Both games of this weekend’s set against Lake Superior State will take place at the Taffy Abel Arena in Sault Ste. Marie, MI – a six-hour trip from the BGSU Ice Arena.
They will be Lake Superior’s first home game in over a month.
The Falcons have done their fair share of traveling lately as well, however, considering they made the trek to Wisconsin to compete in the 2007 Badger Hockey Showdown two weeks ago. After this weekend, BG will have traveled over 1,600 miles in the past three weeks.
‘That’s life in the CCHA,’ Paluch said. ‘Road trips are good. It’s a part of college hockey, even a culture in college hockey, and if you go back to the history of the league, we were a bus league from the start.’
Maybe so, but how have some of those high-scoring freshmen been adjusting to their first grueling college road schedule this year?
‘It’s always fun because you get to spend all your time with the guys,’ Jacob Cepis said. ‘The whole team weekend is great, especially on like a 10-hour bus trip or whatever.’
Cepis and teammate David Solway played on different teams in the same junior circuit last year in the United States Hockey League. Their travel experiences from those days clearly carried over, as they have combined to produce 15 points on the road this year.
Playing well after having to keep focused and entertained for hours at a time might seem difficult for some people, but Cepis and Solway both made light of the situation.
‘We’ve all got a big movie collection to watch,’ Solway said. ‘Different guys might play PSP’s, listen to their iPods, or just hang out in different seats and play cards.
‘Traveling is awesome. You do it in juniors and learn how fun it is just to be with the guys. You’re away from school and you don’t have to worry about anything. It gives the team a better focus because all you have in mind are these two games coming up.’
