Broncos sweep Bentley in weekend series

By Tom Morelli/WMU Beat Writer

Western Michigan University was anything but a letdown against Bentley College to begin the 2007-2008 season, winning both games over the weekend.

Getting shots on goal was the common theme in Friday night’s game, as the Broncos peppered the Falcons with 30, en route to a 5-2 victory.

Sophomore forward Cam Watson began the scoring binge for Western Michigan at the 7:00 mark of the opening period, with Patrick Galivan and Tyler Ludwig helping out on the power-play goal.

Galivan netted one of his own in the following period at 1:21, but Bentley’s Jaye Judd followed suit about six minutes later to break the Falcons scoring drought.

Center Chris Clackson added an insurance goal for the Broncos at 18:21 in the second period, thanks to help from Brian Bicek and Ludwig.

Freshman forward Ryan Watson scored an unassisted goal at 6:22 of the final stanza to put Western Michigan ahead, 4-1.

The Falcons though refused to quit, and drew closer to the Broncos, thanks to Jeff Gumaer’s lamp-lighter with 12:36 elapsed.

With under a minute left in the game, Western Michigan’s co-captains put the icing on the cake as Jeff LoVecchio received a pass from Chris Frank to score an empty-net goal.

Defensively, the Broncos killed off all four of Bentley’s power play opportunities, and sophomore goaltender Riley Gill stopped 18 of 20 shots.

Keeping with their offensive mentality to fire at will, the Broncos had plenty of momentum on Saturday night, winning 3-1 before about 2,800 fans at Lawson Arena.

After a scoreless first period, LoVecchio notched his second goal of the season on the power-play, as Clackson and Max Campbell were credited with the helper at 3:11 in the middle period.

The lead was short-lived however, as Mark Menzione of the Falcons evened-up the score a mere two minutes later.

Campbell, a freshman forward from Strathroy, Ontario, tallied the game-winning goal with only a minute gone by in the third period.

Chris’ older brother, Matt Clackson scored an empty-net goal with 38 second left in the game, with LoVecchio and Ryan Watson providing the assists.

The Broncos fared well once again on special teams, scoring once on three power play opportunities and going 4-4 on the penalty kill.

Gill was much busier between the pipes than the night before, but managed to stop 33 shots.

Western Michigan (2-0-0) will finish out their non-conference schedule next weekend, as they travel to Niagara University for a two-game series on Friday and Saturday night.