in 25 starts, has a conference-best .928 save percentage (sixth-best in the nation) and ranks second with a 2.27 goals-against average. He anchors a defensive corps that allows just 2.56 goals per game and has an 81.9 penalty kill percentage.

LAST TIME OUT
The 12 combined goals in Friday's 7-5 loss at Bemidji State marked Wayne State's highest-scoring game since another 7-5 setback at BSU on Jan. 6 last season.

Five Warriors had multiple-point outputs Friday, including Stavros Paskaris who scored twice and added an assist. Derek Punches and Matt Krug tallied a goal and an assist apiece, while Derek Bachynski and Jeff Caister each chipped in a pair of helpers.

Jared Katz also lit the lamp for the Warriors, and freshman goaltender Mike Devoney made 24 saves in his first start since Jan. 19 against Niagara.

In Saturday's 5-3 setback, four straight BSU goals erased an early 2-1 WSU lead as the Beavers clinched the CHA regular season title. Bachynski, Katz, and Punches all scored for the visitors, while Paskaris notched two assists to extend his point streak to six games, including four straight multi-point outputs.

WSU NOTES
Paskaris, who has 23 points in his last 13 games, leads the Warriors with 34 overall and ranks fifth in the league. He is also rapidly approaching several school records in terms of league play. With 23 points (9-14) in 18 conference games, Paskaris is one point shy of the single-season WSU mark for CHA points and two away from the assists record. He is also three away from breaking the school records for career CHA points (62) and assists (37). Overall, Paskaris ranks fourth all-time at Wayne State in points (93), third in assists (59), and fifth in goals (34).

Caister, Wayne State's second-leading scorer this season, set the school single-season record for assists by a defenseman Friday at Bemidji State and is just three points away from eclipsing the mark in that category as well. He matched his season-long five game point streak (which was snapped Saturday), leads all CHA blueliners in scoring (3-24--27) and ranks fourth nationally among defensemen averaging 0.79 points per game. Caister is also sixth and fifth, respectively, all-time at Wayne State in points (43) and assists (38) by a defenseman.

After missing the first 18 games of the season, Bachynski has played in 16 games in 2008 and has 19 points in his last 13 contests. He is 12th all-time at WSU with 62 career points.

Last weekend, Krug and Punches joined Paskaris (Oct. 13), Tylor Michel (Dec. 7), Bachynski (Jan. 12), and Mike Forgie (Feb. 9) as Warriors who this season have reached the milestone of 100 career games.

Additionally, Punches has the longest active games played streak at 74 dating back to Feb. 24, 2006.

After winning just three of their first 20 games (3-15-2, .200), the Warriors are 6-8-0 (.429) in their last 14 contests. In this recent span, they have averaged 3.14 goals per game and are 15-for-71 (21.1 percent) on the power play. They have also successfully killed 60 of their opponents' 73 man-advantage opportunities (82.2 percent) over the 14-game stretch. Comparatively, Wayne State averaged just 1.75 goals per game and struggled on both the power play (13.9) and penalty kill (71.8) over the first 20 games of the season.

SENIOR NIGHT
Wayne State will recognize its four seniors - Bachynski, Forgie, Michel, and Paskaris - prior to Saturday night's finale against Niagara.