World news – WCHA championship on deck for glowing wild cats

MANKATO, Minn. (WLUC) – The Northern Michigan University ice hockey team reached the conference finals of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Friday afternoon with a 5-1 win over Minnesota State University No. 3 – Mankato.

The Wildcats lit the lamp a little more than one minute after the start, when Andre Ghantous fired the puck-top shelf for the early 2-0 lead.

The Wildcats continued to dominate puck possession in the early stages of Friday game when they defeated the Mavericks with 10:22 Frames defeated 5-0.

Seconds remained in the first half and Joseph Nardi and Ghantous stormed the length of the ice, nearly doubling their lead, but Nardi’s 0.1 second shot was denied and the teams ran with the Wildcats in the lead, who kept the 1-0 lead.

In the second it wasn’t long before Alex Frye had found a line, when the second placed the lamp in the middle frame for the 2: 0 leadership lit.

The Wildcats would find the back of the net four times in the middle frame, while Frye, Nardi, Vanderbeck and Ghantous hit the line in the middle frame to give NMU a 5-0 lead in the third period The MSU didn’t slack off early in the third game when they opened with seven straight shots in the NMU zone and once found the back of the net when the Wildcats held the 5-1 lead.

The Wildcats were able to further offset the pressure the Mavericks were putting on in the waning minutes of the third period when DiMatteo scored 28 saves in the competition to improve to 7-5-1 during the season.

Her performance in tomorrow’s WCHA conference championship is the sixth in program history, having previously reached the league finals in 1989, 1991, 92, 93 and 2018.

The Wildcats wait for their final opponent at the conference and meet the winner of the Lake Superior State versus Bemidj i State.