MARQUETTE, Mich. - No. 20/RV Northern Michigan hockey team (6-1-1, 4-0-0-0 WCHA) completed the sweep of Alabama Huntsville (0-8-0, 0-4-0-0 WCHA) Saturday night with a 4-2 victory, to claim sole possession of first-place in the WCHA standings. In front of nearly 3,000 fans at the Berry Events Center (2,953), the Wildcats continued their winning ways, netting four goals, including a power play tally while Nolan Kent stopped 25 shots for his third win of the season. 

The Wildcats opened the scoring when Vincent de Mey scored with the man advantage for his seventh goal of the season. The two teams would skate to a 1-1 tie through the first 20 minutes of play before two Wildcat goals in the second frame, from Caleb Schroer and Andre Ghantous, put Northern Michigan back on top heading into the final period. Ghantous' goal proved to be the game-winner but Griffin Loughran netted the insurance goal on the empty net as the clock hit one minute remaining for the 4-2 final.

GOALS

• Vincent de Mey, on the poer play, wound up at the top of the far circle for a quick one-timer that beat Chargers' netminder Mark Sinclair stick side. Hank Sorensen fed de Mey the puck from the blue line while Ben Newhouse added the second assist for his fourth of the season.
• Caleb Schroer broke the stalemate at 3:27 of the second period with a wrister that beat Sinclair. Nolan Kent picked up an assist on the play for his first career point.
• Andre Ghantous put the Wildcats back on top with 13:15 elapsed in the middle frame with what would prove to be the game-winner. Grant Loven passed the puck to Philip Beaulieu for the wrap around pass to Ghantous out front. He buried his third goal of the season and second of the weekend to give Northern Michigan the 3-2 lead.
• Griffin Loughran extended his point and goal streaks with the final goal of the game and his team-leading eighth of the season. Picking up the puck in his defensive zone, Loughran fired it down the ice and into the empty net to give the Wildcats the 4-2 victory. Darien Craighead and Rylan Yaremko both earned assists on the play.

KEY STATS

• With an undefeated streak of seven game, the Wildcats hold the longest streak in the nation with a 6-0-1 record in their last seven contests.

• The Wildcats, now 4-0-0-0 in the WCHA stand alone in first in the conference with 12 points behind two straight sweeps.
• Nolan Kent tallied his first career point, an assist, on the Wildcats' second goal of the game when he sent a loose puck towards Caleb Schroer up ice who buried it deep. He also stopped 25 of 27 shots and improved his overall record to 3-1-0. With a .926 save percentage in Saturday night's victory, Kent now holds a .892 save percentage in 2019-20 with a 3.26 goals against average.
• Four Wildcats scored goals in the victory including de Mey, Ghantous, Loughran and Schroer while 10 individuals saw their name highlighted on the box score with points. 
• With points in Saturday night's victory, five members of the Wildcat squad are riding point streaks into next week's series. Griffin Loughran extended his streak to seven games (8-4-12) as well as a five-game goal streak with seven tallies. Darien Craighead has posted at least one point in each of his last six (3-4-7) while Andre Ghantous is on a career-best four-game streak (3-1-4), including a two-game goal streak. Philip Beaulieu capped off a four-point weekend with an assist Saturday night for the two-game streak (1-3-4) and Rylan Yaremko has highlighted the box score in each of the last two games for his first points of the season (1-1-2).
• With eight goals through eight games, Griffin Loughran is third nationally in goals per game (1.00).
• Vincent de Mey leads the nation in power play tallies (4) following his goal with the man advantage in the opening frame Saturday night. Loughran is close behind with three total and fourth overall.
• Andre Ghantous' game-winner on Saturday puts him 14th in the nation in game-winning goals (1). He is tied with fellow Wildcats Darien Craighead and Vincent de Mey.
• Adding an assist to Ghantous' goal, Philip Beaulieu ranks 12th among all defensemen in points per game (1-7-8) and his 104 career points (21-83-104) ranks top among among defensemen.
• With a .750 win percentage following the 4-2 victory, Nolan Kent ranks 15th in the nation among all netminders.
• Averaging four goals per game, the Wildcats currently rank 8th in scoring offense and 15th in scoring margin (1.00). The team also sits eighth in the nation in win percentage at .812.

UP NEXT

Northern Michigan continues its home stand next weekend when they host St. Cloud State for their final non-conference home series of the season.