Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN MICHIGAN
Falcons Hold Off Northern Michigan for 2-1 Victory
February 27, 2004 | Ice Hockey
Feb. 27, 2004
Bowling Green, Ohio - Bowling Green scored the first and final goal of the game against Northern Michigan enroute to a 2-1 victory at the BGSU Ice Arena on Friday night. Senior D'Arcy McConvey got the Falcons on the board in the first period while freshman James Unger netted the game-winner early in the third period.
McConvey notched his 99th career point with his ninth goal of the season at 5:04 of the first period with a wrister just outside the crease. Unger picked up the assist for the 1-0 BGSU lead.
NMU's Matt Hunter knotted the game, 1-1, with his fifth goal of the year at 7:05 of the second period. The Wildcats held a 19-4 shot advantage in the second period, but BGSU goalie Jordan Sigalet kept the Falcons in the game with 18 saves in the period.
Unger's power-play goal came just 49 seconds into the third period and was assisted by Steve Brudzewski and Don Morrison.
"That was a huge game for us," said Sigalet. "There were a lot of shots, but I could see a lot of them so that made a big difference. I wasn't worried about that. I knew the guys would get a goal sooner or later if we kept them out of the net."
Sigalet made 13 saves in the final period to preserve the Falcons' one-goal win.
"Getting that power play goal early in the third period is very important," said Unger. "It got us going."
"We survived that period and then played a much better third period," said BGSU Coach Scott Paluch about the second period. "We weren't doing a very good job through the first two periods on the power play. It (the PPG) gave us a little bit of life. And Jordan was Jordan."
NMU finished with a 43-27 shot advantage for the game, but were held scoreless on the power play (0-for-4). BGSU finished 1-for-6 on the power play, with the lone PPG being the difference in the game.
Sigalet stopped 42 shots while NMU goalie Craig Kowalski had 25 saves.
BGSU improves to 10-16-8 overall and 8-13-5 in the CCHA. More importantly, the Falcons moved within two points of NMU for eighth place in the league as the Wildcats are now 16-14-3 overall and 11-13-1 in conference play.
Falcon Notes...
The 2-1 victory Friday night was BGSU's 24th game this year that was decided by two goals or less. The Falcons have eight ties, are 4-7 in one-goal games and 3-2 in two-goal games.
The Falcons improved to 9-4-4 when scoring a power play goal. BGSU is 0-12-4 when they do not tally a PPG.
SR D'Arcy McConvey's goal on Friday brought him to within one point of the 100-point plateau for his career. He now has 30-69--99 in 149 career games.
BGSU is now 7-6-3 on home ice this season, securing its first .500 season at the BGSU Ice Arena since the 2000-01 season (9-5-2).
Jordan Sigalet's 42 saves marked the sixth game this year and 14th time in his career he has made 40-plus saves. He became just the fourth Falcon to record over 1,000 saves in a season and now has 1,039 stops in 34 games (30.6 pg.), tops in Division I hockey. He is now just 48 saves away from the BGSU single-season record of 1,087 saves set by Tyler Masters in 2000-01.
