Broncos break even in hockey

Patrick Littleton
Staff Reporter

The Western Michigan University hockey team split its weekend series with Ohio State University at Lawson Ice Arena.

With the split, the Broncos (15-12-5, 12-9-3-3) remain in second place in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. They are five points behind first place Ferris State University.

On Friday, junior right wing Dane Walters scored in overtime to defeat the Buckeyes 3-2 in front of 3,577 fans.

“To tell you the truth, my line mates did most of the work there,” Walters said.  “Berschbach got it over to Balisy, and Balisy pulled up, had a nice play, sent it back over to Berschbach who knocked the puck, (he) kind of lost it, and it was just laying there for me. I tried to pull it over and just put it in, and luckily, it got a good bounce.”

Also netting goals for the Broncos were junior defenseman Matt Tennyson and senior forward Kyle O’Kane. Freshman goaltender Frank Slubowski stopped 23 pucks to earn his 11^th win of the year.

Tennyson put the Broncos in front with a power play goal at the 1:38 mark of the second period with assists from sophomore center Chase Balisy and sophomore defenseman Dennis Brown.

The buckeyes answered at the 4:21 mark of the second period with a goal from senior left wing Cory Schneider, assists from freshman right wing Chad Niddery and sophomore center Travis Statchuk.

O’Kane put the Broncos ahead at the 14:59 mark of the second period with assists from senior left wing Derek Roehl and senior center Ian Slater.

“We were just battling,” O’Kane said. “I think Roehl took about six swings at it. I didn’t even know it went in. I shot it, and I see Slater going crazy. I don’t know how it went in.”

The Buckeyes tied the match with a power play goal from freshman left wing Max McCormick at the 9:25 mark of the third with assists from freshman defensemen Al McLean and Ben Gallacher. Walters scored 3:20 into overtime with assists from Balisy and sophomore left wing Shane Berschbach.

The Broncos outshot the Buckeyes 37-25 and were 1-of-5 on the power play with nine shots while the Buckeyes were 1-of-4 with four shots.

“I talked to the guys after the game, and said I’m not going to pat anybody on the back tonight,” WMU head coach Andy Murray said. “I want to reserve it for tomorrow night. We’re going to have to play better tomorrow, because our opponent will be better as well.”

Murray was right about the Buckeyes being better as they defeated the Broncos 4-3 in front of 3,981 fans.

“Ohio State came and battled, they played hard like they did last night,” Murray said. “For three weekends in a row we’ve not found a way to be as good as we need to be on Saturday nights, and that’s my responsibility. Leading by a goal with seven minutes left to go in the game, and let the lead slip away, that’s my responsibility.”

The Buckeyes got out to a 2-0 lead after two first period power play goals. The first came at the 9:14 mark from McCormick, who had assists from freshman center Ryan Dzingel and Gallacher. Dzingel scored the second goal at the 10:23 mark with assists from McCormick and Gallacher.

Balisy put the Broncos on the board at the 17:58 mark of the first period with assists from Berschbach and junior defenseman Luke Witkowski. Freshman forward Will Kessel tied the match at the 7:23 mark of the third period with assists from freshman defenseman Danny DeKeyser and senior center Greg Squires.

Tennyson gave the Broncos the lead with a power play goal at the 8:31 mark of the third with assists from junior forward Mike Leone and Berschbach.

Junior center Alex Carlson scored a power play goal at the 4:36 mark of the third period with assists from freshman right wing Darik Angeli and senior defenseman Sean Duddy.

Carlson then scored the game-winning goal at the 16:31 mark with an assist from sophomore left wing Alex Lippincott.

“We need to be more accountable for our actions,” Witkowski said. “We can’t play a forty-minute game, we’ve got to play the whole sixty. (We were) too slow to the puck, we’ve just got to have some urgency.”

Slubowksi (11-9-3) had 26 saves in the loss.

The Buckeyes outshot the Broncos 30-24 while going 3-of-5 on the power play with six shots. The Broncos were 1-of-4 on the power play with two shots.

The Broncos travel to Sault Ste Marie, Mich this weekend for two matches against Lake Superior State University. Both matches begin at 7:05 p.m.

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Posted by njstrehl on Feb 13 2012. Filed under Breaking, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Nora Strehl