The 25th ranked Falcons opened up their hockey season at Union with a bang this past weekend.
Jordan Sigalet stopped 60 of 61 shots and recorded his fourth career shut-out as the Falcons won 5-1 on Friday and 1-0 on Saturday to get off to a 2-0 start.
“For us to come on the road and get two wins and to do it differently down the stretch in both games was impressive,” head coach Scott Paluch said. “To have the one goal lead and have that goal stand up to give us the series sweep is huge momentum to start the year and well-deserved by our guys. We’ve come to expect that out of Siggy and he was outstanding all weekend.”
Freshman forward Jonathan Matsumoto had a big impact in his first weekend. He recorded two goals and had two assists to lead the team in scoring on the weekend.
“He (Matsumoto) showed a real good offensive flare,” Paluch said. “He’s got really good poise to go with his offensive skill.”
Three other freshmen got their first collegiate points on the weekend. Derek Whitmore, Alex Foster and Ben Geelan all recorded points as the freshmen accounted for four of the six goals scored in the two games.
Whitmore had a goal and an assist on the weekend. Foster recorded an assist and Geelan had his first-career goal.
“Our freshman class is just awesome…they’re a good bunch of guys,” Sigalet said. “Everyone’s close, from seniors down to freshmen, and I think that’s going to be a big difference.”
On Friday night, the freshmen were the difference. They scored three of the five goals for BG that night.
Sigalet made 37 stops and was just 1:32 away from a shut-out until Union’s Jordan Webb scored.
Mike Falk started off the scoring in the first. His wrister from the left side of the crease beat Kris Mayotte to give BG a 1-0 lead at the 10:08 mark. Matsumoto and Whitmore picked up assists on the play.
Later in the period, Jon Sitko’s shot from the left point found the net to give the Falcons a 2-0 lead. Matsumoto once again picked up an assist on the play along with Don Morrison at 18:33.
Ryan Minnabarriet and Foster then found Whitmore on a power-play in the second to give BG a 3-0 lead.
Matsumoto then added a power-play goal in the third to make it 4-0. Jonathan Sigalet and James Unger got assists on the goal at 8:40.
Following a Bryan Dobek game disqualification penalty, the Dutchmen went on a five-minute power-play.
Down a man, Geelan stole the puck at the top of the circle and skated in to score an unassisted short-handed goal with just 4:41 left in the game.
BG won 5-1 on Friday and it was just the sixth time in the last two seasons that they scored five or more goals in a game.
Saturday’s game was a goaltending dual. Sigalet made 23 saves that night and Dutchmen goalie Justin Mrazek made 29 stops.
The difference was a power-play goal by Matsumoto in the second period. Unger and Brett Pilkington got assists on the game-winning goal at 11:33 in the period.
BG held a 30-23 edge in shots for the game and swept their first season opening road series since the 1988 season. That year was a season in which the Falcons won the CCHA play-off title as they recorded a season opening sweep at Alaska-Anchorage.
The Falcon power-play went 3-15 on the weekend and the penalty-kill was 11-12, allowing just one Dutchmen power-play tally.
They will host Lake Superior State this weekend in the first home series of the season.
