Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN MICHIGAN
Falcons Drop 6-3 Decision To Northern Michigan
November 18, 2005 | Ice Hockey
Nov. 18, 2005
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University hockey team spotted Northern Michigan an early 5-0 lead before falling 6-3 to the Wildcats Friday night inside the Ice Arena. The loss, the Falcons third straight, drops their record to 2-7-1 overall and 2-5-1 in the CCHA.
"I give Northern [Michigan] a lot of credit for jumping out in the first, " said head coach Scott Paluch. "They played a pretty good road first period. The name of the game for us right now is we are a big play defensive team in the fact that we do a lot of positive things on a shift and then there is a mistake and we give up a scoring chance against us."
As stated before the Wildcats scored the first five goals of the game, posting three even strength goals, one power-play goals and a short-handed goal in the first 25 minutes of action Friday night.
The Falcon offense finally got it going with the help of Mike Falk's ninth goal of the season, his fourth with the man advantage. Sophomore Alex Foster passed it down low to fellow classmate Jonathan Matsumoto, who served up a beautiful pass through the crease. Falk, who was waiting for the puck on the far side of the net merely had to put his stick out and deflect the puck into the back of the net at the 9:12 mark of the second period.
The BGSU offensive continued after Foster recorded his second point of the night, scoring a goal from a crazy angle at the 9:22 mark of the third. While standing on the end line and roughly 15 feet to the left of the net, Foster threw the puck at the net, squeaking it by goaltender Derek Janzen.
NMU added one last goal to stop the Orange and Brown run at the 12:49 mark to extend the lead to 6-2.
BGSU scored the final goal of the night after senior Ryan Barnett dumped the puck into the offensive zone, only to have the puck come off the boards directly onto fellow senior Brett Pilkington's stick. With Janzen behind the net, Pilkington scored the easiest goal of his career.
Freshman Jimmy Spratt, after surrendering those early five goals looked much more relaxed in the final 40 minutes. For the night he stopped 29-of-35 shots, while Janzen turned aside 35-of-38 shots.
Bowling Green was 1-for-10 on the power play, while the Wildcats were only 1-for eight.
These same two teams will do again tomorrow night at 7:05 inside the Ice Arena.
