Special teams were the Achilles heel for the BG hockey team this past weekend against Union College.

While the Falcons went a respectable 2-for-10 on the power play in the two games, untimely penalties ultimately were their undoing.

Union scored five power play goals during the two games set, including a perfect three-for-three showing in Friday’s game. Those totals aren’t including the two shorthanded goals the Dutchmen scored in the third period of Friday’s game.

Coach Chris Bergeron wasn’t upset with the volume of penalties taken. The three penalties BG took in Friday’s game were lower than the 4.6 penalties it took per game last season.

“If you say we’re going to take three penalties against Union on Friday, I would’ve taken it,” he said. “It was more so our execution on the penalties we took. You can’t ask these kids to play as hard as we want them to and not expect them to take a penalty.”

Rather, he was disappointed in the execution of the penalty kill.

“Union’s power play is awesome, so you can’t give them second and third opportunities,” Bergeron said. “We had the puck on our stick on three of those [goals], and we weren’t able to get the puck out [of the zone]. When you give a power play like that opportunities, they’re going to score. We would fight for pucks, and we would win pucks, and then not get them out because we turn off for a second.”

Bergeron said the struggles this team has had early in the season have been more mental than physical. He said it’s much too early in the season for the team to be at a panic mode, but added that things need to change quickly.

“We want to make sure that we don’t need to learn the same lessons that we’ve already learned before again this year,” Bergeron said. “I don’t want to get to the holiday break and have guys go home and reflect and say, ‘I don’t want this anymore.’ What we’re saying is, ‘let’s put a stop to this right now,’ and remember what we’ve been through; remember the lessons we’ve learned.”

Putting a stop to that starts in practice. Bergeron conceded that the team did not have good practices in the middle of last week leading up to the Union series, which might have led to some of the lack of execution.

However, the team believes that they are on the right track so far this week.

“We had a good practice today, pucks weren’t jumping off our sticks and everything was pretty fluid,” said defenseman Bobby Shea. “If we make our plays I think we can beat Colgate [this weekend].”

Leadership

In past years, Bergeron said the team at times lacked leadership.

With the team starting 0-2-1, he said the team does not have a lack of leadership, but rather the team is going through “leadership development.”

“We’re helping these young guys understand that you can’t always look at the coaches for a, ‘tell us what to do coach, give us a reason this is happening,’ because there may not be a reason,” he said. “Sometimes the guys in the lineup have to say, ‘this isn’t going to happen, and I’m going to lead the way.’”

Bergeron also pointed out the youth of the team’s co-captains and that they’re still learning things about being leaders.

“You can’t teach those kids to be seniors,” he said. “It’s an opportunity, and that’s what I’m looking at it as.”

One of the players who has stepped into a leadership role is Shea, who is the most experienced member of the defense.

“I’ve been there, so I have to set the example out there every day,” he said. “I have to be the guy to set that example on the ice so that everybody tries to do what I do.”

Faceoff

The Falcons’ performance in the faceoff circle has been of concern to the coaching staff so far this season.

With the exception of Andrew Wallace, who has won 38 of 53 faceoffs this season, the Falcons are below .500 as a team in the circle.

Ryan Carpenter and Cam Wojtala center the team’s top two scoring lines, meaning those two receive the majority of offensive zone faceoff chances, where gaining puck possession is vital.

Collectively, those two have struggled on faceoffs, combining to go 57-70 through BG’s first three games.

“We put a lot of emphasis on faceoffs … they’re one of those things that you can take ownership of and get better at,” Bergeron said. “I know both Ryan and Cam want to be better and they’re both taking ownership of that. They’re watching tape, they’re practicing … but it’s a concern, no doubt about it.”