What a weekend in Kalamazoo! The weather was fine in southern Michigan,
but I was greeted with a 2 foot drift in my driveway and a -40 wind
chill when I got back to BG. Ya, I know, big deal.
Maybe Kalamazoo did not get hit by the blizzard, but the Falcons
certainly ripped through Western Michigan. The scores have already been
posted, but I'll repeat: BG wins the series in two games, 5-4 Friday
and 6-3 Saturday.
On Friday, WMU scored 2 goals in the first minute and another pair in
the final 2 minutes, but BG controlled the play in between. The Broncos
scored a goal on each of their first two shifts. BG settled down and
netted 1 in the period to make it 2-1. The second period was the key,
as each team had 10 shots on net, but BG outscored WMU 3-0. The
Falcons' third goal was controversial. On the power play, Brown made a
save for WMU, but the puck rolled across the crease. A bunch of
players crashed the net for the rebound and the puck was put in off of
a skate. I thought BG's Pronger kicked it in, but Harkins was given
credit for the goal. I talked to the BG video guy and he said after
watching the replay that it went on off of WMU's Ferschweiler. In the
end, Holzinger may get credit since he took the original shot. Anyway,
a 4-2 BG lead after two.
BG did a good job of protecting their lead by keeping the puck in the
offensive zone in the third. Off of a face off, defenseman Wells shot
one through Brown's pads to stretch the lead to 3. The Broncos have
been a spurty team, and they had one final spurt late in the game. The
key for BG was killing off a large chunk of time while WMU was on the
PP and had pulled their goalie. The Broncos finally made it 5-4, but BG
won the center ice face-off with 10 seconds to go to seal the W.
On Saturday, it was the battle to not screw up on defense early on. Three
of the first 4 goals were directly due to defensive blunders. BG D
Wells fell down twice and WMU capitalized on both. The Broncos
had nothing to be proud of either as they consistently gave away the puck
in their own end. Tied at 2 after 1. No scoring in the second as both
teams remembered how to defend.
Western took the lead about halfway through the final period when
D Brekke slipped one under the crossbar right off of a face off. That
only seemed to ignite the Falcons, however. The Falcons had a spurt of their
own and quickly took the lead 4-3 (but I forget who scored the goals).
The clincher came when Harkins skated in on left wing, waited for
Brown to ease out to cover the passing lane, and slipped it over
his shoulder. With 3:00 to go, the Broncos pulled their goalie, but
Ellis and the BG defense stood tall. An empty netter made it official.
One big difference on the weekend was goaltending. WMU's Craig Brown
did not impress me either night. I was SURE his partner Brian Renfrew
was going to play on Saturday, since he had stoned BG twice at Lawson
during the regular season. Bowling Green's all-rookie goalie Aaron
Ellis was simply superb. Aaron made a few mistakes in his 2 losses at
K'zoo earlier, but he was error-free this weekend. He had 30 saves on
Friday, and probably just as many on Saturday. He made at least 4 big
saves in the third to keep WMU from coming back to tie the series.
The referring (by Rutherford and LaDuke) was OK, I guess. For a stretch
on Friday, it seemed like the Broncos were being anti-homered, but when
a team holds and plays as rough as WMU, those things can happen.
Here is the box for Friday.
BOWLING GREEN 1 3 1 5
WESTERN MICHIGAN 2 0 2 4
FIRST: WM - Ferschweiler (Witkowski, Jennings) 0:24. WM - Ward (Chartier)
0:43. BG - Holzinger (Pronger) 12:55.
SECOND: BG - Clark (Pronger) 3:31. BG - Harkins (Ackerman) 15:46. BG -
Harkins (Pronger, Holzinger) 5x4 19:23.
THIRD: BG - Wells (Holzinger) 7:23. WM - Mayers (Witkowski, Lapin) 18:38.
WM - Ward (Belanger) 6x4 19:50.
Goalies
Ellis, BG 8 10 12 30 60:00/4
Brown, WMU 8 4 12 24 58:47/5
Power Plays: BG 1/7 WMU 1/6
Penalties: BG 11/22 WMU 13/34
Refs: LaDuke, Rutherford Line: Rublein
Att: 1440
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