The Falcon hockey team split the series against the Minnesota State Mavericks on Friday and Saturday nights, winning 4-1 on Saturday, but losing 6-1 on Friday.
“Going into the weekend, you want to earn the split for sure,” Falcons head coach Chris Bergeron said. “I was pretty happy with how we played, if we play that way in any game I’m happy with that, it’s one of those things where you don’t want to get too high or too low based on results, you want to focus on the way you’re playing but as we’re looking at the series right now I’m happy with the series.”
Sophomore defenseman Alec Rauhauser scored two goals Saturday, both on the power play, to help the team to the victory.
“Where the most damage got done was on the power play,” Bergeron said. “He’s a really good power play player, his shot improved from last year. He’s really good at moving the puck, but tonight he was more of a shooter.”
In Saturday’s game, Minnesota State was able to jump out to lead on a power play goal late in the first period. However, the Falcons were able to respond as senior forward Mitch McLain put the Falcons ahead just 2:39 into the second period. Again, both teams went scoreless until Rauhauser took advantage of a five-on-three power play chance, giving the team their first lead of the game.
Early in the third, the Falcons took a two goal advantage with freshman forward Max Johnson capitalizing on another five-on-three power play chance. The team was able to hold until Rauhauser scored his second of the game on yet another five-on-three, with just 12 seconds remaining, to seal the 4-1 win.
“As the game went on, we created more energy,” Bergeron said. “Whether it was from our good penalty kill, we got a weird bounce for our first goal, so I think as the game went on we got more and more energy.”
Friday’s game, however, started with two Minnesota State goals in the first period to put the Falcons in a hole early. While the team was able to bring it back to within one in the second period, as junior forward Stephen Baylis scored on the power play, Minnesota State responded with two more power play goals of their own, as well as scoring an even strength tally to give themselves a 5-1 advantage. In the third, the Falcon’s offense was unable to make a comeback. Minnesota State tacked on another goal early in the period to take the 6-1 win.
“From the Friday night game, not a whole was different,” Bergeron said. “They took it to us, their special teams were a lot better than ours, we didn’t have enough players engaged in the competition, and the result is not very good.”
The team will next play Friday and Saturday nights at home against the Miami RedHawks.
