The Falcon hockey team will play their first regular season home game this weekend in a home-and-home series against Western Michigan.
BG will first face the Broncos at home on Friday at 7:05 p.m. before traveling to Kalamazoo Saturday for an 8:05 p.m. face-off. This will be the Broncos first regular season game. They defeated the University of Waterloo on Oct. 5, 12-0.
“We are very excited to open conference play against the Falcons,” said WMU head coach Jim Culhane. “Opening on the road is always difficult and we know BG will have a lot of enthusiasm in their new coach Scott Paluch.”
The Falcons head into this weekend with a 1-1-0 overall record. BG defeated Niagara 4-1 before losing to Miami 2-1 in the championship game last weekend at the Lefty McFadden Invitational in Dayton.
“We’re off to a good start,” said BG head coach Scott Paluch. “We had strong play from a lot of our guys.”
Mark Wires kicked off his junior season with a strong showing, finishing with two power play goals and an assist in the two games to earn a spot on the All-Tournament team. Wires is currently fourth overall among Central Collegiate Hockey Association scoring leaders.
Senior goaltender Tyler Masters surrendered just three goals while making 61 saves in two games, also earning a spot on the All-Tournament team.
Heading into this weekend the Falcons are looking to improve upon a few things.
“We need to continue to be more responsible in our own end,” Paluch said. “In the defensive end we need to get better, win more battles and work on identification.”
The Falcons lost some key face-offs in their own end that led to scoring chances for Miami and Niagara. The Redhawks held a 40-22 shot advantage over BG.
“We also need to create more loose pucks on the forecheck, so we can create more scoring chances,” Paluch said.
However, the Falcons didn’t have a problem converting on the power play. BG opponents were 0-for-10 on the power play for the weekend, while the Falcons were 3-for-10 with the man advantage.
“Our power play and penalty killing was exceptional all weekend,” Paluch said.
This is one aspect the Falcons will hope to carry into this weekend.
Last year the Broncos defeated the Falcons by the scores of 8-1 and 5-4 (OT). BG leads the all-time series, 62-41-3 and owns a 33-15-0 edge in the BGSU Ice Arena.
