Men's Ice Hockey | October 11, 2018
THIS WEEK
Western Michigan hockey travels to Big Rapids on Friday to take on in-state rival Ferris State before hosting the Bulldogs on Saturday night at Lawson Ice Arena.
HOW TO FOLLOW ALONG
Friday's game at Ferris State will be available via FloHockey.tv, while Saturday's game will be streamed on NCHC.tv. Both games can be heard live on the Bronco Radio Network.
EARLIER THIS WEEK
After a 4-1 win in an exhibition over Lethbridge, Western Michigan dropped its regular season opener to Bowling Green, 6-2, on Tuesday night.
WMU initially took the lead on a power play goal by
Austin Rueschhoff at 14:22 after he deflected in a shot by
Corey Schueneman on the power play.
Dawson DiPietro also picked up the first of his two assists on the night as the Broncos led 1-0. The lead didn't last long with Tim Theochardis scoring a short-handed goal at 16:18 and Connor Ford tallying on the power play to give BGSU a 2-1 lead after the first 20 minutes.
The Falcons scored again just 3:49 into the second period to go up 3-1 but
Josh Passolt pegged one back for Western Michigan at 9:57 to cut the lead to 3-2. DiPietro passed the puck across the zone to
Drew Worrad and the freshman forward found Passolt open in the slot for WMU's second power play goal of the game. The assist was Worrad's first career point.
Bowling Green added three more goals in the third period, including an empty-net goal with 1:43 left to go in the game. WMU outshot BGSU 36-19 on the night, but Falcon goalie Ryan Bednard made a season-high 34 saves.
FERRIS STATE BULLDOGS
• THE SERIES: WMU leads the all-time series 79-52-13 and have had a dominant run over the Bulldogs in the past eight seasons. The Broncos are 13-1-3 in the last 16 games and are 10-1-3 under head coach
Andy Murray. The lone loss during the stretch came last season in Big Rapids.
• SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS: Ferris State enters the weekend without a regular season game under its belt, with Friday night's home game against WMU being its regular season opener. The Bulldogs have played two exhibition games, beating the USA Under-18 team 3-1 and Lethbridge 5-2.
FSU returns four of its top five scorers from a team that went 14-23-1 last season. Senior Corey Mackin finished second on the team with 25 points on 10 goals and a team-high 15 assists. Senior defenseman Ryker Killins was the top scorer from the blue line last season, tallying 22 points on eight goals and 14 assists. Sophomore Coale Norris had a productive freshman campaign after posting 10 goals and eight assists, while junior defenseman Nate Kallen also returns after putting up 17 points on five goals and 12 assists. Sophomore forward Lucas Finner had two goals and three assists in the two exhibition wins and had 14 points on five goals and nine assists last season.
Junior Justin Kapelmaster is the team's top returning goalie, going 6-11-0 with a 3.10 goals against average and a .909 save percentage last season. He made 44 saves and allowed just one goal in the win over the USA U-18 team. Freshman Roni Salemnkangas started the second exhibition game against Lethrbidge, making 17 saves and allowing two goals in the 5-2 win.
Last season the Bulldogs struggled at times on the power play and the penalty kill. The power play finished at 16.1 percent (27-for-168), with Killins leading the team with five power play goals. The penalty kill finished the season at 78.8 percent (152- for-193).
DEBUTS
Against Bowling Green the Broncos debuted six new players. Freshmen forwards
Drew Worrad,
Cole Gallant and
Paul Cotter all played in their first collegiate games. Defensemen
Michael Joyaux,
Jared Kucharek and
Mattias Samuelsson also made their debuts. Worrad was the most productive, tallying his first career point after assisting on
Josh Passolt's power play goal in the second period. Kucharek registered three shots on goal, while Cotter chipped in with two.
POWER PLAYERS
WMU opened the season going 2-for-7 on the power play in the loss to Bowling Green. WMU also had three power play goals in the exhibition win over Lethbridge.
Last season the Broncos netted at least two power play goals in nine games during the regular season, including a stretch of five games with at least two in each game.
Dawson DiPietro was the top power play threat last season, tallying six of his career-high 13 goals with the man advantage. DiPietro already has two power play points this season, assisting on both goals in Tuesday's loss.
ON THE HORIZON
Western Michigan continues non-conference play next weekend with a home-and-home series against the University of Michigan. The Broncos travel to Ann Arbor on Friday for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop and welcome the Wolverines to Lawson Ice Arena on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. It will be the first home-and-home series between the two schools since the 2012-13 season.
Tickets are available by calling 1-888-4-WMUTIX and online at wmubroncos.com/tickets.
