Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Maine
BGSU Drops Season Opener at Ice Breaker against Maine, 9-1
October 12, 2001 | Ice Hockey
Oct. 12, 2001
Orono, Maine -
ORONO, Maine - It was an emotional night for the host University of Maine on Friday night as the Black Bears played their first game in 17 years without coach Shawn Walsh who died on Sept. 24, 2001. Eighth-ranked UM used its emotion to outshoot visiting Bowling Green 20-6 in the first period and went on to a 9-1 victory in both teams season opener at Alfond Arena.
A near capacity crowd of 5,124 were on hand before face-off when BGSU coach Buddy Powers presented the Maine captains with a Bowling Green jersey with Walsh's name and number 78 in memory of Walsh who graduated from BGSU in 1978.
From there it was all Maine.
BGSU goalie had seven saves in the first four minutes of the game, but the home team got on the board on its 12th shot of the game at 9:43 off the stick of Lucas Lawson. Chris Heisten and Niko Dimitrakos assisted on the power-play goal for the Black Bears.
UM (1-0-0) fed off that momentum with two more goals later in the period just 1:39 apart. The second goal of the game came on a wrister by Colin Shields at 13:03 and Michael Schutte added to the lead at 14:42 for the second power play goal of the night.
In the second period, after back-to-back goals by Todd Jackson gave Maine a 7-0 lead, BGSU's Brian Escobedo got the Falcons on the board. Escobedo hit a forearm shot to the left open-side of the net off of an assist by Mark Wires and Tyler Knight at 18:41.
Maine added two more goals in the third period, including its third power-play goal by John Ronan at 16:24 and Francis Nault's netter at 18:32.
"They played with a passion that far surpassed ours tonight," said Powers. "We didn't come with any game that was going to handle their pressure. Our young guys need to know how to handle that (pressure)."
Maine outshot BGSU 41-18 and were three-of-eight on power play opportunities. Bowling Green was 0-for-5 on its power plays.
Junior goalie Tyler Masters allowed seven goals in the first two periods with 25 saves while freshman netminder Jordan Sigalet allowed two goals with seven saves in the last 20 minutes of the game.
Bowling Green (0-1-0) will play in the consolation game on Saturday at 5 p.m. against No. 13 Clarkson who lost game one of the Ice Breaker on Friday night to No. 11 South Dakota State, 5-1.
