The BG men’s hockey team finished the weekend with a 3-3 tie on Friday night and a 4-2 loss against No. 14-ranked Ferris State University.
On Friday night, BG scored three goals in the third period to come back and tie the game. The Falcons received goals from Connor Kucera, Brent Tate, and Cam Wojtala. BG outshot the Bulldogs 40-31, but the Falcons went 0 for 5 on the power play. Sophomore goaltender Tommy Burke made 28 saves in the tie on Friday.
“We lost our poise,” BG coach Chris Bergeron said. “We defended hard all night and that was the one thing we did do pretty well.”
The team wasn’t focused during the entire game, which led to the loss, Bergeron said.
“You think a two-goal lead would be enough, especially with the time left, but we lost our poise, lost our focus. Ultimately, a good team like Ferris takes advantage of that,” Bergeron said.
On Saturday night, the Falcons suffered a 4-2 loss and were again 0-5 on the power play. The Falcons’ two goals on Saturday both came from freshmen. Kevin Dufour and Matt Pohlkamp scored in the first and second period for BG. Freshman goaltender Tomas Sholl stopped 25 shots in the losing effort.
Ferris State came into the third period losing 2-1. They quickly tied the game with 14:23 left in regulation when the Bulldogs scored a shorthanded goal for the second consecutive night. Ferris State scored two more goals during the final five minutes of play. They won the game with four unanswered goals, including an empty-net goal and are still unbeaten in WCHA conference play.
“Full marks to Ferris,” Bergeron said. “Two games in a row, they stuck to it and found ways to win and tie.”
While the Falcons have had leads, they have not learned how to control them throughout the whole game.
“We found ways to shoot ourselves in the foot, that’s disappointing. We’ve talked about playing with leads. We’ve had some leads these first 10, 12 games we haven’t had in the past. Obviously, we haven’t learned to play with a lead,” Bergeron said.
After the loss, the Falcons overall record is now 5-4-3, with a record of 3-2-1 in WCHA conference play. With the win, Ferris State’s overall record is now to 8-2-1, and 5-0-1 in WCHA conference play.
BG will return home this weekend to host the Minnesota State Mavericks at the Ice Arena in another WCHA conference series. This will be the second time these two teams will play each other in two weeks. The Falcons and Mavericks faced each other at the Verizon Wireless Center on Nov. 8 and 9 and both teams split the series. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7:07 p.m. on both nights.
