The Vermont Catamounts ended the nation’s longest unbeaten streak with an 8-3 victory over the Wayne State Warriors Friday. Vermont junior winger Jeff Miles netted three goals and an assist, and senior linemate Ryan Miller added two goals and two assists in the win.
Wayne State (2-1-0), coming off a sweep of St Lawrence last weekend, had run its streak to 14 consecutive games without a loss. Vermont (2-2-2) now has two wins in a row — something that the Cats haven’t done in two years.
“Once we got two goals up, I felt like the attitude was really solid. We had a real good thing going on the bench and in the locker room, and they were all pulling for each other. It was great to see the scoring balanced. It was good to see us scoring goals against a very quality goaltender and solid defensive team, too,” said Vermont head coach Mike Gilligan
Vermont got on the board first at the 8:45 mark of the first period. Brady Leisenring scored a rebound goal with assists going to Gerard Miller and Baron Becker.
Wayne State answered less than two minutes later with a goal off the stick of Chris Vail, who slammed a rebound past Vermont goaltender Shawn Conschafter after Maxim Starchenko had stolen it on the left boards.
The Warriors then took a 2-1 lead on the power play, with a goal from captain Keith Stanich from the slot. But Vermont tied the score when Miller skated through the slot for a power-play goal at 16:36 of the period.
Miller then scored again at 18:51, putting a rebound of a Tomas Hajek shot past Wayne State goalie David Guerrera. The Catamounts had the intermission lead 3-2.
At 6:50 of the second period, Vermont gained a two-goal advantage. Miles scored his fifth of the season on a one-time pass from Hajek.
Senior Bryson Busniuk scored his first goal of the season midway through the third period and the floodgates were open. Miles finished off the hat trick with two tallies 75 seconds apart to make the score 7-2, and Jeff Corey found the back of the net to put the Cats up 8-2.
Starchenko scored with 2:17 to go for the final margin.
Conschafter finished the contest with 27 saves. Guerrera surrendered eight goals in facing 31 Vermont shots.
Wayne State travels to Hanover, N.H., for a Saturday affair with the Big Green of Dartmouth. The Catamounts will host Quebec’s Trois-Riviere in an exhibition game Sunday.
