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Ann Arbor, MI- The Eastern Michigan Eagles played a much more spirited game of hockey against a weaker Western Michigan team and defeated them 6-2 at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube, to raise Eastern's home winning streak to 1.

Things in this game however did not start off as good as Eastern Michigan would of liked. Western Michigan started the game out with a quick attack and struck first against Sam Horton. The WMU crowd which I believe OUTNUMBERED the EMU crowd got riled up very quickly. One of the keys to the game I had stated was that EMU could not fall behind in the first period and expect to win. Well, the goal seemed to vitalize Eastern Michigan and for the rest of the period the action was in the Western Michigan zone. Eastern was rewarded with three outstanding goals. Their first goal scored by Chris Allman on the Power Play was beautiful. A slapshot bounces directly off of the goalie on to Allman's stick to pound home. You cannot design a play any better. The second goal, was just wonderful puck control, and impossible for Marlowe to stop. The third goal of the period was all Mr. Bricker with a wonderful move to crash the net and pounded it home. Eastern Michigan went to the locker room up 3-1. Their passing was much crisper and they dictated the flow of the game.

The second period saw things start to shift a little bit. Eastern came out and started playing a bit like they did in their previous games. They came out slow and let WMU dictate the pace a little bit. However, a goal fixes everything and at the 6:56 mark a wonderful deflection put EMU up 4-1, the Western crowd got a lot quieter with this goal. The fifth goal again was not the Western Michigan Goalie's Fault. It was just a beautiful pass inside of the crease to Koveleski to make it 5-1. With about 27 seconds left, Eastern scored their final goal of the game and sealed it with a wonderful attack on the net. 

The third period however is the only part of the game that I could say really bugged me. Eastern seemed to be really happy with the 6-1 lead and didn't continue to push the effort. They were on their heels for most of the period despite outshooting Western Michigan. Western was rewarded with one more goal which got their crowd happy again. Do not get me wrong that Eastern played a terrible third period, it's just that they didn't come out with that same fire that I saw in the previous two periods. Against teams like Penn State, Iowa State and Ohio, 60 minutes of hockey should be played.

Overall, it was an entertaining game. It was nice to see EMU return to the winning track. Western Michigan seemed undermanned and undersized to upset Eastern. The goalies played fine. The game was also a bit chippy at times, but is that really shocking when two in-state rivals play? 

This game introduced the new members of the Eastern Michigan Hockey Team as well. The first was #17 Ryan York, one of Eastern Michigan's trainers last year. He will "add some depth to the Eastern Michigan defenses." Seventeen is a wonderful number. The second was #1 Adam Milkowski, a third goaltender with wonderful size. Being only a sophomore I expect him and Jake Pruss to be a pretty poweful combination in two years. He played the third period against WMU, gave up a quick goal but played quite well from that point on. The third was #23 Carl Burchin, played for Eastern Michigan two years ago to give EMU more depth. The fouth was #12 Ryan Sinks, another forward from Livonia, Michigan. He did not play in this game but we look forward to seeing him in the future games. A warm welcome to all.

Scorro was also another kicking success with two winners, including my sister. Also, my webpage was advertised, perhaps that's why you are here. =) 

Kevin's Grades:

Looking Ahead: 
I hope the EMU crowd enjoyed the game on Saturday. The next two weeks Eastern Michigan will be on the road, for two huge series in the CSCHL. Next week is probably the larger of the two traveling to Ames, IA to play Iowa State in two games that could quite possibly determine the CSCHL. Two weeks, the team travels to Ohio University in Athens, OH to play two games in the vaulted Bird Arena where EMU has not experienced much success. 

Eastern will then return home on January 25th for the biggest weekend of the season. Friday Night, the University of West Virginia comes to town to take on the Eagles, and Saturday Afternoon....................................... #1 PENN STATE. A huge crowd of Penn State fans I'd assume are coming, I plea to the EMU Students to come out, and support Eastern and maintain the Ice Cube as an EMU Home Rink, not the PSU Ice Pavilion like it felt like last year. 

Until next time, Go Green.

A-
Reasoning: The offense looked a ton better in this game. You can tell from the shot count, Eastern finally peaked over the 40 shot plateau. The offense was aggressive for two periods and did enough in the third period. The passes were a ton crisper as well, and set up the goals for Eastern Michigan. The goals that were created were also wonderful, and should be wonderful for you, the reader to watch. 

A-
Reasoning: The defense also did a much better job tonight. The players on EMU were getting down, blocking pucks, blocking the passing lanes and just making it much more difficult for WMU to get any decent shots off.  The number of shots of 32 seems a bit high though. 

A+
I love it! Eastern scores 3 power play goals(the first three), and did an outstanding job playing an aggressive penalty kill. An A+ is in order.

 A
Two goals, two goalies. The goals scored were fair enough. I'll give them credit. 

A-
Reasoning: Much better performance from the Eagles. However, I think they could still be even better. Watch out!

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