Men's Ice Hockey | February 23, 2017

THIS WEEK Western Michigan heads to Colorado College for its final National Collegiate Hockey Conference road series of the season on Friday and Saturday night. Friday's game starts at 9:37 p.m., while Saturday is set for an 8:07 p.m. puck drop. Both games can be seen live on NCHC.tv and heard live on the Bronco Radio Network. LAST WEEK Western Michigan hosted No. 13/12 North Dakota and swept the Fighting Hawks for the first time in program history. North Dakota struck first in Friday's game with Rhett Gardner scoring a short-handed goal with 1:30 left in the first period. WMU scored two goals in the second period thanks to Neal Goff and Michael Rebry to take a 2-1 lead into the third period. Cole Smith leveled it at 2-2 at 6:34 in the third but Sheldon Dries netted the game-winning goal on a snipe at 13:08. Colt Conrad added an empty-net goal with 1:30 remaining to put the game out of reach, 4-2. On Saturday, Matheson Iacopelli netted two goals in the first period and Taylor Fleming opened the second period with a goal for the Broncos to jump out to a 3-0 lead. WMU then held on as the Fighting Hawks ramped up the pressure, outshooting WMU 34-7 in the final two periods. Shane Gersich and Austin Poganski both scored goals but Ben Blacker made a career-high 44 saves to secure the win. AT A GLANCE: COLORADO COLLEGE // 7-20-3, 3-14-3-0 NCHC • THE SERIES: Western Michigan leads the all-time series at 7-4-3 but is 0-4-2 in Colorado Springs. Since joining the NCHC, the Broncos have earned points on every trip but are 0-2-2 overall. • LAST TIME AROUND: WMU hosted CC back in January and swept the Tigers after a wins of 4-2 and 3-0. It marked the second-straight season in which the Broncos had swept Colorado College at Lawson Ice Arena. • SCOUTING THE TIGERS: Colorado College is 2-8-2 since the start of 2017 but has wins over Minnesota-Duluth and North Dakota. The two ties also came against the Bulldogs, including last weekend when the Tigers rallied from an early 2-0 deficit. CC ranks 57th in the nation in scoring at 2.03 goals per game but drops to 1.75 in NCHC play. Sophomore Mason Bergh leads the team in scoring with 19 points on 13 goals and six assists. Bergh had a goal and an assist in WMU's 4-2 win back in January. Senior Luc Gerdes has a team-high 10 assists to go along with his 15 points. Alex Berardinelli and Sam Rothstein each have 11 points on six goals and five assists. Nashville Predators draft selection Teemu Kivihalme is the top-scoring blue-liner with nine points on two goals and seven assists. Defensively the Tigers rank 45th in the nation, allowing 3.27 goals per game. CC's defense ranks sixth in the NCHC and have allowed 3.15 goals per game in conference play this season. Freshman Alex Leclerc has seen the bulk of the action this season, making 26 starts. LeClerc has a 5-17-3 record with two shutouts, including a 45-save blanking of North Dakota. He holds a 3.08 goals against average and a .903 save percentage. Colorado College ranks 57th on the power play at 10.8 percent (17-for-158). Bergh has scored five of his 13 goals with the man advantage, tops on the team. Nick Halloran is second on the team with three, while Kivihalme and Bryce Van Horn each have two. The Tiger penalty kill ranks in at 44th at 80.4 percent (141-for-175). FEBRUARY FORCE Senior forward Sheldon Dries has nine points on three goals and six assists through the month of February. WMU's captain has nearly doubled his season total in the month alone, having 13 points prior to an assist against Arizona State that kicked off the month. Dries has notched at least one points in five of the six games and matched a career-high with four in a 7-6 win at Omaha. SACRIFICING THE BODY Not only has Dries increased his scoring output, but he is also the team's top shot-blocker. Dries has averaged 1.76 per game for 53 through 30 games this season. He ranks second in the nation in total blocks by a forward, falling just behind Cornell's Jake Weidner. Including Dries, WMU has four total players with at least 30 blocks and two of them are forwards. Senior forward Michael Rebry has 32 on the season, while Taylor Fleming its tops among defenseman with 34. Freshman Cam Lee has 33 and fellow freshman Luke Bafia is second on the team in blocks per game at 1.68. Bafia has racked up 27 blocked shots in just 16 games this season.