KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Dane Walters scored twice during Western Michigan’s three-goal second period Friday,
lifting the 13th-ranked Broncos to a 4-1 victory over Bowling Green at Lawson Arena.
The Broncos scored the three goals in a five-minute span to break open a scoreless game and move into
first place in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
Walters opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 9:20, followed by goals from Greg Squires at 13:29
and Walters again at 15:16.
BG closed to within 3-1 on Cameron Sinclair’s goal just 1:37 later, but Western held on and Shane
Berschbach’s empty-net goal with just 18 seconds left finished the scoring.
The first three Western goals were aided by defensive breakdowns by the Falcons.
“Their goals came just a little too easy,” BG coach Chris Bergeron said. “That little stretch was too
little to come back from.”
The Falcons fell behind in the second period, even though they out-shot Western, 10-9, in the period.
For the game, Western had 33 shots to BG’s 21.
“For the most part, we had a pretty decent second period,” Bergeron said. “But it was one of those nights
where we found ourselves on the wrong side of some of those plays that we needed to make. It happened
bang, bang, bang.
“We had opportunities to score in the second period and we only got the one,” Bergeron added.
The Falcons survived a difficult first period when they were out-shot by a 17-6 margin, but the
goaltending of Andrew Hammond kept BG in a scoreless tie. He made 17 of his 29 saves in the opening
period.
“The first period wasn’t very good, but Hammond was very good,” Bergeron said. “(Western) had a bunch of
jump in the first period, but we matched it in the second period. The goals turned the momentum and they
really took advantage of it.”
The Broncos held a 7-5 edge in shots in the third period.
BG was limited to two or fewer goals for the 19th time in 27 games, including 15 games with zero or one
goal.
“We settled ourselves down and played a pretty decent third period,” Bergeron said. “We didn’t create
enough offense to get ourselves back in the game, but we didn’t give up, either.”
BG controlled the early stages of the second period and then had a chance to take the lead on the power
play.
But BG failed to covert with the extra man and Walters opened the scoring just nine seconds after a
Falcon penalty started.
Each team had four power-play chances, with Walters’ goal being the only score with the extra man.
In CCHA games only this season, BG is a minus-9 in special teams goals.
“We’ve talked about it at length and our special teams need to improve, and they’re going to improve,”
Bergeron said. “When you’re a team that expects to compete at a high level and is competing at a high
level, you need your special teams to be a difference every night.
“Who knows what happens if we score in the second period to make it 1-0? Instead, we give up (a
power-play goal),” Bergeron said. “Unfortunately, it’s happened to much.”
Walters has five goals and two assists in three games against BG this season. The junior right wing, who
had missed his team’s last three games because of an upper body injury, leads Western with 12 goals.
The Broncos lead the CCHA with 36 points, followed by Ohio State with 35, Ferris State with 34, and Miami
and Lake Superior with 33 each. Western and Ferris have played two fewer games than OSU, Miami and Lake
Superior.
Western is 13-9-5 overall and 10-6-3-3 in the CCHA. BG is 7-15-5, 2-12-4-3.
The Falcons have a chance to earn a series split tonight at 7:05 when they host Western.
WESTERN MICHIGAN 4, BGSU 1
GOALS BY PERIOD
BGSU 0 1 0 —1
WESTERN MICHIGAN 0 3 1 —4
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: None.
Penalties: Viselli, BG, unsportsmanlike conduct, 1:41; Roehl, WM, unsportsmanlike conduct, 1:41; Peltoma,
BG, cross-checking, 2:19; Sullivan, BG, elbowing, 8:03; Slater, WM, charging, 10:18.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 1, WM Walters 11 (Tennyson) 9:20 (5-4 pp). 2, WM Squires 3 (Crew, Witkowski) 13:29. 3, WM
Walters 12 (Balisy, Berschbach) 15:16. 4, BG Sinclair 4 (Perrier, Peltoma) 16:53.
Penalties: Brown, WM, holding, 5:25; Shea, BG, tripping, 9:11; Roehl, WM, holding, 10:10.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 4, WM Berschbach 7 (unassisted) 19:42 (5-6 en).
Penalties: Squires, WM, elbowing, 1:25; DeSalvo, BG, high-sticking, 5:00; Haar, WM, roughing, 5:00;
Perrier, BG, elbowing, 10:15;
SAVES BY PERIOD
Hammond, BG 17 6 0 —00
Slubowski, WM 6 9 0 —00
Goalie statistics (goals against/minutes played): (BG) Hammond 3/59:08, Empty net 1/0:52; (WM) Slubowski
1/60.
Penalties-Minutes: BG 6-12, WM 6-12. Power plays: BG 0-4, WM 1-4. Attendance: 3,314.