Western Michigan Broncos (6-4, 1-3 NCHC) Ranked #13

The road was not kind to the Broncos over the weekend as they were swept by NCHC conference opponent Denver. Friday night’s game got off to a good start with Western Michigan lighting up the scoreboard first and taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. The second period got off to a rocky start with Denver netting a goal just 45 seconds in. Under two minutes later Denver scored again to take the lead, which they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game, ultimately ending in a 3-5 loss for the Broncos.

Saturday night’s game got off to a similar start, with Western Michigan scoring first and taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. From that point on it seemed that the ice was tilted in Denver’s favor. They added four goals in the second period and put the Broncos in a 2-5 hole. That score would hold through the third period as Denver completed the sweep.

The Broncos don’t have much time to lick their wound as #2 St. Cloud State (9-3) comes into town next weekend for a pair of games on Nov. 19th and 20th.

Bowling Green Falcons (5-3-2, 3-3 CCHA)

The Falcons also had a rough go of it on the road. They headed up to Minnesota to take on the Minnesota State Mavericks in Mankato. Friday night’s game was doomed from the start as the Mavericks netted three goals in the first period to put the Falcons down 0-3. Bowling Green was unable to claw back from that deficit while the Mavericks poured it on for a final score of 2-9 in favor of Minnesota State.

Saturday night’s game seemed like a re-run of Friday night’s game from the start. Once again, the Mavericks poured it on early and scored three first period goals. The Falcons showed a little more fight though, scoring two goals of their own to narrow the deficit to one goal. Unfortunately, that is as close as they’d get as the Mavericks pulled out a two goal lead for a final score of 3-5 to complete the weekend sweep.

Next up for Bowling Green is a home matchup with Lake Superior State (7-6-1) on Nov. 19th and 20th.

Miami RedHawks (2-7-1, 1-3 NCHC)

Unlike their MAC brethren, the RedHawks didn’t have to travel for the weekend. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to help much as they were also swept by a conference foe. The RedHawks welcomed the Top 10-ranked North Dakota Fighting Hawks to town on Friday and Saturday night.

Friday night’s game was all North Dakota as they tallied a goal in each period to pull out a three goal lead. Miami got one on the board in the third to prevent a shutout, but it was too little too late as the Fighting Hawks coasted to a final score of 4-1.

The RedHawks showed a little more fight on Saturday, but were never able to close the deficit after North Dakota scored the opening goal. It was a back and forth game as the goal deficit was never more than two. Miami scored late in the third period to make it a one-goal-game, but wasn’t able to tally the tying goal and was handed a 4-5 loss.

Next up for Miami is a trip out to #11 Denver (6-4) for a pair of games on November 19th and 20th.