A fast-paced start and solid goaltending by Jordan Sigalet helped the Falcons out-battle the Western Michigan Broncos 5-to-2 in front of 4,309 fans at the BG Ice Arena on Saturday night.
The evening capped a successful weekend for Sigalet’s “MS (multiple sclerosis) Awareness Weekend at the Ice Arena” which brought in a two-night total of $8,295 and is expected to reach over $10,000 dollars after yesterday’s “Skate With the Falcons.” All the proceeds go to the MS Society.
“Last week was really busy,” said Sigalet of the organizing efforts. “I just wanted to make (his campaign) as professional-looking as possible and raise as much money as possible. I was really excited to hear how much money we raised and I want to thank everyone that supported.”
Sigalet made 24 saves on 26 shots and continued to impress his supporters as BG had one of their better played first periods of the year putting up 15 shots to just nine for the Broncos grabbing an early 3-1 lead.
“We had some tremendous jump and created some good chances,” head coach Scott Paluch said of the opening period. “We were moving our feet and getting to a lot of lose pucks.”
James Unger scored his first of two goals on the night to start the scoring and added an assist as 10 different Falcons (15-11-4; 12-9-3 Central Collegiate Hockey Association) contributed in BG’s first sweep of the Broncos (11-17-2; 6-16-2 CCHA) since March of 1996. It was the team’s fourth two-game sweep of the season.
BG applied good pressure throughout the opening period and made it difficult on Bronco goaltender Eric Marvin, who was starting his second game of the season. Solid board play kept the Falcons in the offensive zone for most of the night which took Western’s highly touted forwards out of the game, including Brent Walton the league’s leading scoring who was held to just two points on the weekend.
Unger’s goal on a Falcons’ power-play at 9:07 gave BG a 1-0 lead and it grew to 2-0 after Brett Pilkington’s wrist-shot in front at 12:56.
Western’s power-play would counter the two goals just over two minutes later as Jeff Pierce’s wrist-shot beat Sigalet to end the special teams scoring for the night.
Both teams ended the game 1-for-6 on the power-play as BG went 3-of-13 on the weekend and held Western to 1-of-11.
“I thought really on a whole after last weekend’s special teams performance that throughout the whole weekend both our PP (power-play) and PK (penalty kill) was a lot more sharp, Paluch said.”
Jonathan Matsumoto would add the final goal of the period and eventual game-winner with just 1:46 left as his shot went top-shelf off a breakaway that split the Western defense. It was Matsumoto’s team-leading 15th goal of the season as he and his line-mate Mike Falk, are on a five-game point streak.
Another big line for the Falcons of Ben Geelan, Ryan Minnabarriet and Alex Rogosheske put the Falcons up three just 5:41 into the second, but Walton would score for Western just 1:39 later to bring it to 4-2. The final goal of the night came on the lone goal of the third period as Unger once again netted the puck in front of the net.
The Falcons would close out the game with strong defensive play and big saves by Sigalet.
“This weekend is just huge,” Sigalet said of the wins keeping them in fifth place. “The standings are just so tight right now. We can’t rely on other teams winning and losing and we have another two really tough weekends ahead of us.”
The two wins put the Falcons a point behind Nebraska-Omaha for fourth in the CCHA and just three points away from clinching home-ice for the first round of the CCHA playoffs. It was only their seventh win over in the Broncos in the last 21 meetings.
It all started on Friday night where Western got off to a good start, grabbing a 1-0 lead before BG recovered to score four unanswered and win 4-1.
Western created early momentum with their speed and took advantage of the Falcons being back on their heels as Kevin Labatte found the right side of the net just 7:31 in.
However, BG would adjust and would go on to control most of the game putting up 42 shots as Sigalet once again came up big in net making 27 saves on the night.
Alex Foster had a goal and an assist on the night to lead the Falcon charge that once again started on a power-play goal by Unger to tie the game at the 14:53 mark of the first. His hard shot from the bottom of the circle found the left side of the net.
Just 3:30 into the second period, Steve Brudzewski got the game-winner as he took his own rebound and fired it into Western goalie Daniel Bellissimo’s glove which then trickled out and into the net. It was Brudzewski’s eighth goal of the season and second game-winner.
