The Bowling Green hockey team defeated the Alabama Huntsville Chargers 3-2 in overtime on Friday night, then defeated them in regulation 4-3 on Saturday night.

In their first game against Alabama Huntsville, the Falcons took advantage of a power play opportunity during the overtime period, with sophomore forward Brandon Hawkins scoring his first goal of the season to seal the victory, after getting 16 goals the previous season.

“It’s a big deal in my mind,” Hawkins said on his first goal. “When I get that monkey off my back, I feel like we’ll be able to get something going here, but I feel like it’s a good win for the boys.”

The power play units came up big for both teams, as all five goals in the game were scored on the power play.

“Our execution, passing the puck, winning the draw right away comes to mind,” Head coach Chris Bergeron said on the success of the power play. “We scored a bunch of goals in practice yesterday on the power play, and we hadn’t all year long.”

Junior forward Kevin Dufour scored at 10:04 of the first period and sophomore forward Brett D’Andrea scored at the 6:52 mark of the third period. It was D’Andrea’s first goal of the season.

In the second game of the series, power plays were again key, as the opening goals for both teams were scored on power play opportunities.

“I’d like our penalty kill to be better, I just don’t think it was good enough there,” Bergeron said. “But to go three for five last night, and two for five tonight, as far as I can tell that’s five for ten on the weekend, and we’ll take 50 percent for sure.”

Junior forward Matt Pohlkamp had his best game of the year offensively, earning two goals and two assists in his first multi-goal game since February 1, 2014 in an overtime loss to the Michigan Tech Huskies.

“It feels pretty good to be scoring more goals now,” Pohlkamp said. “Just helping our team win games.”

Senior forward Brent Tate scored his first goal of the season at the 8:31 mark of the third period, giving the Falcons a 3-1 lead at the time.

“I’ve been struggling, I’ve had chances I just haven’t been strong down by the net,” Tate said. “It’s good to get our power play going, and it’s good to get the monkey off my back, but what’s more important is getting a W this weekend and getting the sweep.”

The game also featured three total game misconduct penalties, with two on Alabama Huntsville and one on the Falcons, tying for the most misconduct penalties in a single WCHA game this season.