Tough four-day stretch for BG

[BGSU33]

BG dropped a pair of home games by one goal to WMU on Friday and then again to Ferris State on Monday. The Falcons did get a road win at WMU on Saturday, but it was a tough four-day stretch for the Orange & Brown with a tough schedule ahead.

[TG1996]

was a tough four-day stretch for the Orange & Blue with a tough schedule ahead.

Who?

[Bleeding Orange]

Whoa. Who was Boise playing this weekend?

[BGSU33]

Whoops. That's what happens when you work at Virginia for eight years (the Cavaliers are orange and blue). Obviously, I meant brown.

[pdt1081]

BG dropped a pair of home games by one goal to WMU on Friday and then again to Ferris State on Monday. The Falcons did get a road win at WMU on Saturday, but it was a tough four-day stretch for the Orange & Brown with a tough schedule ahead.

They dropped a one-goal game on Friday to Western. Tonight, they were SCREWED out of a one-goal game. It's pretty bad when the Ferris bench yells at the ref and he calls a penalty on Unger.

Tonight's game was a tough one. Their powerplay killed us. Ours had a hard time getting moving. We looked tired. It was almost as if we had a trip from the UP Saturday night/Sunday. Seemed like everytime we got something going, we'd have a penalty to kill.

I couldn't see the goal that was kicked in by them. If the player did not make a kicking motion, he is allowed to redirect the puck with his foot. He just cannot kick it. Matsumoto's goal at the end was questionable, but he was gliding towards the net, and not really skating. The puck hit his leg and bounced in. About the only call Shegos got right all night.

The goal that got waived off, because the whistle blew, was total BS. Unger was celebrating long before the whistle blew. And the light was on before the whistle.

[BGSU Crazy Fan 58]

Yeah the officiating was disgusting. We just kept getting penalites called on us and that's how Ferris St. scored most of their goals, on the PP. Their first goal went off sitko and into our own net and the "kicking" goal actually really looked like it was just deflected in off the guy's skate. Not enough of a distinct kicking motion to disallow the goal. As bad as Shegos was, BG did not play good and we lose at home again and we play some pathetic defense (again).

[hammb]

The officiating was not great, but that's not why we lost.

Horrel let in at least 2 goals that I would consider soft...especially the final (and eventual gamewinner)...a slapper from the blue line, you've just gotta make that save.

Our defense was porous, allowing way too many shots & good opportunities.

Our passing was also off last night...we just couldn't seem to get the puck into the zone and actually control it. When we'd dump we couldn't beat them to the corner and when we tried to pass it in our timing just seemed off. Could be the travel, I dunno, or maybe I'm just bad luck. Their record with me in attendance over the past 7 years cannot be very good.

[Peregrinner]

I have to agree with some of the points made. Our defense gave up so many scoring opportunities that Horrell would have had to be a total god in the net to make up for it.
Another problem I've seen WAY too much of in the last two home games is passing/leaving the puck in the middle of our D-zone, just begging for the opponents to take a shot.
As far as just last night's game went, they moved the puck better, broke out better, and beat us to the loose pucks. It's hard to score goals when we can't get to the loose puck and clear it from our zone.
If we think we can win games giving up these kinds of scoring opportunities, we need a head check, and fast.

[hammb]

If we think we can win games giving up these kinds of scoring opportunities, we need a head check, and fast.

I will preface my comments by saying I am absolutely NOT a hockey expert. I try to get to 5-10 games a year and I do enjoy hockey, but I'm not one of the experts of the game.

Anyhow, one thing I said before the season began was that I thought last year we were VERY lax on defense at times knowing that we had Siggy back there to steal a few saves. Our style seemed to be towards a wide open game that put a lot of pressure on the opponent, but also would give up some scoring chances. That was okay when we had a top tier goalie who would make some spectacular saves. Going into the year I thought that goaltending would be the big questionmark...could this year's goalies steal games with saves like Siggy could?

In the 4 or so games I've been to this year I'm not convinced that either of the guys is quite good enough to play that style right now. We still seem to be generating some offense, but at the same time we allow a lot of chances. The big difference is last year I saw us win games 5-2, and now I'm seeing us lose games 6-5, etc. I realize that the games I've been to have not been the best ones to choose from, but I have now seen us give up 9 goals, 2 goals, 5 goals, and then 6 last night. That's a not too good average of a touch over 5 a game.

As I said, I'm no hockey expert, but at some point I think we may have to slightly alter our scheme and try to prevent some of these chances. If we have to sacrifice a goal a game to give up 2 less, then I think it's something we should think about. Unless of course the staff doesn't think we'd still be able to score if we changed our style. I don't really have the answers, not real knowledgeable about hockey strategy. I just know that our style seems to give up way too many good scoring chances for the level of goaltending that we have right now.

[pdt1081]

Actually, that is exactly what is happening hammb. Sigalet could almost single-handedly steal a game for us. Masters was the same way (he just never had the offense in front of him like Siggy). We have had very high quality goaltending for a long time. This is not a shot at Horrell or Spratt or Frazee for that matter. Our defensive systems have gotten very lax over the years, and now it is biting us. Horrell makes most of the saves he is supposed to. The area he lacks is the ability to make the save out of the ordinary. Maybe he just isn't as lucky as Siggy and Tyler. A lot of times, goalies don't actually stop the puck, it hits them (and that's what a lot of spectacular save are).

Our defense has made great strides this year without sacrificing much offense. Our problem right now is the last two teams we've faced. The trap. That's all it is. We now need to develop a system to defeat the trap. A high flying, wide open game is ours for the taking. Very few teams will beat us at that. A team with a good transition game that plays the trap will burn us almost every time. A crack-down on neutral zone interference would really help our forwards get in the zone on dump-ins so we can have a forecheck, but that probably won't happen anytime soon.

[Freddie]

Questionable officiating is part of the game, and winning teams find a way to overcome it.

The bottom line is this...we can't allow ourselves to get caught up in 'track meet' type games, no matter who the opponent is. Our forwards routinely neglected their backchecking assignments in favor of taking offensive opportunities...and too often our defense attempted to clear pucks up the center of the ice, rather than to the outside. This is inconsistant with the coach's game plan, and it's why we lost (both Friday and Monday).