KALAMAZOO, MI - With hands clutched atop the end of his hockey stick, Western Michigan freshman goalie Brandon Bussi drove the fiberglass blade into the ice at Lawson Arena, letting loose his frustration immediately after a 1-0 overtime loss to North Dakota on Friday.
After stopping 33 shots through the game’s first 63.5 minutes, Bussi let a Gavin Hain shot from the wing sneak through his five-hole, ending a thriller between the No. 17 Broncos (7-6-2, 3-3-1 NCHC) and the third-ranked Fighting Hawks (13-1-2, 6-0-1).
It was a goal the rookie netminder would like to have back, but after standing on his head for all three periods and most of the extra session, it's hard to cast too much blame, if any, toward Bussi for a scoring play that started with a WMU turnover in its own zone.
After the game, junior forward Ethen Frank said every player on the Broncos' roster made sure to tell the young goaltender to keep his head up.
"I don't think anybody didn't say anything to him after the game about just trying to keep your head up," Frank said. "Obviously, he played outstanding, and he's still got a lot of time to play some hockey here, and so he's going to be a really good goalie, and he already is right now. It's just trying to keep him at a happy medium so he can keep stopping the puck."
WMU head coach Andy Murray said the best thing a coach can do for a young goaltender in Bussi's position is to put him back in net the next game, and he intends to do that when the Broncos host North Dakota for the series finale on Saturday.
But the team can also support him by capitalizing on their offensive chances, and there were plenty against North Dakota.
"Our job is to get him a few more goals," Murray said. "When you give up one, you shouldn't lose, and we did tonight."
WMU outshot the Fighting Hawks 41-34 and had five power plays, all of which came in the second period, including a pair of 5-on-3 opportunities that lasted a total of 1:09.
The Broncos tallied 15 shots with the man advantage, but couldn't beat North Dakota's Adam Scheel, who was every bit as good as Bussi.
"I thought we had some really good looks and had him and everyone else on the ice scrambling and trying to find it, and we just have to bear down a little more and put it through the net instead of just in the net," Frank said.
North Dakota's power play also struggled to solve Bussi and WMU's penalty kill, as the Broncos fought off four penalties, including one in overtime, in which Luke Bafia was whistled for a cross check well away from the play.
"It was an unnecessary penalty that we took in overtime, and that bothers me because we had to use some of our key offensive players who also kill penalties, and we didn't have them when we got back to full strength because they were tired from the PK, but again, Brandon's played extremely well for us," Murray said.
With the win, North Dakota extends its NCAA-best unbeaten streak to 12 games, and even though the Broncos proved they could go toe-to-toe with the nation's No. 3 team, WMU will have to work a little harder on Saturday to salvage some points in front of the home crowd.
"That was a heck of a hockey game, and we put everything into it," Murray said. "Our guys are tired, and they're bruised, and they're sore, and I'll tell you, if you walked down to the North Dakota dressing room, their guys are feeling exactly the same way. Both teams put a lot into that game. That was college hockey at its best.
“I’m disappointed that we lost, no question about it. North Dakota has (12) in a row, and our job is to make sure they don’t get (13), and we’ll come ready to play.”
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