The BG hockey team couldn’t continue its success of late, getting swept by Northern Michigan.
The Falcons were outscored 6-2 in the two-game series. Senior Cameron Sinclair and junior Bobby Shea scored the lone two goals in the series.
The start of the series did not go the way the Falcons planned, as the Wildcats came out not messing around. They scored three goals in the first 10 minutes of the game.
The first goal was scored at the 2:14 mark of the first period by Stephen Vigier, a power-play goal and his 11th of the season. Then just over three minutes later, senior Andrew Cherniwchan scored his sixth goal of the season. The scoring finally stopped after another power-play goal, this one scored by Scott Macaulay to make the score 3-0 heading into the first intermission.
The second period started out with a stalemate until the Falcons finally got to Northern Michigan goalie Jared Coreau. Cam Wojtala had the puck and then served Shea a crisp pass and he buried his fourth goal of the season.
Just when the Falcons gained some momentum, the Wildcats struck again. Justin Florek flew at Hammond and snuck the puck past him to give Northern Michigan a 4-1 lead.
In the third period, BG tried to come back when Sinclair found the puck in the slot and scored to make the score 4-2. The Falcons tried and tried, but just couldn’t get back in the game. The game ended in a 4-2 Wildcats victory.
Coach Chris Bergeron was disappointed with the way his team played Friday night.
“We weren’t ready to play, I’ll take the blame for that,” he said. “This was no one else’s fault except our own. We need to pick ourselves up and respond.”
The second game was an offensive struggle for the Falcons as they couldn’t capitalize on any of their chances. Both teams tried to score desperately in the first period of play, but could not get anything in the back of the net. In the second period Northern finally broke through Hammond on a power-play Mitch Jones wristed a shot past him to take a 1-0 lead.
Even outshooting the Wildcats the rest of the game, BG couldn’t break through Coreau. The Wildcats added an empty-net goal in the late part of the third period to get a 2-0 win. This was the fifth time the Falcons have been shut out this season.
BG’s record dropped to 9-18-5 overall and 4-16-4-3 in the Central Collegiate Association.
Bergeron said he was happy his team showed resiliency.
“They executed on the power-play and we didn’t, it is as simple as that,” Bergeron said. “Northern has always been a tough team to play when they get a lead and it showed.”
Wojtala said the team came out flat the night before and showed some jump in Saturday’s game.
“It was just one of those nights,” Wojtala said. “We just need to bear down and make a play, get the puck in the net somehow. We just have to learn from this and put it behind us.”
