Western seizes Saturday win against Bemidji

After recording a disappointing 6-1 loss against Bemidji State on Friday night, the Western Michigan Broncos battled back to a 5-4 overtime win on Saturday.

Friday's game was a Bemidji scoring showcase, as the team scored two goals per period to decimate the Broncos. A lone bright moment for Western was Brian Bicek's second period goal as he redirected a Reid Yantzi shot into the net. In his second start of the season, goalie Eric Marvin made 20 saves for the Broncos.

Saturday's game didn't start much better for the Broncos, who found themselves down 2-0 heading to the locker rooms after the first period. However, a trio of power-play goals in the second period kept Western in the game. Paul Szczechura and Dave Krisky set up Brent Walton for his 22nd goal of the season, closely followed by a Mike Erickson goal, with Yantzi and Nathan Ansell picking up the assists. Though Bemidji struck back to momentarily regain the lead, Krisky scored in the last minute to even the score for the Broncos heading into the last 20 minutes of play. Walton and Erickson earned assists on Krisky's goal.

In the third, Bemidji once again wrestled away the lead, and Western once again managed to score. This time, Ryan Mahrle got some help from Jason Moul (pictured) with under four minutes left in regulation to send the game to overtime.

Just 1:37 in overtime, a Moul wrist shot was deflected and dribbled past Bemidji goalie Layne Sedevie.

WMU coach Jim Culhane praised Moul's efforts after the game.

"Jason is pretty deserving of that game-winning goal," said Culhane. "He has played hard for us all year and is a tremendous worker. We got down, but did a good job of battling back tonight."

Daniel Bellissimo finished with 32 saves for the Broncos.

WMU (7-21-4, 6-15-3 CCHA) is on the road at Alaska-Fairbanks this weekend.