Gill blanks another team, Broncos split with Alaska

(Chyn Wey Lee / Western Herald) WMU senior Patrick Galivan scored three goals for the Broncos over the weekend against Alaska-Fairbanks and attempted a penalty shot in the last 21 seconds of Saturday’s home game.

By Adam Bouton
Western Herald

In a weekend of firsts, perhaps the most important aspect was the Broncos have clearly found someone to ride behind the rest of the season: junior goaltender Riley Gill.
It was also the first weekend that the Western Michigan University hockey squad won a Central Collegiate Hockey Association game at home. The Broncos also set a school-record with two straight shutouts (Gill was again between the pipes for one last Saturday against Nebraska-Omaha).

Behind another wowing performance by Gill, the Brown and Gold (9-16-7, 6-12-6-2 CCHA) blanked the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (13-11-6, 11-10-5-3 CCHA) 3-0 Friday before dropping a hard-fought 4-3 contest Saturday evening.
Overall, it was a weekend that WMU head coach Jim Culhane expected.

“It kind of fulfilled, I think, my personal expectations on what we thought coming in; what the weekend would be like,” Culhane said following Saturday’s loss.  “And I think you’re going to see this intensity, emotion within the game throughout the remainder of the season.  Each game becomes the biggest game of the year.”

The team started off the weekend against the Nanooks with a bang, securing their second consecutive shutout in CCHA play, pulling away two points on Friday.

Gill was instrumental in the win, turning away all 41 shots put on net by Alaska-Fairbanks.  He made several eye-opening, point-blank glove saves and was all smiles after the 3-0 victory Saturday.

“It feels like there’s no holes out there,” Gill admitted when asked about being in the zone.  “You feel like you’re covering everything up.”

Gill did that and more, smothering every opportunity that Alaska-Fairbanks while killing all the momentum with his saves.  He made 19 saves in a pivotal second period where the Nanooks clearly had some steam and where they outshot WMU 19-2.

The Broncos got on the scoreboard at 15:43 in the first period when junior defenseman Tyler Ludwig lifted a shot from the point on the power play.  The shot went through traffic and over Nanook goaltender Chad Johnson’s shoulder.  Ludwig’s power-play goal was assisted by sophomore center Max Campbell and senior right wing Patrick Galivan.
The 1-0 lead stood all the way until the third period when freshman J.J. Crew added his third goal of the season on the power play.  Crew took a pass from Ludwig and bolted into the offensive zone.  He weaved through defenders and, as he was skating left-to-right in front of Johnson, he fired a shot past Johnson on the far side.  The insurance goal provided WMU with a 2-0 advantage.
That was all Gill and the Broncos needed on a solid defensive night.  Galivan added an empty net goal for the Brown and Gold to cap off the first conference win at home.

“He’s [Gill] on fire right now,” Ludwig said following the big win Friday.  “When you got goaltending like that, you can win a game playing opposite-handed.  He’s playing well.”

“They tried to throw a lot of shots on goal from everywhere tonight and our D did a good job of clearing out the second opportunities,” Gill added.

After facing 40 plus shots for a third straight game, Gill was again in net on Saturday to try and extend his shutout and win streak.  The Broncos donned pink jerseys, pink laces and pink tape for the game in celebration of Hockey Cares weekend, which supports the American Cancer Society.
Galivan got Western Michigan off to the lead Saturday on a great individual effort, as he bolted with the puck right off a faceoff near center ice. He juked Johnson and flipped a back-handed shot over his left shoulder for the 1-0 lead at 6:37 in the first period.

Alaska-Fairbanks finally got on the scoreboard with just 1:05 left in the first period.  Freshman defenseman Aaron Gens notched his first collegiate goal on the power play as he received a cross-ice pass from Dustin Sather (who assisted on all four goals) and wristed the shot past Gill.
Knotted at 1-1 and 5:29 into the second period the Broncos again took the lead.  WMU scored a textbook power-play goal when Ludwig disguised a pass (that looked like a shot) in front to Galivan, who perfectly tipped the pass past Johnson underneath the crossbar.  Galivan’s second goal of the night gave the Broncos a 2-1 lead.

Gens came right back 34 seconds later and tallied his second goal of the night, tying the game, 2-2.  His goal began a flurry of scoring for UAF.
Nanook Dion Knelsen took the puck as it was being cycled around on the power play and fired it from between the circles and past the outstretched glove of Gill.  After UAF’s Ryan Hohl added his eighth goal of the year just two minutes later, the Nanooks had the commanding 4-2 lead.

The 4-2 advantage stood stagnant on the scoreboard until 6:40 in the third when freshman Kyle O’Kane put in his sixth goal of the year.  Galivan set the goal up as he again found a clear path to Johnson.  He couldn’t convert on the breakaway, but O’Kane was there for the rebound and the goal.
Later in the period, O’Kane took an ugly game-misconduct penalty after he hit an UAF player from behind.  The resulting five-minute major penalty looked like it might doom the squad as it came with 6:34 remaining in the game.

However, the Broncos did receive a golden opportunity with 20.4 seconds remaining, when the red-hot Galivan was awarded a penalty shot.  A Nanook player purposely knocked the net off the moorings on a shot by the Broncos to present the opportunity.  Galivan came in on Johnson, but the senior knocked away the shot with his blocker.  The attempt proved to be the last chance of the game, as WMU fell in another close loss at home.

Alaska-Fairbanks put 40 shots on Gill (8-9-3) again and the three power-play goals ultimately proved to be too much to overcome for the Broncos.  The team fought hard in trying to come back again, but UAF’s defense lived up to its billing on Saturday.

“I think overall we put in a pretty solid effort,” Galivan said on Saturday.  “There was a little span in the second period there where they had two or three goals in a few minutes, so besides that little letdown right there, I think our team played pretty solid overall.”

WMU will head north next weekend to try and work their road magic once again at Lake Superior State University on Friday and Saturday.

“We know we can beat anybody in the league and we’re just looking forward to getting back out there,” Galivan said.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=3991

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Feb 15 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
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com