For the first time since late February, the BG hockey team will take the ice at the Ice Arena for a regular season game.
Adding to the excitement is the team BG welcomes to town this weekend: No. 10 Union College. The Dutchmen are one of the elite teams in college hockey, fresh off a 26-win season and an appearance in the Frozen Four.
Both games are scheduled to start at 7:05 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Even though Union is not a big-name school, Coach Chris Bergeron said this series will be a great measuring stick for the team to start the season.
“I don’t know if the students on our campus realize how good Union hockey is, but we know,” he said. “They’re going to come in with this swagger to show the CCHA, this is how we play hockey ECAC style.”
Union had good success against the Central Collegiate Hockey Association this past season, posting a 2-1-2 record, with one loss against Ferris State in the Frozen Four. However, its 2012-13 season started off on the wrong foot, as the Dutchmen dropped their season opener to Merrimack, 4-1, this past Saturday.
While non-conference games do not benefit the Falcons in terms of league standings, the team is looking at this series as a way to help prepare for league play, while also hoping to make a splash playing against a nationally ranked team.
“I think this is a really good opportunity for us, with Union and Colgate back-to-back weekends, to get into league-like situations,” Bergeron said. “This is good stuff for us to get prepared for CCHA games.”
The Dutchmen will be the one of the sternest tests the Falcons face this season, featuring a stingy defense and a prolific offense. This past season, they outscored opponents 143-75.
Goaltender Troy Grosenick is one of the top netminders in college hockey, posting a 22-6-3 record this past season, to go along with a 1.65 goals-against average and a .936 save percent.
Eight players posted more than 20 points for Union this past season, with five of those players scoring more than 30 points. However, their two leading scorers — Jeremy Welsh and Kelly Zajac — graduated or in Welsh’s case, went pro.
Union also converted on 24.2 percent of its power play opportunities last season, while holding opponents to a 15.4 percent power play success rate.
“You take a swing at someone after a whistle, and you punch someone in the cage, that’s another power play they have and they’ll make you pay,” Bergeron said. “We have to be disciplined with our game plan. We have to be disciplined with the details and the process of our game plan, and we have to be disciplined with our emotion.”
While Union does return several high scoring forwards, a lot of their offense is created by defensemen.
Mat Bodie and Shayne Gostisbehere both put up more than 22 points from the blue line and are a big part of an offense that can strike quickly.
“We need to be hard to play against in our own zone,” said defenseman Mike Sullivan. “Whether that be on the penalty kill not giving up the blue line and forcing them to dump the puck in, making to a 50-50 battle that we’re confident that we’re going to win.
“Defensively, they have a couple guys who are pretty slick, so we have to make sure we shut them down early and often … we have to shut down their creativity and simplify the game, which we’re pretty good at.”
