Strong goaltending and strong special teams play helped the Falcon hockey team take three out of four points from Miami in a big Central Collegiate Hockey Association series as it earned a 2-2 tie on Friday before taking a 2-1 victory on Saturday.
“We knew going into the weekend that Miami was a very good hockey team,” BG head coach Scott Paluch said. “To get three out of four points against a team like Miami is important. We wanted to get last Saturday behind us and move forward in the league and getting three out of four against a team like that is a good step forward.”
Jordan Sigalet stopped 50 of 53 shots on the weekend as he bounced back from a tough outing in his last game against Wayne State, a game in which Sigalet was pulled after allowing four goals in the first period, stopping only 5-of-9 shots.
This weekend, Sigalet would only allow one goal in the first period in the two games and made big saves all weekend to give the Falcons the opportunity to win both games.
“I thought he was terrific all weekend with finding pucks through traffic and smothering pucks in the danger area,” Paluch said about Sigalet’s play on the weekend. “It just really looked all weekend long that not many goals were going to go by him. He was going to do what he needed to do to get us the points.”
Don Morrison was the high point man on the weekend for the Falcons. He tallied a goal and an assist on the weekend to bring his season point total to eight, which is currently tied for fourth best on the team.
It was a goal by Morrison with only 7:53 left in regulation that tied the game on Friday and helped the Falcons get one point. He took a pass from Ben Geelan and fired a laser from the right circle that beat Miami goaltender Brandon Crawford-West on the stick side to tie it up at 2-2.
The game went scoreless through the first as Miami only got six shots on net and the Falcons only got five.
Miami would take the lead just 2:34 into the second though: Todd Grant stuck in a rebound in front off a shot from Ryan Jones on the power-play to make it 1-0.
However, BG would strike back just 1:21 later as Alex Foster scored off a pass on the right side of the net from Chris Pedota to tie it at 1-1. Rich Meloche also picked up an assist on Foster’s third goal of the year.
The RedHawks would get 11 shots on net in the second and had numerous chances, including a 5-on-3 power-play during the middle part of the period. BG would come up big though and Sigalet made some big saves to keep the game knotted up at 1.
With just 1:28 left in the period though, the RedHawks would take the lead on a goal by Jones that trickled in on a shot from the right side of the net.
Both teams would battle hard and share scoring opportunities through the rest of the game, but the goaltenders kept the pucks out of the net. Sigalet made 29 saves that night and Crawford-West made 20.
After Morrison’s goal in the third the teams would go into overtime where it would end in a 2-2 tie.
“I thought we did a good job of staying with the game and giving ourselves an opportunity at the end,” Paluch said. “It was just a game where we couldn’t quite get to enough loose pucks, but I thought our team hung in there well enough and these are all big points.”
“It was really huge to get that point, that’ll make a big difference at the end of the year in the league,” Sigalet said. “Miami is really fast team, probably the fastest team we’ve faced all year, so I thought it was a good test for us and to be down twice in the game and come back and tie it up was a big confidence booster for us.”
Saturday’s contest would go much like Friday’s game as the play was even through the first period.
The teams would combine to total 19 minutes in the penalty box in the first and the RedHawks would use a five minute major called on James Unger to get their only tally of the night. Chris Busby would put a high shot past Sigalet on the left side of the net to make it 1-0.
Unger would redeem himself in the second period for the Falcons, scoring his fourth goal of the season on a Falcon power-play off a deflection from a shot by Morrison up top. Brett Pilkington would also pick up an assist on the play at 9:25.
BG generated good short-handed chances throughout the game on the penalty-kill and two minutes after Unger’s goal, the Falcons would capitalize on one of those chances on a Miami power-play to get the game-winner.
Bryan Dobek would get the puck and advance it through the neutral zone before finding Steve Brudzewski. Brudzewski skated in on the right and took a shot that went off the goalie, then came right back to him as he put a shot in on the right side to make it 2-1 BG.
The Falcons would out-shoot Miami 15-14 in the final two periods and Sigalet came up big again saving 21-of-22 shots as BG moves to 7-3-2 on the year with a CCHA record of 4-2-2, which is currently fourth best in the league.
“I thought our penalty-kill, which was a major focus for us this week was a big key to the weekend for us,” Paluch said. “It did a great job in this game and got us the game-winning goal there. It was two teams from the CCHA battling and we were able to get the extra goal and get the win.”
“Give Bowling Green a lot of credit,” Miami head coach Enrico Blasi said. “They’re a good hockey team and Jordan Sigalet is one of the best goalies in our league for a reason. They deserved to win this game.”
The BG power-play went 1-14 on the weekend and killed off 10-of-12 power-plays for Miami.
Michigan State is up next for the Falcons as they will travel to play the Spartans on Friday at Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing, Mich., before returning home Saturday to finish out a key home-and-home CCHA series.
