Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Nebraska Omaha
Night Of Firsts Lift Falcons to 7-3 Victory
November 04, 2005 | Ice Hockey
Nov. 4, 2005
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University hockey team captured a 7-3 victory over visiting Nebraska-Omaha Friday night inside the BGSU Ice Arena. The win not only gave the Falcons their first victory of the night, but also saw Freshman Jimmy Spratt pick up his first collegiate victory.
"I thought it was a good game for us all-around in the fact that we needed to shoot the puck and create offense off of those shots, " said head coach Scott Paluch. "When the puck went in early for us it was really big. It was a big lift for our team with the scoring struggles that we have had."
The Falcon's seven goals were the most this season, in fact, the last time BGSU registered that many goals came back on November 18, 2004, when the Falcons posted a 7-3 victory over Wayne State. That last time the Orange and Brown scored at least seven goals versus a conference opponent came back on November 9, 2001, in a 9-4 win over the Miami Redhawks.
It did not take the Falcons long to get on the scoreboard as freshman Brandon Svendsen scored his first collegiate goal. His even-strength goal at the 1:21 mark was one of five Falcon even-strength goals on the night.
Ten minutes later in the opening stanza junior James Unger was hauled down giving the Falcons a 5-on-3 power-play opportunity. Following the penalty senior Brett Pilkington drew a face-off back to Alex Foster, who slid the puck over to Mike Falk, who ripped a laser into the chest on UNO goaltender Greg Barrett. The rebound fell right onto Jonathan Matsumoto's stick, who placed the puck in the back of the net.
Following a UNO goal at the 15:06 mark, BGSO regained a two-goal lead after Unger slammed home a shot just in front of the crease with :31 remaining in the period.
BGSU (1-4-1, 1-2-1 CCHA) held a 16-7 shot advantage after the first.
The Falcon offense continued to pour it on following goals by John Mazzei, his first of the year, as well as Falk's fourth of the season. Falk would also connect on a goal in the third period for his second of the game.
 SO Alex Foster recorded five points on Friday night vs. UNO.  |
|
"That's a lot of points, " said Paluch. "I thought they all played extremely well tonight. For Alex [Foster] that was as strong a game on both ends of the ice that you will see."
In net for the Falcons was freshman Jimmy Spratt, who turned-away 25-of-28 Maverick shot attempts, for his first career victory.
For the night BGSU held a 28-24 shot advantage. Bowling Green was 2-for-8 on the power play, while UNO was held scoreless (0-for-10) with the man advantage.
These same two teams will do again at 7:05 inside the Ice Arena tomorrow night.
