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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Michigan State
Falcons Drop Heartbreaker in OT, 4-3
March 08, 2002 | Ice Hockey
March 8, 2002
East Lansing, Mich. - The Bowling Green hockey team was all set to play the part of underdog and pull the upset against No. 5-ranked Michigan State at Munn Ice Arena on Friday night. After scoring the game's first goal early in the first period and holding a 3-1 lead early in the third, the stage was set for #11-seeded BGSU to defeat the Spartans in the first round of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs.
However, two goals later in the third period by MSU, including the game-tying goal by Jim Slater with just 50 seconds showing on the clock, brought MSU back to life. Senior Adam Hall then finalized the game at 4:57 in the sudden-death overtime to hand the home team a 4-3 overtime victory over visiting Bowling Green in the first game of a best-of-three series.
"Scoring early...obviously gave the guys some confidence that hey, we can make some things happen here," said BGSU coach Buddy Powers. "Even when they (Michigan State) responded, the guys stayed pretty levelheaded on the bench for the game. The guys kept their poise.
"I don't think we could have done much better," continued Powers. "We did a lot of the things we wanted to do, but State has a good team and they made a couple of plays late in the game. I think our guys have nothing to hang their heads about. They battled hard and we played probably as good as we could play."
The Falcons struck first just 2:13 into the contest when senior Grady Moore's slapshot from the top of the right circle was deflected past MSU goalie Ryan Miller by freshman Steve Brudzewski for a 1-0 BG lead. Moore got the puck off of a faceoff won by BG's Tyler Knight. For Brudzewski, it was his fourth goal of the season.
MSU came back five minutes later when Mike Lalonde got the puck on a breakout and beat BG goalie Tyler Masters at 7:19 of the first period, knotting the score at 1-1. Kevin Estrada and Joe Markusen earned assists on the goal.
BG outshot the Spartans 12-8 in the first 20 minutes and went to the intermission tied at 1-1.
The bad news in the second period was that MSU outshot Bowling Green 15-4. The good news, however, was that the Falcons made the best of their shots, including a 4-on-4 goal by defenseman Kevin Bieksa at 11:22 for a 2-1 BG lead. Seniors Greg Day and Marc Barlow assisted on the goal. Bieksa's goal gives him a team-high three playoff goals in two years, including the only goal in last year's CCHA Semifinal loss against Michigan State.
On the other end, Masters was a stalwart in the net, turning back all 15 shots in the period by the Spartans.
It was a wild third period of action that began with the Falcons' Austin de Luis scoring at 5:41 for a 3-1 Bowling Green lead. Bieksa and sophomore Mark Wires assisted on the goal. The Falcon defense held tough for most of the remainder of the third until midway through when Lalonde netted his second goal of the game at 10:31, bringing the Spartans to within one of Bowling Green, 3-2. Jim Slater and John-Michael Liles assisted on the goal.
The tying goal by MSU then came from Slater at 19:10 of the third period to send the two teams to overtime.
In the overtime, both teams had two shots on goal, but it was MSU's Adam Hall who netted the game-winner at 4:57 in the extra period.
"Ty played a good, solid game," said Powers. "This wasn't a case where we played an abundant time in our end of the rink like the game against Notre Dame. We did a pretty good job with the things we were trying to do. We need some luck every once in awhile and we don't seem to have much luck in this barn."
MSU ended with a 37-26 shot advantage and were 1-for-4 on the power play. Masters finished with 33 saves and was the second star of the game.
Michigan State improves to 25-7-5 while BGSU falls to 9-24-6.
The two teams continue their best-of-three series on Saturday, March 9, at Munn Ice Arena. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
