Gateway

Issue date: 12/19/08 Section: Sports

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No. 18 UNO fell 3-2 to Northern Michigan Saturday at the Qwest Center, splitting a home series after Friday's 4-2 victory.

With the loss, the Mavs fell to 13-7-3 overall and 8-5-3-2 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. The Wildcats move to 6-13-3 overall and 3-10-3-2 in the CCHA.

The Mavericks' only goals came from senior forward Tomas Klempa, who started out the scoring at the 14:35 mark in the first on a power play from a rebound from a shot by sophomore defenseman Mike Phillippi. Klempa's goal, his 10th of the season, broke a five-game scoring rut for the Mavs' leading goal scorer.

UNO also held the Wildcats to 10 shots, while recording 10 of their own, preventing a scoring differential like Friday night's first period, where the Mavs had a 16-8 shot disadvantage.

"I thought they way we played in the first period was how we wanted to play the game," coach Mike Kemp said after the game.

Northern Michigan, however, wasn't going to let Klempa's goal go unanswered. They pushed back hard in the second period, scoring three unanswered goals in the second period.

The Wildcat's Andrew Fernandez started Northern Michigan's scoring with his first goal of the season at the 5:32 mark.

At the 14:26 mark, Jared Brown gave Northern Michigan their first lead of the weekend, scoring on a power play. A little over three minutes later, Mark Oliver pushed a third goal by UNO goaltender Jerad Kaufmann to put the Wildcat's up two goals.

Kemp said after the game the five-minute stretch encompassing the power play and Northern Michigan's two goals were when the Mavs lost the game. Despite efforts to regain control of the game, UNO remained behind and was unable to generate enough offensive to overcome their deficit.

The 7,317 fans who attended Saturday's game were given one more reason to take to their feet in the third period, when Klempa put the Mavs within striking distance with another power play goal at the 15:14 mark. Phillippi, who made his first appearance this season this weekend, recorded another assist with Klempa's goal.

UNO's offense, however, was unable to produce another goal, and a final-seconds penalty against Rich Purslow for checking from behind finished the Mavs' last-ditch effort and clinched the victory for Northern Michigan.

Overall on the night, UNO collected eight two-minute minor fouls to Northern Michigan's four - another disadvantage the Mavs were unable to overcome.

Kemp said he was surprised by the number of penalties called against UNO, because the Mavs are not typically a highly penalized team.

Friday, the Mavs only earned one minor foul - a team foul for too many men on the ice - while Northern Michigan collected three. Before this weekend, the Mavs were third in the fewest penalty minutes per game in CCHA play, averaging only 13.2 minutes.

UNO next takes the ice against Alaska, making the 14-hour trek to Fairbanks to take on the Nanooks on the road. Check back with The Gateway at our Web site, unogateway.com, for continued coverage of the Maverick hockey team.


Official Box Score: http://tinyurl.com/8seeuz

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