Week 5 Review (Northern Arizona)
The Oakland University Golden Grizzlies’ season continued this past weekend as the team returned to home ice for a weekend series against Northern Arizona. With the first game being a Saturday night game at Buffalo Wild Wings Arena, there was a comfortable feeling in being back at home after the long weekend at Purdue. Coach Stirling and his staff had never played Northern Arizona, which made the trip to Michigan to play Oakland and Grand Valley. The second game of the series saw Oakland head to Birmingham for the Sunday afternoon matchup.
In the first game of the series, the Golden Grizzlies took on a Northern Arizona team that finished last season at 29th in the National Tournament rankings and finished 2nd in the West Coast Hockey Conference. In the middle of the first period, the Golden Grizzlies struck for two goals in a matter of a minute to take a 2-0 lead after the first. The two even-strength goals in the first would help set the pace, as the second period would see the Grizzlies skate to a 4-1 lead after the 2nd. In the second, the power play led the way by scoring both goals in the period. Lastly, the Grizzlies would add one more to see a final score of 5-1 on the opening night. Scoring in the contest were five different goal scorers for the Grizzlies as Danny Fletcher, Nathan Hall, Max Sharkevich, Reiss Williams, and Cam Laufer all found the back of the net. In goal, Max Pierce grabbed his fifth win of the season as he made 19 of 20 saves in the win. The Grizzlies outshot the Jacks 69-20 in the contest, and Trevor Patton found the lone goal for the Jacks.
On Sunday, the Golden Grizzlies had a quick turnaround as they went down the road to Birmingham for game two of the series. The Grizzlies, who were almost back to full strength in terms of some injured bodies, started the game quite sluggishly compared to many games in this young season. Elliot Bajo for Northern Arizona would find a rebound and score to open the contest late in the first period. Oakland would immediately score right back and add one more before the period break to make it a 2-1 Golden Grizzlies first intermission lead. The Grizzlies would then rattle off four straight goals in the second period to take a commanding 6-1 lead after the 2nd period. As the weekend started to take a toll on the Jacks, the Grizzlies seemed to get stronger as the game went on. The team would find the net five times in the 3rd period to give the Grizzlies an 11-1 victory on Sunday. Goals in the contest came from Tommy Davis (x3), Shane Arbour (x2), Jules Sainte-Marie (x2), Brian Evans, Matt Cole, Hall, and Williams. Caleb Godlewski would pick up his third win of the season as he stopped 15 of 16 in the contest. Oakland would once again outshoot Northern Arizona by a total of 66-16.
Week 6 Preview
The Golden Grizzlies are off this coming weekend for a much-needed Halloween break. They will return the following weekend against MCHC – East Rival Lawrence Tech.
Other News and Notes
The first ranking period of the season will be announced on 10/31 via social media and the ACHA website. The Golden Grizzlies ended last season ranked 3rd in the country. This will include all games through October 26, 2025. The rankings will continue throughout the season on a bi-weekly basis until the final ranking period in February. The top 16 teams with some automatic bids for league winners will make the tournament which is hosted in St. Louis this season.
Leaders
Leading in Goals: Shane Arbour (8)
Leading in Assists: Jack Abbo and Tommy Davis (11)
Leading in Points: Shane Arbour (18)
Goaltending GAA Leader: Max Pierce (1.46)
Goaltending Save Percentage Leader: Max Pierce (94.9%)
Team Power Play Percentage: 8 of 30 (26.67%)
Team Penalty Kill Percentage: 21 of 24 (87.50%)
Men’s Division III Out of Town Schedule for Week 6 Relevant Games
Northwood vs Central Michigan – MCHC East
Grand Valley vs Calvin – MCHC West
Western Michigan vs Adrian
Northern Arizona vs Arizona State
Colorado School of Mines vs Air Force (Monday Only)
University of Tampa vs South Florida
A Random Series of the Week 6 Slate
Rutgers University vs Hofstra University
MCHC – East Standings (As of 10/28/2025)
| T1 | Michigan | 3-2-0-0 | 6 |
| T1 | Northwood | 3-1-0-0 |
6 |
| 3 | LTU | 1-1-0-0 | 2 |
| T4 | Oakland | 0-0-0-0 | 0 |
| T4 | Adrian | 0-2-0-0 | 0 |
| T4 | CMU | 0-1-0-0 | 0 |
Please visit our website at https://oaklandhockeyd3.acha.hockeytech.com for more information on game times, stats, and other details.