Men's Ice Hockey | January 18, 2018
THIS WEEK
For the first time since Dec. 9, the Western Michigan hockey team returns to Lawson Ice Arena to host Colorado College on Friday and Saturday. Friday's game has been moved to 6:30 p.m. to accommodate the national broadcast by CBS Sports Network. Saturday's game is at the normal 7 p.m. time.
LAST WEEK
WMU earned a hard-fought split at No. 2 St. Cloud State last weekend, taking the opening game 7-5 and losing on Saturday, 4-3.
In Friday's win
Hugh McGing gave WMU a very early 1-0 lead on a breakaway goal. SCSU responded with three goals to take a 3-1 lead into the second period. McGing netted his second of the night just seconds into the second period to cut the lead to 3-2. The goal sparked a 4-0 run by WMU, with
Corey Schueneman tying the game at 3-3 and then he set up
Jade McMullen's goal that gave the Broncos a 4-3 lead.
Neal Goff tallied at 12:19 in the second period to push the lead to 5-3.
Lawton Courtnall added the first of two empty-net tallies, with the Huskies tallying two late goals to set the final at 7-5.
On Saturday the Broncos took a 1-0 lead on a power play goal by
Dawson DiPietro with just 6.4 seconds left in the first period. SCSU tied up the game at 8:22 in the second period before
Paul Stoykewych's short-handed goal gave WMU a 2-1 lead. The Huskies tied it up on a goal by Ryan Poehling with 2:13 left in the second period and then took a 3-2 lead on a power play goal just 5:50 into the third period. Schueneman netted his second of the weekend to tie it up at 3-3 but St. Cloud scored the game-winner with 4:28 remaining.
COLORADO COLLEGE || 9-10-3, 3-7-2-1
• THE SERIES: Western Michigan holds the all-time series lead at 8-4-4 and is 8-2-4 against Colorado College since joining the National Collegiate Hockey Conference in 2013. WMU Is 6-0-1 at Lawson Ice Arena against the Tigers.
• SCOUTING THE TIGERS: Colorado College enters the weekend in last place in the NCHC, but sits just three points from fifth.
CC is vastly improved on the goal-scoring front, averaging 2.77 goals per game compared to 1.94 last season. Last season the team's top scorer was Mason Bergh with 24 points on 14 goals and 10 assists. This season Bergh has already surpassed that total with 28 on 11 goals and 17 assists in 22 games. However, Bergh sits three points behind leading scorer Nick Holloran. The sophomore forward leads the team in all point categories with 31 points on 13 goals and 18 assists. Junior forward Try Bradley has four goals and 15 assists for 19 points, while sophomore Kristian Blumenschein is the top scoring defenseman with eight points on two goals and six assists.
Sophomore Alex Leclerc has seen the majority of the time between the pipes for the Tigers. He has a 9-8-3 record this season with a 3.09 goals against average and a .906 save percentage. LeClerc also has two shutouts on the season in 21 starts.
CC's power play ranks 40th in the nation at 16.5 percent (20-for-121). Junior forward Westin Michaud leads the team with five power play goals, while Halloran and Bergh are just behind him with four each. The Tiger penalty kill ranks 54th at 76.6 percent (72-for-94).
POWER PLAYERS
The past three games the Western Michigan power play has been absolutely lethal. Combined it is 7-for-14. The stretch has bumped WMU up to 21.2 percent (24-for-144) on the season and moving them to a tie for 16th in the nation. The Broncos have scored two or more power play goals in six games this season and have score power play goals in 15 of the 22 games overall. The Broncos have five players with at least three power play goals, led by
Dawson DiPietro's five.
Wade Allison and
Hugh McGing each have four, while Corey Schuenman and
Austin Rueschhoff each have three.
SCORING IN BUNCHES
In the series against St. Cloud the Broncos registered seven multipoint performances, led by
Corey Schueneman and Dawson DiPietero with two points in both games. Sophomore forward
Hugh McGing has been particularly adept at scoring in bunches this season and leads the team with 10 multipoint games. McGing has tallied points in 12 games this season, with only two games recording a single point.
Wade Allison leads the team with four games of at least three points, followed by
Colt Conrad and McGing with three.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Western Michigan heads back out on the road, traveling to Omaha next weekend and then to Miami on Feb. 2-3. The Broncos are 3-6-0 away from Lawson Ice Arena this season, but two of the three wins have come in conference play.
WMU returns to Lawson to host St. Cloud State on Feb. 16-17 and then Minnesota-Duluth on Feb. 23-24.
LUNATIC SWAG RAFFLE
The Western Michigan hockey team will be holding a Lawson Lunatics SWAG raffle on Friday and Saturday night at this weekend's games against Colorado College. Three students will be randomly selected to receive WMU hockey apparel during each night. To enter, simply attend the hockey game and make sure your student ID is swiped in as you enter through the Lawson Lunatics entrance.
