While the Winter Olympics are being hosted in Russia, the BG hockey team will host the U.S. National Development Team in an exhibition game Friday night.
This will be the only game this weekend for both teams.
“At this time of year, practice is old and playing a game, even though it’s an exhibition, is a good thing,” BG head coach Chris Bergeron said. “We have to prepare like we always do. We don’t play 80 games, so we’ll treat it like a regular game.”
Many previous members of the U.S. National Development Team are currently playing for Team USA in the Olympics, including Dustin Brown, Patrick Kane and Phil Kessel.
The BG hockey team however, has been struggling lately. The Falcons are 1-4-2 in their last seven games and surrendered the lead in the third period in both games last weekend against the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves.
This is the second time this season that the Falcons have gone 1-4-1 in a six-game stretch. The first tie this happened was from Nov. 13-30.
The Falcons only have four regular season games remaining and are currently tied for fourth place in the WCHA conference. The top eight teams will make the playoffs, however only the top four teams are guaranteed home playoff games.
“The message to the guys is there’s nothing we can do about the standings,” Bergeron said. “Now, we have to control what we can control and that’s us, and our next opportunity. We always talk like that and we’re going to continue to talk like that through adversity.”
With 98 goals scored so far this season, BG is currently on pace to have its best offensive season under coach Bergeron in his fourth year. The Falcons are averaging 3.06 GPG, which is their highest average since the 2005-06 season.
BG Forward Brent Tate scored his 10th goal of the season last Saturday night. The Falcons now have four skaters with 10 or more goals, which is the most since the 2008-09 season.
Cam Wojtala scored a goal for the Falcons against Alaska-Anchorage on Friday night as well. Wojtala now has four goals this season. He has scored three of his four goals this season against the Seawolves.
The Falcons are currently 13-13-6 overall and 10-10-4 in conference play. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7:07 p.m. Friday night at the BG Ice Arena.
