Confidence propels Bronco hockey into weekend series

(Chyn Wey Lee / Western Herald) WMU’s hockey team will take a shot at upping their two-game home stadium winning streak this weekend against Northern Michigan at Lawson Ice Arena.

By Adam Bouton
Western Herald

There is one word that has finally entered Bronco hockey player’s repertoire this season: confidence.  After last weekend’s three point outburst against then No. 11/12 Ohio State, the Bronco players should be using it a lot more leading up to this weekend.

Even the coaches are beginning to use the word.

“Our guys are playing with a lot more confidence,” Western Michigan University assistant coach Scott Robson said.  “Riley [Gill] played tremendous and when he’s playing like that, our guys have a lot of confidence that we’re going to win the hockey game.”

The Broncos (7-13-6, 4-9-5-1 CCHA) will carry the confidence they earned against the Buckeyes into Friday and Saturday when they clash with Central Collegiate Hockey Association rival Northern Michigan University (7-13-4, 4-10-4-3 CCHA).  Both games are set to take place at Lawson Ice Arena in Kalamazoo.

One of the many Bronco players playing with confidence right now is Gill (6-7-2).  The junior goaltender carried the team on his back this past weekend in earning CCHA Goaltender of the Week honors.  He started both games in goal for the Broncos against Ohio State and he should find himself in net at least one game this weekend.

Sophomore center and leading goal-scorer Max Campbell knows that they may need Gill to carry the team on his back again if they are to continue climbing the CCHA standings.

“He stood on his head all weekend,” Campbell said.  “I think he had a lot to do with our success last weekend.”
Gill has headlined the penalty kill unit for the Broncos.  Western Michigan shut out the Buckeyes all six times last weekend when Ohio State had the man advantage.  As the last line of defense, Gill was the key in killing off the penalties.

“Our penalty kill has been outstanding all year,” Campbell noted.  “Hat’s off to them, they do a great job every night.”
“Bottom line, Riley was excellent,” Robson added.  “Your goaltender needs to be your best penalty killer and he certainly was.”

The top forwards on the team played like just that last weekend against OSU.  Bronco senior right wing Patrick Galivan, Campbell and freshman left wing Greg Squires all notched multi-point games last weekend.  It was the jolt that the coaches were looking for.

“They’re three of our most talented players,” Robson said.  “If they compete, they’re going to generate offense and that is certainly what they did [last weekend].  Those guys need to score for us in order for us to win hockey games and they certainly helped out last weekend.”

Even though the Broncos have a good head of steam and some confidence, Northern Michigan also rides into this weekend with some momentum behind them.  The Wildcats have won three straight and five out of its last six contests.

Most recently, the Wildcats defeated CCHA foe the University of Alaska at home, shutting them out 2-0 last Friday and winning a thrilling overtime shootout 2-0 the following night.  Even though Northern Michigan is just one point ahead of the Broncos in the standings, they are looking jump into the top echelon of teams before season’s end, just like WMU.

Northern Michigan is led by a trio of sophomores offensively.  Forward Mark Oliver and defenseman Erik Gustafsson lead the team with 16 points each.  Forward Gregor Hanson has added six goals and eight points for the Wildcats.  Junior goaltender Brian Stewart (4-10-2) leads NMU goalies with a .921 save percentage and 2.18 goals against average.

The Brown and Gold are led in scoring by Galivan, who has 21 points (eight goals and 13 assists) in 26 games.  Junior defenseman Tyler Ludwig leads all defenseman with 18 points total.  Campbell has 11 goals, including seven on the power play and three game-winners.

The team hopes that they can turn the tide and win a pair at home, where they have struggled this season.  Western Michigan is winless at home against conference opponents (0-5-3).

Robson used the contagious word once again when asked what the team needs to do pick up a victory on home ice.

“Bottom line, we just need to relax and have the confidence that we’ve had the last few games,” Robson said.  “I think at times we might get a little uptight coming home.  Hopefully, we’ve kind of got over that and we have the confidence here to know that we are certainly capable of beating anyone here.”

Even with the winless home conference record glaring in their faces, Campbell and the rest of the Broncos are eager and confident to put on a show in front of a large home crowd.

“That’d be awesome,” Campbell acknowledged when asked if the squad would like to see the stands full this weekend.  “The last couple of years we haven’t had the best success.  We hope to see everyone out there this weekend.”

The puck is set to drop at 7:35 p.m. for both games.  Friday’s game will be televised on Fox Sports Net Plus and Saturday’s tussle will be broadcast on Comcast TV.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Jan 29 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
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