Only six weeks remain in the regular season and the Falcons are in position to do something they haven’t done since the 1994-95 season — host a first round Central Collegiate Hockey Association series.
The Falcons (10-9-3; 7-7-2 CCHA) currently sit in sixth place in the CCHA heading into this weekend’s home-and-home series with Notre Dame (5-16-5; 3-11-4 CCHA). The top six teams in the league host first round games. Ironically the last time the Falcons hosted a first round series 10 seasons ago, it was against the Irish.
Much like last season though, the CCHA is having yet another down to the wire race for playoff positions. Seven points separate fifth place Michigan State with 17 points from Notre Dame, who enters this series at the bottom of the league standings in 12th place with only 10. BG comes in with 16 points and is ahead of seventh place Alaska-Fairbanks by a single point.
BG greats Nelson Emerson and Rob Blake will be looking on tonight as the two teams do battle at the Ice Arena before heading to the Joyce Center in South Bend, tomorrow night in a series where four big points will be on the line; both face-offs set for 7:05 p.m.
“Again like the last two series, we step into another real critical series,” head coach Scott Paluch said. “We need to get some points this weekend after going two games without getting any points. Notre Dame is a very dangerous team and they work hard, they play good defensively and they have an opportunity each game they play so we’ll have to be ready.”
For Notre Dame, who came into the year with high expectations after making the 16-team NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history, it has been a season where the luck of the Irish hasn’t really helped. Despite returning their two goalies in Dave Brown and Morgan Cey, who are arguably the best goaltending tandem in the country, they have had a lack of scoring up front.
“They have elite goalies that know how to win hockey games in our league,” Paluch said about the goalie tandem. “They know how to win games for their team and give their team an opportunity, much like what we get from Jordan [Sigalet]. They’ve had trouble scoring goals, but the strength of your team is in net and Morgan Cey and David Brown do that for them.”
This season, Cory McLean leads all Irish forwards with 13 points on three goals and 10 assists as experience has given way to youth for Notre Dame. Of the 15 Irish forwards, 10 are underclassmen.
A strong spot for Notre Dame has been the play of their sophomore defenseman Wes O’Neill. A 6-foot-4-inch All-CCHA rookie team honorable mention selection a year ago has a team best 14 points this season on six goals and eight assists.
“I think Wes O’Neill is slowly building into one of the top all-around defensemen in our game,” Paluch said. “He’s a defenseman that is making strong plays, producing strong numbers and yet he’s a solid defensive player. I think he’s one of our league’s bright young stars.”
Other bright young stars in the CCHA this season have been BG’s Jonathan Matsumoto, Michael Hodgson and Alex Foster.
This past weekend, Matsumoto had two assists to help lead a BG comeback on Saturday against Northern Michigan. Hodgson had a goal on Saturday and Foster assisted on BG’s lone goal on Friday.
Inability to finish on key power-play opportunities cost the Falcons in both games as they went 1-of-15 on the power-play in a weekend where they were swept 3-1, 4-2.
“Our power-play, especially on Friday night, was a big factor in us not being successful in that game,” Paluch said about the power-play woes. “Going 0-for-9 on the power-play in a night in our league is going to make it very difficult to win a game. We were a little better on Saturday as we got a big power-play goal in the third to tie the game up, but we didn’t get it done on Friday and it cost us the game.”
Despite the inability to score on the weekend, Jordan Sigalet came up big for the Falcons and kept them in both games making 58 stops on 65 total shots. The games brought his goals against average to 2.70 and his save percentage to .922.
Cey will counter Sigalet this weekend with a 2.52 goal against average and save percentage of .924 in 18 games.
Brown has a 3.77 goals against average and .884 save percentage and the Irish may use him as well during the weekend.
“They are two of the best goalies in the league, no question about it,” senior Alex Rogosheske said. “We will want to come out and get a lot of shots on them, get a lot of rebounds and see if we can break the wall.”
“It’s a huge weekend for us coming off the sweep at Northern,” he added. “Having Rob Blake and Nelson Emerson come in on Friday will be a lot of fun. Can’t beat having two great Falcons come in. We’ll want to take advantage of this weekend and get some points.”
The Irish and the Falcons have played twice already this season with the Falcons winning on at home (3-1) and the teams finishing in a tie in their second game in South Bend (4-4).
