After BG’s 5-1 loss to Lake Superior State Friday night, the Falcons needed someone to step it up. Sophomore forward Rich Meloche decided it was his turn.
Meloche scored both goals for the Falcons in their 2-1 win over the Lakers on Saturday, his first two of the season.
Meloche’s first goal came at 18:32 of the first period, when he fired a lightning bolt of a slapshot from the left circle past Lakers goalie Jeff Jakaitis to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead.
But less than 30 seconds later, Laker right wing Matt Restoule silenced the crowd with a goal that tied the game.
Yet with only 1:25 gone by in the second period Meloche scored again and pushed the Falcons back on top with what would turn out to be the game winning goal.
“I came up from behind the net and the goalie was down, so I threw if off the goalie,” Meloche said.
Even though Meloche was the lone Falcon scorer on Saturday, it was a team effort.
“It doesn’t really matter who does what as long as we’re doing it together,” Meloche said. “One day it’ll be someone else.”
However, Meloche couldn’t have been the hero for the Falcons if it weren’t for goalie Jordan Sigalet, who was just as impressive in the net. He saved 34 of the 35 shots on the day.
“Ziggy (Sigalet) was real strong when he had to be,” Falcon head coach Scott Paluch said. “We were able to whether that storm that we couldn’t do last night.”
Even Lakers head coach Frank Anzalone gave Sigalet praise for his effort.
“You gotta give Sigalet credit,” he said. “He challenged us tonight.”
So far this season, Sigalet has only allowed seven goals on 129 shots in the Falcons first four games. Five of those goals were scored by the Lakers on Friday.
But Sigalet and rest of the Falcons were hungry for their first CCHA victory and weren’t about to let the Lakers sweep them this weekend.
“I was really upset with the loss (Friday),” Sigalet said. “We came in today and really wanted to win.”
Sigalet also said everyone was able to step their game up a level after their loss on Friday.
“We’ve got a lot of injured bodies in there from (guys) sacrificing their bodies for blocked shots and saving me from stuff and making my job easier,” Sigalet said.
