by Mackenzie McMahon

The reigning National Champions, Hope College ACHA hockey team, returns to the National Championship Title game for the second year in a row. 

A battle until the end, the OT thrilling win served as a repeat of the 2021 ACHA title game as Hope faced off with Arkansas last year, emerging victorious to be crowned the champions. This time, they again, took down the Fighting Razorbacks in a big game.

Arkansas took a second period 2-0 lead, but the Flying Dutch began their climb up the mountain when junior Colin Stecco (East Grand Rapids, Michigan / East Grand Rapids HS)  fired one of the 28 total shots in the offensive zone, and it found open net, making it a one-goal game. Juniors Gabe Gunneson (Rockford, Michigan / Forest Hills Northern) and Mason Weiss (Flushing, Michigan / Michigan Connections Academy) with the helpers on the first goal with five minutes to go in the second period. 

Midway through the third period, Hope found themselves on the powerplay, one of four during the National semi-final game. Noah Christensen, the junior from Grand Rapids, Michigan (Forest Hills Northern) put in his eighth goal of the season to tie the game and eventually force an overtime period. 

At the 12:30 mark in the  first OT period of play, junior Kevin Healy (Rockford, Michigan / Rockford) would snipe the Arkansas goalie after passes from junior Lucas Barber (Lake Orion, Michigan / Lake Orion) and sophomore Ashton Bol (Grand Rapids, Michigan / Grand Rapids Christian) for Hope's second power play goal, and to end the game. This was Healy's third game-winner tally of the season. 

Freshman Maclane Shick (Kohler, Wisconsin / Kohler), pictured, stood tall in net stopped a bolstering 52 of 54 shots for the orange and blue to send Hope into the title game tomorrow. 

The Flying Dutch move on to face the University of Michigan on Tuesday, March 15 at 3:00 pm CT. Michigan defeated Grand Valley State University, 4-3, in Monday's second semifinal