Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Nebraska Omaha
Two Third Period Goals Give Falcons 4-3 Comeback Win
November 05, 2005 | Ice Hockey
Nov. 5, 2005
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Third period goals by John Mazzei and Ryan Barnett helped the Falcons escape with a 4-3 victory Saturday night inside the BGSU Ice Arena. With the win Bowling Green climbs back to 2-4-1 overall, while pulling even in conference play at 2-2-1 in the CCHA.
"It's obviously a big win for our team," said head coach Scott Paluch. "To get a sweep against a real good team in our league was very important. In the third period we started to get to a lot more pucks. I really love how we finished that game off. It was tremendous way to win a hockey game."
The night started off a bit rough for the Falcons as Nebraska-Omaha's Bryan Marshall recorded his second goal of the season only 28 seconds into the first period. The hot Orange and Brown offense answered back seven minutes later as junior James Unger tallied his third goal of the season at the 7:13 mark to knot the score at one apiece.
Sophomore Ben Geelan gave the Falcons their first lead of the night at the 14:48 mark of the first period with his first goal of the season. Freshman Kevin Schmidt slid the puck over to senior Brett Pilkington, who connected with Geelan on a beautiful cross-ice pass, with Geelan having to only tip the puck into the net.
UNO (2-4-0, 0-4-0) record the next two goals giving the Mavericks a 3-2 lead entering the third period.
But that was where the BGSU offense really took control, out shooting the Mavericks 13-7 in the final stanza.
Unger, who had eight shots on the night, parked himself directly in front on UNO's goaltender, Jerad Kaufman. With the puck on his stick, he was able to slide the puck completely across the crease, with Mazzei gaining control and lifting the puck over the right pad of Kaufman to tie the score at 3-3.
Four minutes later senior Ryan Barnett picked up the puck in front of the net and jammed it into the UNO goal. Jon Erickson and Don Morrison picked up assists on the game-winner.
Jimmy Spratt did the rest. The freshman netminder held the Mavericks scoreless for the final 35 minutes, turning aside 27-of-30 UNO shots for the game. He, combined with the rest of the penalty kill unit, held the Mavericks 1-for-6 on the night, and 1-for-16 in the series on the power play.
Up next for the Falcons is a Thursday/Friday showdown in South Bend, Indiana with Notre Dame. Both contests are slated to begin at 7:05.
Notes:
• Sophomore Alex Foster picked up two points tonight, giving him seven points (1g, 6a) in his last two games.
• Freshman Jimmy Spratt went 2-0-0 over the weekend, stopping 52-of-58 shots for a .897 saver percentage and a 3.00 goals-against average.
• The Falcon penalty kill is 26-for-28 (.929) in their last four contests and are 45-of-51 (.882) on the year.
