The Falcons hockey team defeated the Michigan State Spartans 4-1 at home Friday night before traveling to face them on the road Saturday night, where the team lost 3-2 to split the series.
“It was nice to have Michigan State back on the schedule,” Falcons head coach Chris Bergeron said. “I thought we played a good game (Friday night) and got a good result. Tonight we gave ourselves a chance on the road, but similar to the Western Michigan game, I thought we found a way to lose versus finding a way to win.”
The game began well for the Falcons, as junior forward Stephen Baylis took advantage of a power play opportunity at the 8:14 mark to grab a 1-0 lead. The team then added to the advantage just over a minute later as sophomore forward Frederic Letourneau scored. Again just 12 seconds later, freshman forward Cameron Wright put the Falcons ahead 3-0, prompting a Michigan State goaltending change. That was where the lead would remain as the teams headed into the second.
Early in the second period, Michigan State seemed to gain some momentum back as they scored on a power play chance of their own. However, that would be all of the scoring for the period as the Falcons continued to hold onto the lead 3-1. In the third period, both teams remained quiet in the scoring department until the Falcons took advantage of a five-minute major penalty and freshman forward Connor Ford nabbed his first collegiate goal. The team would hang onto the lead for the remainder of the game, taking the 4-1 victory.
Despite getting the win, the team felt they could have played better throughout the game.
“The first emotion is that we got a win and there were parts of that game where we played really well,” Falcons head coach Chris Bergeron said. “It’s not just the coaches, the players felt the same way, we stopped playing … you don’t take anything away from your opponent, but we should be playing the game a certain way regardless of the score.”
On Saturday, Michigan State took the lead at the 13:34 mark of the first period. However, just less than a minute and a half later freshman forward Brandon Kruse capitalized on a power play opportunity to score his first collegiate goal and tie the game up 1-1. That was where the game remained until the second period, when junior forward Shane Bednard got his first collegiate goal as well, giving the Falcons a 2-1 lead. Michigan State also rebounded quickly with a power play goal of their own to tie it at two. Both teams were held off the board for much of the second half of the game, until Michigan State broke through with just 40 seconds left in the game, scoring on a rebound to take the 3-2 win.
“I thought we had a good start,” Bergeron said. “We competed pretty hard at the beginning and we found a way to score a couple goals. Our power play scored again tonight which was good, so it wasn’t a surprise that our guys came out and competed hard and they made it a close game.”
The team will next play on Friday and Saturday night at home against the Minnesota State Mavericks for the beginning of the Falcons’ Western Collegiate Hockey Association schedule.
