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Ann Arbor, Michigan- In front of a decent sized crowd and an energetic pep band, the Eagles defeated their in-state rivals from Michigan-Dearborn rather handily by the score of 10-2 at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube. The Eagles were paced by the hat trick of Freshman Dave Stewart and a balanced attack by the rest of the Eagles.

The first period started off quickly for the Eastern Eagles as a mere 29 seconds into the game, Freshman Aaron Diaz let loose a hard slapshot from the center of the ice, slightly in front of the blue line and watched the shot fly by starting goaltender Eric Pagel to give the Eagles an early 1-0 lead. The Eagles then at the 6:49 mark made the score 2-0 on a beautiful line change by the Eagles following a penalty. As one of the Eagles penalties expired, Matt Opyd came flying off the bench and broke away and scored easily against Pagel. Only a minute later, the Eagles continued their onslaught and attack in which Jeremy Majszak put home the Eagles third goal on a solid effort in front of the net. The play was helped out by the fact that the Wolves defensemen did not even get into the play and defend the front of the net leaving the two Eagles alone in front of the net to pound the puck home. The Eagles scoring in the first period concluded at the 12:30 mark on a goal by Jeff Jepson. For the fourth goal Jepson was set up by a wonderful pass from Dave Stewart which made the goal a piece of cake for Jepson to pound home behind the Dearborn goaltender.

With the Eagles up 4-0, the second period began with the Eagles continuing to put good pressure on Dearborn and proceeded to give themselves many good opportunities to continue to add to their lead. The lead became 5-0 for the Eagles at the 7:48 mark of the second period on another lapse by Dearborn, a 3-on-1 lead to another relatively easy goal for the Eagles, put home by Stewart for his first goal of the evening. Soon after, at the 10:06 mark the Eagles continued to pour on making it 6-0 on a wonderful slapshot from Voelker that Dearborn's new goaltender Jason Ryan didn't see and probably didn't want to. However, despite all of the fun that the Eagles seemed to be having the Wolves got on the scoreboard at the 11:50 mark of the period. On what seemed to be a rather peculiar play, EMU goaltender Jake Pruss seemed to have frozen the puck on the ice but then a moment later the puck was seen in the back of the net. The goal stood and was credited to Patrick Coldren to make the game 6-1. However, the Eagles responded well to this newly found challenge making the score 7-1 at the 18:34 mark in which Dave Stewart got behind the entire Michigan-Dearborn team, and out faked the goaltender to give the Eagles back their six goal lead. 

The Eagles started the third period just about as quickly as they started off the first period. 1:30 into the first period, Steve Kardel was the recipient of an absolutely perfect pass from Aaron Diez. Diez had the puck directly in front of the goaltender and was able to zip the pass along center ice to an open Kardel who was able to with the puck on another breakaway beat Dearborn's goaltender to make the score an unbelievable 8-1. The Eagles then added the finishing touches to an absolutely brilliant game with two more goals. The 9th goal was on the power play and was the goal that gave Dave Stewart a hat trick in his first game at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube. The 10th and final goal of the evening for the EMU Eagles was scored by freshman defenseman Adam Jakubowski who showed his powerful slapshot just ripping the puck completely past the Dearborn goaltender. Dearborn did with 2:48 left in the third add a power play goal with a nice effort from Brad Zarem being able to sneak the puck past a sprawling Pruss on the ice. However, in all truth the goal was meaningless in a game completely dominated by the Eagles, ending by the score of 10-2.

The Eagles on this evening really demonstrated what I consider one of the essential elements to a good hockey team. This element is pretty simple. A good hockey team plays together as just that, a team. The Eagles on this evening were unselfish and were really passing the puck extremely well setting up breakaways and odd man rushes that the Eagles were able to take advantage of. Sometimes, a hockey team can get brought down by individuals who want to go out and make everything happen on their own and not play into the system. Tonight, there was no evidence of this. Just by looking at the fact that the Eagles had 7 unique goal scorers showed that they were really spreading out the wealth.

The Eagles also tonight really showed a lot of passion and grit on the ice. They made the "little plays" that mean so much in the long run. They were winning the battles along the boards, they were sacrificing their body, getting in front of the net and really battling hard the entire evening. The evidence of past letdowns late in games was not evident as the Eagles were able to keep up their intensity level for a large majority of the three periods and were really taking the game to the Wolves for the entire game.

The other big thing that fans of the EMU hockey team need to understand about the game tonight was the amazing play by their defense. Coach Fassbender in his comments coming into this game stated that the Eagles needed to play solid defensively for them to win. The Eagles really showed the will and all of the positive traits that you want to see out of a defense. Whenever Michigan-Dearborn would get the puck on net, you would see the Eagles in front of the net battling hard, getting on the ice, blocking the puck and clearing it. By getting in front of the net, you reduce shooting lanes and help your goaltender out a lot. Michigan-Dearborn for a large majority of the first two periods did not get back to defend their net quick enough and gave the Eagles all the opportunities they needed to put the puck in the net.

Let us not also forget the amazing game of Jake Pruss. Even though the Eagles did do an outstanding job getting the puck in the offensive end, Dearborn was able to get a few decent counter attacks in and Pruss made a large number of great saves and really looked outstanding.

You must understand the following. This is probably one of(if not) the best efforts over the 6 years of going to EMU Hockey games, that I have seen the Eagles put out on the ice. They played with a lot of grit and a lot of fire and really took it to Dearborn tonight. With the defensive effort that the Eagles put out, and the offensive effort the Eagles put out... it was really incredible. Considering too that every game I have seen the Eagles and Wolves play were really close contests, that made the final score even more shocking.

I suspect that Dearborn got rattled early on the game and were really not given the opportunity to get into rhythm at all to give themselves an opportunity to get back into the game. Dearborn showed some talent on the ice, but they really looked like a collection of individuals instead of a cohesive team. With a new coach, it takes time to completely get into a system. I suspect Dearborn will improve greatly over the coming weeks.

Considering how great the game was for the Eagles, I must interject one minor complaint. The Eagles committed a mere 7 penalties in the game for 14 minutes, compared to the Wolves only committing 2. These penalties just set up the shot count to be more even than it really should of been. Honestly, that's really the biggest complaint against one of the better performances I have seen.

Looking Ahead:

The Eagles after sweeping the Dearborn Wolves this weekend(6-3 win on Friday at Dearborn), play yet another home and home with an in-state rival. This time the Eastern Michigan Eagles play the Western Michigan Broncos, Friday at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube at 7:30 PM and then travel to K-Wings Stadium up in Kalamazoo for the return trip of the home-and-home. It's a definite chance to add 8 more points to the CSCHL Standings for the Eagles.

A great team effort tonight. I just hope to continue to see such great efforts from a team that looked committed to success tonight.

Until Next Time, 

GO GREEN!

-Kevin  

A
Really precise, really effective. Incredible passing helped to set up several breakaways and odd-man rushes for the Eagles who seemed to take advantage of every opportunity they had. A large number of great plays, and 10 goals to show for it.

A
The effort, the tenacity that good defensive hockey was shown this evening. The Eagles did a great job helping Jake Pruss clear the puck from the net and did a great job disrupting Michigan-Dearborn from doing anything really effective. The second goal was probably the only let down from the defense all night, and in a 60 minute hockey game one let-down is almost something to expect.

A
I suppose I could be picky here and not give a high mark to the Eagles for this. However, why should I? The Wolves only went 1/7 on the power play and that one goal came late in the third period. The Eagles penalty kill was extremely effective and even forced Dearborn back on their heels for periods of the game. The power play went 1/2 but really didn't get any opportunities until the third period. We'll see how good the power play really is over the upcoming weeks.

A
Pruss was outstanding tonight. One goal that I feel really shouldn't of been a goal, and the second was one that he or the defense really couldn't of done much. He made several key saves throughout the game and helped to keep all the momentum EMU's way.

A+
Yes, the infamous and probably thought to be impossible A+. I felt that Eagles played a nearly flawless game tonight against a rattled Dearborn. The Eagles played with great energy for three periods, showed no signs of being a team that faded at the end of games and just looked flat out impressive on the ice. If the Eagles can continue to play like this, I can definitely see the Eagles being a top 10 team or higher. With the Pep Band and everyone cheering the Eagles on as well, it was just a wonderful evening for EMU Hockey and an outstanding team effort.

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