Bowling Green shorthanded entering weekend

by Ryan Fay

When the Dutchmen host Bowling Green tonight and Saturday at 7:30 p.m, they will see a Falcons team missing a few regulars.

Junior forward Ryan Carpenter, the team's top scorer in each of the past two seasons, will be sidelined for an indefinite period of time after injuring his hand in Bowling Green's 7-1 exhibition win over Wilfrid Laurier last Saturday.

"It's not good," Falcons head coach Chris Bergeron said of Carpenter's hand when interviewed by Union Hockey Blog on Thursday. "Ryan is going to have surgery on Friday. Once he gets on the road to recovery, we'll see how long he's out."

The Falcons will also be missing Dajon Mingo, their third-leading scorer last season with 22 points (8 goals, 14 assists). The junior forward didn't make the trip to Union due to academic issues, but is expected back when Bowling Green hosts Colgate Oct. 18-19.

A third player out for the weekend is sophomore forward Brent Tate, who has an injured chest. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound Tate scored 14 points (four goals, nine assists) last year.

While Carpenter, Mingo, and Tate will be out of action, here are four Falcons who could be factors in this weekend's series:

Sr. F Bryce Williamson
A native of Seba Beach, Alberta, Williamson was second on the Falcons with 12 goals during the 2012-2013 season. The 23-year-old scored a goal and two assists in last weekend's exhibition win against Wilfrid Laurier.

"Bryce was the top scorer in the Alberta Junior Hockey League in his last year there (2009-2010)," Bergeron said. "I think Union recruited him pretty aggressively under [former head coach] Nate Leaman. Bryce had a bunch of expectations from a hockey prospective coming into Bowling Green.

He has had a tough time figuring it out on a consistent basis. The nights when Bryce is on, he's one of the top players on the ice. It just hasn't been consistent enough over the first three years. We're hoping it all comes together for him as a senior. He's capable of doing that, and we're going to need him to do that in order to have the kind of year we're hoping to have."

Jr. D Mike Sullivan
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound blueliner led the team with 69 blocked shots during the 2012-2013 season, and finished second on the team with a plus-14 rating. His 15 assists were fourth-best on the team.

"He has a little bit of a hybrid game," Bergeron said. "He defends really well, but he also sees the game from an offensive standpoint. His level of consistency from his freshman to sophomore year improved. We need him to have more improvement from his sophomore to junior year just like anybody else. He's a guy you'll see on the power play, he kills penalties, and is a 5-on-5 contributor."

So. D Ralfs Freibergs
The Falcons didn't have Freibergs services when the Dutchmen swept a two-game series at Bowling Green last October. The Latvian-born blueliner was serving a 33 game NCAA suspension for playing in a professional league before coming to the United States to play junior hockey in the USHL and NAHL.

But Friebergs quickly made up for lost time, scoring seven points (one goal, six assists) in eight games upon finishing the suspension.

"He's a guy that makes our power play better," Bergeron said. "Union's special teams beat us up big time in our series with them last year. Their power play and penalty kill were just better than ours. Ralfs only played eight games last year, but our power play was better just with him out there."

Jr. F Dan DeSalvo
The 5-foot-8 DeSalvo was second on Bowling Green with 25 points, including a team-high 20 assists, last season.

"What makes him dangerous is that he has the ability to score," Bergeron said. "But from a consistency perspective, Dan is still trying to figure it out. When you go from sophomore to junior year like he's doing, that's a year when you really need to take that step into an upperclassmen.

As far as we're concerned, the difference between an upperclassmen and an underclassmen is consistency. It's bringing it everyday -- practice, games, whatever. Dan has offensive ability and can score goals, but like Williamson, he needs to do it on a consistent basis."

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