Bronco forward Derek Roehl attempting to pass Notre Dame’s Teddy Ruth during a 4-1 win Saturday night at Lawson Ice Arena. Roehl scored his career hat trick in the win over the Fighting Irish during their “Pink on the Rink” awareness games this weekend. Jo Wei Looi/Western Herald
By Katrina Murphy
Sports Editor
On Friday, seven different Broncos scored to help propel the Western Michigan University hockey team past Notre Dame, 7-2, in front of 2,570 fans at Lawson Arena.
“We’ve had a challenging time scoring goals,” Bronco head coach Jim Culhane said. “I’m happy for them that we worked so hard to try and create scoring opportunities, to have a night like tonight.”
The first goal of the night for the Brown and Gold came at the 4:23 mark in the first period as sophomore Kyle O’Kane attempted a shot from just beyond the right circle to beat out the Fighting Irish’s goalie, Mike Johnson. Junior Max Campbell picked up his 10th assist on the goal as the Broncos took a 1-0 lead.
Less than three minutes later, WMU added another goal as senior defenseman Jordan Collins fired one from the left point for his fourth goal of the season. Teammate Mike Levendusky picked up his fourth assist for the season for his first career two-point game.
“We’ve been struggling scoring goals so it got the weight off our back there in the first period,” senior goalie Riley Gill said. “We popped a couple and got that 3-0 lead and we sustained that through the entire game. That’s a big confidence booster for us here, moving forward towards the playoffs.”
The Brown and Gold continued to dominate through the first two periods. The victory was sealed when WMU scored the final goal with 36 seconds remaining in the game.
Gill finished the night with 27 saves to earn his sixth win of the season.
On Saturday, the Broncos returned to University Arena geared up to repeat the previous night’s performance, which they did, defeating the Irish, 4-1.
“I think the game can be summarized by the outstanding goaltending of Riley Gill,” coach Culhane said. “I think he has been tremendous throughout his senior year and I think the goaltending tonight is some of the best in my memory I’ve ever seen at Lawson Ice Arena.”
Gill tied his career-high with 54 stops against the Fighting Irish. Gill made 27 of those 54 saves while on the penalty kill and 20 came within the third period alone.
“It’s a nice sweep, it’s the first in awhile in CCHA play,” Gill said. “It’s a good confidence builder going into the rest of the season here.”
The first goal from the Broncos didn’t come until the 13:11 mark in the first period as sophomore Derek Roehl connected for his first goal of the night.
Senior captain Tyler Ludwig managed to get a shot past Notre Dame’s goalie to put the Brown and Gold up 2-0 at the 16:53 mark in the first.
Less than a minute into play in the second, WMU extended the lead to 3-0 with another goal from Roehl. To pick up a hat-trick, Roehl scored again with 6:02 remaining in the game to seal the win for the Broncos.
“We were talking about it before today’s game and yesterday’s game and I was like yeah, I’m gonna get a hat trick tonight,” Roehl said. “It’s funny how it works out.”
The Brown and Gold will take to the road for back-to-back match-ups on Friday and Saturday against Northern Michigan University. Both games will begin at 7:35 p.m.
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