Even if the parents of Jordan and Jonathan Sigalet weren’t in attendence for Friday night’s game at Munn Arena, their two sons gave their parents reason to be proud.
Michigan State’s hockey made it to the Midwest Regional of the CAA Tournament last season, losing as the third seed to second-seeded Minnesota-Duluth. They came into this season nationally ranked. The team has started the season 7-8-1, including last night’s 6-4 victory against the Falcons at the BGSU Ice Arena.
Friday night’s game was a different story for the Falcons. Most, if not all of that has to do with the Sigalet family, a family that has had obviously benefited the improvement of the Falcon Icers.
For anyone who doesn’t follow Falcon hockey, or hockey in general, there are two members of the Sigalet family on the Falcons. One is senior goalie Jordan. The other is his younger brother, sophomore defenseman Jonathan.
Jordan, one of the three Hobey Baker Award (top collegiate goaltender in nation) finalists, had his best game of the season Friday, racking up 46 saves on 47 Spartan shots on goal, including a penalty shot at 10:45 of the first period. The 47 saves also included 19 in the final frame alone. It was the second save on three penalty shots for the older Sigalet.
“It was one of the best performances that I’ve seen from him,” BG head coach Scott Paluch said. “He worked real hard in practice this week and is a real team leader.”
It wasn’t only Paluch who was happy with Jordan’s performance. Teammates like Derek Whitmore, who scored two of the four BG goals Saturday were also impressed.
“No one can replace Jordan Sigalet. He is the backbone of this team.”
Unfortunately, the Falcons did not have Jordan for Saturday’s contest as a stomach flu, something that had only bothered him slightly during the week, ended up taking him out of the lineup. He is currently listed as day-to-day.
“It was a tough situation, said Paluch. “We didn’t know whether or not he would play until about 15 minutes before game time. (back-up goalie Bob) Frazee only had a few minutes to prepare.”
On the offensive side of things, Jonathan Sigalet made sure that the effort of his older brother would not go to waste by scoring both Falcon goals Friday. Both scores came in the second period, exactly 38 seconds apart as they were both on the same power play. The Falcons have vastly improved on the power play, going 19 for 87. Jon, who led the Falcons in power play points last season (1 goal, 10 assists, 11 total points) now has three goals this season.
