The Falcon hockey team had their seventh split series of the season on Friday and Saturday nights against the Alabama Huntsville Chargers, winning 3-1 on Saturday, but losing in a shootout 4-3 on Friday.
On Saturday night, the Falcons got off to a good start in the first period, as sophomore defenseman Alec Rauhauser scored at the 8:44 mark during a four-on-four opportunity, giving the team a 1-0 lead. The team scored again later in the period, as senior defenseman Connor McDonald shot through a screen and into the back of the net for a 2-0 advantage going into the locker rooms.
“Last night, we got the first goal too, but I think it’s just the way we played after we got that goal,” Rauhauser said. “Last night we kind of sat back after we got up, but tonight we just kept pushing, just kept trying to get on a good forecheck, so the way we played after the first goal was much better.”
The second period had the Falcons continue the momentum. Junior forward Stephen Baylis scored the team’s first power play goal of the series at the 12:52 mark. The team also outshot Alabama Huntsville 17-3 in the period, to go along with outshooting them 11-4 in the first.
In the third, while the Falcons continued their offensive pressure, Alabama Huntsville got on the board early in the period as forward Tyler Poulsen took advantage of a power play opportunity of their own at the 4:19 mark. However, that would be all the offense they would get, as the Falcons took the 3-1 victory.
“I just think we were responding to a game where we didn’t think we played very well,” Falcons head coach Chris Bergeron said. “I’m not just saying that I didn’t think we played very well, I think that our players thought we could’ve played better last night, and they wanted to come out early and play better. That’s what they did.”
Despite not facing a lot of shots, Falcons sophomore goaltender Ryan Bednard made 11 saves to earn the victory.
“I thought Ryan played good, he looked on top of it,” Bergeron said. “He didn’t face a bunch of shots, but he stopped a breakaway against (Josh) Kestner, who’s one of the better players in the league, when we started to get a little loose there, Ryan looked on top of his game as far as I’m concerned.”
“I think eight wins out of 19 games isn’t what you want, but there’s not a whole bunch of losses there,” Bergeron said. “We’re happy with the first half. More nights than not, we’ve got seven freshmen in our lineup, which are valuable learning minutes for them. We’re going to get healthy, and hopefully we can continue to identify what the best version of this team is.”
On Friday, the offense came out early for both teams as senior forward Mitch McLain put in the game’s opening goal for the Falcons at the 1:16 mark, giving the team an early 1-0 advantage. However, Alabama Huntsville would come back quickly with forward Madison Dunn scoring at 5:37 to tie it up. Alabama Huntsville would also take the lead at the 12:04 mark, with forward Josh Kestner getting the goal, but the Falcons would even up on a shorthanded chance courtesy of junior forward Stephen Baylis to make it a 2-2 game heading into the second period.
In the second, both teams went scoreless despite a number of power play opportunities, with three power plays coming for Alabama Huntsville and one for the Falcons. The Falcons also led Alabama Huntsville in shots with 10 to their seven.
The third period saw Alabama Huntsville grab the lead once again, as Kestner put in his second of the game with just over two minutes in. However, the Falcons were able to get back on the board at the midway point of the period, as senior defenseman Connor McDonald scored at 9:50 to tie the game up once more. Neither team was able to get another goal for the rest of regulation, sending it into the Falcons’ sixth overtime contest of the season.
In the first period of overtime, the teams went even in shots on goal with two apiece, however, neither team was able to score there, either, sending the game into a three-on-three double overtime period.
In the double overtime, both teams had a number of quality chances, including three in rapid succession by Alabama Huntsville, but they were all stopped by Falcons freshman goaltender Eric Dop. However, neither team was able to put the puck in the net again, and the game went into a shootout.
Alabama Huntsville kicked off the first round of the shootout with forward Christian Rajic as he scored to put them ahead 1-0. The Falcons sent up freshman forward Max Johnson for their first shooter and he skated slowly up the ice, weaving left to right before finally putting the puck past goaltender Jordan Uhelski to even things up. In the second round, Alabama Huntsville had forward Brandon Salerno, and he found the back of the net as well. Needing a goal to keep the shootout going, the Falcons sent freshman forward Brandon Kruse, who, in contrast to Johnson, skated up the ice at near full speed, but his shot was saved by Uhelski and Alabama-Huntsville took the 4-3 victory. The Falcons are now 2-3 in shootouts this season.
“We try to explain the importance of these points (from shootout wins),” Bergeron said. “I don’t think there’s enough guys that take the shootout overly serious on Thursdays in practice, even though we try to impose it.”
The team will go into the break holding an overall record of 8-5-6.
The team will next play on Thursday, Dec. 28 at home against the Western Michigan Broncos.
