Andrew Contois And Dirk Southern Come Up Big For 'Cats
BIG RAPIDS, Mich. â€Â“ The Northern Michigan University hockey team received a big game out of line mates, Andrew Contois and DirkSouthern on Saturday night at Ferris State University. Contois scored fourgoals while Southern added five points in the 6-3 win over the Bulldogs. Thesweep was the â€Â˜Cats first road sweep of the season. NMU holds onto their thirdplace slot in the CCHA with an 18-9-7 overall record and a 15-7-4 slate in theconference. Ferris falls to 11-9-4 and 6-16-4 respectively.
Just like last night the home team scored first with a goalat 4:54 of the first period. Rob Lehtinen scored a short-handed marker for hissecond goal of the season at 17:30 of the first period to tie the game at one. Both of his goals have been short-handed. John Miller was given the loneassist. NMU now has nine short-handed goals on the season.
The second period saw the â€Â˜Cats strike for three goals. Contois was up first with his 14th of the season and first of thenight at 9:29 for the 2-1 lead. Dirk Southern and Mike Santorelli assisted onthe goal. The Bulldogs tied the game at two-all on a goal by Derek Nesbitt at12:26. Contois then tallied his second goal of the night and 15thof the season on the power play at 14:39 to give the â€Â˜Cats the 3-2 lead. Southern and Milam assisted. Southern then turned around and made the score4-2 with his 10th marker of the season on the power play at 17:48. Darin Olver and Milam assisted. With seven seconds left in the period theBulldogs added a goal to narrow the â€Â˜Cats lead to 4-3.
The final frame was all Contois as he scored his third andfourth goals of the night. His first goal of the period was at 15:11 for his16th of the season, which gave the â€Â˜Cats a two-goal lead at 5-3. Santorelli and Southern assisted. Contois finished off the scoring with anempty-net goal at 19:41 for the final margin of the game. Southern added hisfinal point of the game on the assist.
Both squads were 2-5 on the power play for the game. Ingoal, Tuomas Tarkki turned away 27 shots. His counterpart from Ferris, MikeBrown had 25 saves on the night. After last nightâ€Â™s season-low 15 shots ongoal, the â€Â˜Cats came back with 31 tonight. The Bulldogs had 30 shots on goalfor the game.
NMU will go home-and-home next weekend against Lake Superior State for the regular season finale. The â€Â˜Cats and Lakers will play inMarquette on Friday night (March 4) at 7:35 p.m. as the action then shifts toSault Ste. Marie on Saturday (March 5). Â Ã‚ÂÂ
