The Bowling Green hockey team is coming off a solid month of January, which saw them go 4-2-0 for the month.
Tonight, they’ll head to Ferris State for the first time since 2002 and try to earn some revenge while keeping their great start to the second half of the season going strong.
Two years ago, Ferris State was on top of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and life was good. The school celebrated its first-ever CCHA title and was NCAA tournament bound.
That same season, Scott Paluch, then in his first year, brought BG into Ewigleben Ice Arena for a weekend series he and his players would like to soon forget, as they were out-scored 15-2 in the two games.
“Last time I was at Ferris we got swept and got beat pretty bad,” junior defenseman Don Morrison said. “I know this year with the way our team is looking, I’m really excited to go in there and take four points from them.”
With Ohio State, Western Michigan, Michigan State and Michigan coming up in the last five weeks of the regular season, finishing strong is what the Falcons will have to do.
Coming into this weekend, BG currently sits in the league’s fifth spot just two points in back of Nebraska-Omaha for fourth and three points in front of UAF (17 pts.), who is in a sixth place tie with three other teams.
The Bulldogs (9-16-3; 4-13-3 CCHA) currently sit tied for 10th in the league with 11 points. They’re coming off two losses at home to Miami (4-3 OT, 5-3), but have been playing hard as eight of their last nine games have been decided by two goals or less.
“Obviously, we’re struggling this year,” Ferris head coach Bob Daniels said. “It’s been disheartening for our players, losing a lot of two-goal or one-goal games in the league, but we’ve been working really hard and we’re taking it one game at a time.”
Ferris’s power-play comes in ranked at the bottom of the league at 10.4 percent with the penalty-kill coming in ranked fifth at 84.4 percent. The BG power-play ranks 13th nationally at 20.3 percent and has a penalty-kill percentage of 80.
“It’s going to be a very tough series,” BG assistant coach Ron Fogarty said. “They (Ferris) always play extremely well at home. We knew going into the Christmas break that they’d be a dangerous team and we’ve had them on our radar and will be very well prepared for this weekend.”
Up front, Ferris is lead by Jeff Legue, who has 17 goals and nine assists on the year. Derek Nesbitt, Mark Bomersback and Matt York are right there with him.
Trying to stop the Falcons from scoring goals will be Mike Brown, an All-American for them two seasons ago during their championship year. He has struggled this year with a goals against average of 3.03 and has a save percentage of .887. Freshman Derek MacIntyre has been splitting time with him as well.
“With Brown being a proven CCHA goaltender, he is someone you don’t want to dismiss,” Fogarty said about the goaltending. “It’s a tandem that can rebound from one weekend, much like the team can, to the next weekend.”
Countering Brown will be Jordan Sigalet. He stopped 61-of-64 shots to improve his goals against average to 2.58 with a save percentage of .925.
He wasn’t the only senior who played big for BG.
Defenseman Taylor Christie scored his first collegiate goal in Friday’s 4-1 win and was named CCHA Defenseman of the Week. Ryan Minnabarriet had three goals and two assists on the weekend to lead the team in points.
“Our seniors played awesome last weekend,” Morrison said. “Minnie (Minnabarriet) had an unbelievable weekend and Sigs (Sigalet) again in goal; he always plays unbelievable every weekend in goal.”
The younger guys had a strong weekend as well. Alex Foster had four assists on the weekend, while Ben Geelan, Derek Whitmore and James Unger all added goals.
Foster, with 16 assists is a point behind Brett Pilkington for the team lead in points. Pilkington had five assists on the weekend moving him up to 18 assists on the year for a team-high 21 points. His assists per game at 0.95 leads the CCHA and ranks fifth nationally.
“They are getting production from a lot of guys,” Daniels said. “And for a team improving like they are that will help them in this season and seasons to come.”
The series starts tonight in Big Rapids, Mich. The puck drops at 7:35 p.m.
