The Falcons desperately needed a league win Saturday night after being doubled-up the night before by 20th ranked Northern Michigan 6-3, to drop their third straight Central Collegiate Hockey Association game.
BG had given up three first period goals to NMU in the first period on Friday night while only amassing five shots as NMU would go on to take a 5-0 lead in the second period as they took it to the Falcons in the first half of the game and never looked back.
Saturday night would be a different story though as BG (3-7-1, 3-5-1) came out on all cylinders and scored six first period goals en route to an 8-4 drubbing of the Wildcats (6-6-0, 3-5-0), which equaled the team’s biggest scoring output since the 2001 season.
“They did to us tonight what we did to them last night,” NMU coach Walt Kyle said.
Unlike the previous night the Falcons got a strong defensive effort and goaltender Jon Horrell had a lot of help in front of him as he was able to stop 32 of 36 shots. The win gave Horrell his first career victory at BG after going winless in seven starts.
“Jon Horrell was very good,” BG coach Scott Paluch said of the senior from Beckenham, England. “He answered the bell early, and I think he was real key in the second period in those penalty kill situations. It was a real solid game and he managed the game well playing with the lead.”
Also having a solid game for the Falcons was forward Alex Foster who had two goals and two assists on the night to finish the weekend with six total points after picking up a goal and an assist Friday.
It would be Foster’s first assist on the night that setup the game-winner by Mike Falk at 17:52 of the first period to put BG up 5-2 at the time.
BG would put up 15 shots in the first period and despite being out-shot 16-15 for the first 20 minutes the Falcons drove the net hard taking advantage of the chances NMU gave them.
James Unger got the scoring started just 2:51 into the game on BG’s first power-play opportunity as he was able to deflect in a shot by Michael Hodgson from the point. Brett Pilkington also picked up an assist on the play to earn his first of four helpers. The BG power-play would finish the night 1-10 while NMU went 1-8.
BG continued to drive the net hard as Derek Whitmore would score BG’s second goal at the 9:09 mark of the first to make it 2-0.
However, just 20 seconds later NMU forward Andrew Contois picked up his first of two goals on the night that came within 33 seconds of a BG goal. He would add another to make it 3-2 after Brandon Svendson scored at the 12:43 mark.
The Falcons would keep answering the bell though as Foster knotted his first goal of the night at the 16:49 mark on a short-handed 2-on-1 breakaway with Whitmore. It would be BG’s first of two short-handed goals on the night as Ben Geelan would add another at 13:17 of the second period.
Foster would then add his second goal at 19:37 of the first period to end the BG onslaught in the first.
“We just wanted to progress off of Friday’s game,” Foster said. “We out-shot them Friday and we had some good jump and just had to protect the middle of the ice a little bit better. We just wanted to concentrate on keeping our feet moving.”
BG kept the feet moving throughout as Bryan Dobek would add the final goal of the game for the Falcons just 1:29 into the third to put BG up 8-3 as a late goal by NMU wasn’t enough to get them back into it.
NMU struggled in net on the night as their usually consistent goaltending staff of Bill Zaniboni and Derek Janzen found themselves being switched three times. Zaniboni started the game and gave up three before Janzen took over and gave up four. Zaniboni would then return to finish the game giving up another goal.
“Goaltending was not an issue in winning the game tonight, but it’s an issue in regards to accountability,” Kyle said of his goalies. “I thought that they each let in a bad one, and that’s all. But, they still beat us 6-4, even if we don’t let those in.”
Janzen wouldn’t let too many in on Friday night as the freshman picked up his first win stopping 35 of 38 shots. Jimmy Spratt made the start for BG and made 29 saves on 35 shots in a losing effort.
Paluch said despite the effort Friday it didn’t shock him to see what his team did on Saturday.
“This group is a very resilient, hard-working group,” he said. “There’s no question, things haven’t gone the way any of us would have liked, in terms of the record and the amount of points that we have. But, I’#39;ve said all along, Monday through Thursday, this team works extremely hard. And tonight was something that wasn’#39;t a surprise. This was expected. We know what his group is capable of.”
