The Falcons hockey team will play on Friday and Saturday night at home against the Ferris State Bulldogs during the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs.
“We’re looking at a senior driven team,” Falcons head coach Chris Bergeron said. “They’re a team that I think struggled to find consistency just like we did this year. I don’t think they thought they were going to finish in fifth… so it’s a hungry Ferris team. It’s a team that plays hard all the time, and it’s a team that doesn’t care if they’re playing on the road or at home.”
The team has already played Ferris State four times during the regular season; going 2-2 against them in a pair of split series. With the history between each other, the team feels that the series should play out similar to the way it has throughout the season.
“There won’t be any surprises,” Bergeron said. “They know us and we know them, so we’re expecting every play to be that play, and we’ve got to find ourselves on the positive side for more of those plays.”
This series will be the fourth consecutive first round playoff that the Falcons have hosted, which they feel will be important going forward, especially with the teams being so close together in the regular season standings.
“Every series has been a grind,” Bergeron said. “We’ve played three games; we’ve played overtimes. We got Michigan Tech here the first year, then we had Northern Michigan; then last year Bemidji State. We’re talking about inches on the ice are fought hard for, every power play matters; every penalty kill situation has to be taken advantage of. It’s [going to be] a tight playoff series.”
The team also feels they will need to win the battles in goaltending and special teams to give themselves the best chance to move forward in the playoffs.
“I think they matter all year long,” Bergeron said. “But at this time of year, where tomorrow’s not guaranteed in terms of hockey, I think those two areas become even more magnified.”
Ferris State also won the WCHA championship last season, which the Falcons feel will give Ferris State a confidence boost, but the team will still have to play through a difficult road playoff series.
“They’re a confident group, and they should be,” Bergeron said. “Where your confidence comes from is your seniors and your older people, and those are guys, that last year, went into an eight-team tournament as a number four seed and won the tournament. I think that’s going to help them, but they still have to come on the road. They still have to come here in our rink and that should help us.”
