The Falcons hockey team will play in their first conference championship since 1990 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Championship game on the road against the Michigan Tech Huskies on Saturday night.
“We’re excited,” Falcons head coach Chris Bergeron said. “It seems it’s like just another week. Obviously it’s not that, but I know our guys are really excited for this opportunity. I think they’ve gone through a lot this year to earn this opportunity-good and bad. They deserve this opportunity.”
The team was also swept by Michigan Tech in a home series earlier in the season, but the team feels it gave them a better idea of the adjustments that need to be made going into the championship game.
“We’ll use the two games here, which we thought were really close games,” Bergeron said. “We ended up on the bad side of both, but they were 1-1 games going into the third both nights, and we found ways to lose and they found ways to win. We’ll look at the x’s and o’s piece; we’ll make the coaching adjustments we do, but we’re looking for a very difficult game.”
The team also feels that shutting down the Michigan Tech seniors will be very important.
“They’re a very difficult opponent,” Bergeron said. “I don’t know if their seniors lead the way in terms of points, but the one thing that I walked away from that series in December with was, ‘wow, do those seniors have a big part of that team’ … They’re a confident bunch; they’re a bunch that has played really well at home over the last little bit and made it difficult on teams going up there. They play fast, they play hard; there’s not a lot not to like.”
Despite the importance of the game, the team feels they are not getting themselves too caught up in the moment and are doing a good job of staying focused.
“I don’t feel like they feel the weight,” Bergeron said. “I think the overall feeling of this group is excitement. We want to make sure that our upperclassmen are focused and poised, just like they have been the last little bit, and not let the moment overwhelm them, just stay in the moment and the moment is that we have another opportunity here.”
The team also feels that being rested will be an important attribute as well going forward.
“The first thing (we wanted) was rest,” Bergeron said. “Get home from Bemidji, get rested, and get anybody any medical or physical attention that they needed… we’re just going to try and stay sharp. The next couple of days are not going to be banging and crashing. We’re not going to change a whole lot from what we’ve done the last couple of months in terms of practice; it’ll be stay sharp, stay focused, have some fun and take advantage of the opportunity.”
