The Falcons hockey team took both games of their final home series of the season against the Ferris State Bulldogs, winning on Friday night 4-3, then completing the sweep on Saturday night with a 6-2 victory.
“The difference between being good and great at the college level is being able to finish off weekends with a second win,” Falcons head coach Chris Bergeron said. “There’s lots of splitting that goes on usually, you win one game, you lose another, but finding a way to win the second game in front of a great crowd … is huge, it keeps us in the conversation for a regular season championship.”
The Falcons had a slow start to Friday’s game, allowing goals from Ferris State at 4:24 of the first and :57 of the second to put them down 2-0 early. After those goals, however, the team rebounded as sophomore forward Tyler Spezia and junior forward Kevin Dufour scored at 3:31 and 5:51 of the second, respectively, to tie the game 2-2.
“I skated the puck down the ice and just battled in the corner with Matt Pohlkamp,” Dufour said on the tying goal. “He got the puck, tried to shoot it on net and then Mitch (McLain) was in front and tried to shoot it, then I got the rebound and just put it in.”
Ferris State would retake a 3-2 lead at 11:52 of the second, but Dufour scored again just over a minute into the third period to tie the game 3-3.
“Pierre-Luc Mercier got on the left wing and gave it to (Stephen) Baylis,” Dufour said. “He just gave it to me and I took a shot on net and it went in.”
The game would remain tied until just under three minutes to go in regulation, when Baylis scored the eventual game winning goal to give the Falcons a 4-3 win.
“I liked the fight in our team tonight,” Bergeron said. “On Ferris’ first two goals, they showed how good they are, they were as bang-bang of plays as you’re going to get, but our guys didn’t let that deter them or stop them … we told our guys that we were going to have chances, (and) we were going to need to score. Obviously, the last 40 minutes of the game we did a better job scoring.”
Saturday’s game was evenly matched through the first two periods, both teams tied 1-1, with the Falcons getting a goal from sophomore forward Brandon Hawkins at 15:45 of the second. Ferris State broke the tie under a minute into the third, but Dufour scored at 3:14 and McLain scored at 5:13 to give the Falcons the lead, 3-2.
“It was one of those things where the puck was bouncing all night,” McLain said. “For the first two periods it didn’t seem like it was bouncing our way … it’s one of those things where, especially in our league, when the games are tight like that, it’s good to jump in front and see guys have success.”
McLain scored again at 9:30 to give the team a two goal lead, then senior forward Mark Cooper, playing in his final regular season game at BGSU Ice Arena, got an empty net goal to put the game out of reach. Sophomore forward Brett D’Andrea tacked on another goal 18 seconds later to make it a 6-2 final.
The Falcons will play on the road against the Alabama Huntsville Chargers for their final series of the regular season on Friday and Saturday night, then will return home for the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs.
