Vincent de Mey

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University hockey team opened its series against top-ranked Minnesota-Duluth with a 5-4 offensive-minded win at the Berry Events Center on Friday night.

Vincent de Mey scored the go-ahead and game-winning goals in the final four minutes after Duluth tied the score 3-3 not quite five minutes into the third period.

Northern opened the scoring barely two minutes into the game when AJ Vanderbeck’s shot from the point beat UMD netminder Ben Patt on his stick side on a 5-on-3 power play, according to an account from NMU Sports Information. Hank Crone and Ben Newhouse were credited with assists.

Duluth tied it less than seven minutes later when Blake Biondi answered during a Bulldogs’ power play, then UMD took the lead with 2:51 to go in the opening period on a Casey Gilling goal.

NMU retook control with two unanswered goals in the second period, when the Wildcats held a huge 18-5 shots advantage. But Northern still trailed for nearly 11 minutes in the period until Trevor Cosgrove sailed the puck from the blue line top shelf past Patt for his third goal of the season. Newhouse, who sent the puck from the defensive zone, got the assist.

David Keefer gave NMU a 3-2 lead with 2:17 left in the second. Teammate Garrett Klee won a faceoff in the Duluth end and Keefer gathered the puck at the near dot, sending the puck on a diving play from inside the slot.

The Bulldogs’ Quinn Olson retied the game 3-3 just 4:48 into the third before de Mey scored his back-to-backers. On his first goal, coming with 3:27 left, during an odd-man rush, de Mey passed to Crone, who took the initial shot. The puck bounced off the backboards, found de Mey’s stick as he made a quick tap home.

Then with 1:32 to go with Duluth’s net empty, Cosgrove chipped a pass from deep in the defensive zone to de Mey at the opposite blue line, centering the puck and knocking it in.

Duluth got one back with 19 seconds left, but it was too little too late for the Bulldogs.

Rico DiMatteo made 26 saves in the NMU net while Patt had 30 stops.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.