I feel vindicated. After years upon years of Western Michigan being a team I thought was primed to break through, first-year coach Pat Ferschweiler seems to have edged them across the threshold from “consistent pain in the rear that doesn’t always get results” to “consistent pain in the rear that gets results to show for the pain it’s causing.”
As I wrote before the teams’ first meeting in November, the Broncos have struggled to generate good results when playing on the road. Ferschweiler said one of the missions this season was to be a better team away from home than it’s been.
So far, the sample size is way too small to generate any kind of real judgments, but Western Michigan is 6-2 in NCHC games on home ice (sweeps of St. Cloud State and North Dakota, splits against Omaha and UMD), compared to 2-2 away from Kalmazoo (two wins at Miami, two losses at Denver).
(Western is 6-0 in road non-conference games, with sweeps at Colgate and St. Lawrence, and single wins at Ferris State and Michigan, back when the Wolverines wanted to face the Broncos.)
The Broncos are at UMD this weekend and also travel to St. Cloud State and North Dakota before the regular season ends, so we’ll know more about this team’s ability to win on the road by the postseason.
For UMD, this is another opportunity to find some consistency from game to game. Coach Scott Sandelin thought Saturday’s first period was better than maybe he initially believed after rewatching it on the team’s long trip home to Duluth Saturday night into Sunday morning. But there’s no question that the Bulldogs struggled to find their footing in the middle frame after falling behind 2-0 late in the first on a goal Sandelin lamented because it came as the result of an uncalled Omaha icing.
There’s no secret that UMD is rarely built to be a team that comes back from multi-goal deficits. Only three of the Bulldogs’ 13 wins this season have come in games they trailed at any point (3-7 when conceding the first goal). UMD was 2-10 when allowing the first goal last season, but had been 5-9-2 when scored on first in the previous two seasons. This version of the Bulldogs just lack the firepower to come back from larger deficits, especially with the power play still majorly struggling.
That said, UMD is 12-2-2 when allowing two goals or fewer, and the Bulldogs are 8-3-2 at home this season. Time to make some progress toward consistency in the friendly confines.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD forwards
Cates – Gilling – Roth
Olson – James – Biondi
Bender – Jacques – Laderoute
Almquist – Loney – Loheit
UMD defense
Anderson – Roehl
Kaiser – Gotz
Gallatin – Kelley
Lellig
UMD goalies
Fanti – Stejskal – Patt
Western Michigan forwards
Frank – Worrad – Gallant
Glover – Sasson – Polin
Hillebrand – Grainger – Passolt
Schingoethe – Washe – Wendt
Rome – Larkin (one will be scratched)
Western Michigan defense
Fulp – Attard
Fiedler – Joyaux
Hilsendager – Bauer
Western Michigan goalies
Bussi – Hawryluk
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