Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Michigan
Falcon Comebacks Fall Short vs. #4 Michigan in 5-4 Loss
March 06, 2005 | Ice Hockey
March 6, 2005
Ann Arbor, Mich. - Three hard-fought comebacks by Bowling Green still weren't enough as #4 Michigan defeated the Falcons at Yost Ice Arena, 5-4, in the regular-season finale. The Wolverines led 1-0, 3-1, and 5-3, only to see the Falcons fight back each time in front of 6,938.
Four different Falcons tallied goals while junior Jon Horrell played admirably in between the posts for BGSU, stopping 33 of 38 shots faced and allowed just one even-strength goal.
UM's Andrew Ebbett scored at 4:45 of the first period on the power play for an early 1-0 lead. Then sophomore Rich Meloche, seeing his first action in five games, netted his ninth goal of the season at 15:09 of the first period to tie the game, 1-1. James Unger assisted.
The Wolverines built its lead to 3-1 with two more power-play goals by Chad Kolarik (2:18) and Milan Gajic (10:57) in the second period. BGSU answered with power-play goals from freshman Jonathan Matsumoto at 14:32 and sophomore James Unger at 17:13 to go into the second intermission knotted at 3-3. Mike Nesdill and Jonathan Sigalet assisted on Matsumoto's 16th goal of the year while Brett Pilkington and Sigalet assisted on Unger's 14th netter.
UM built its lead to two goals once again, 5-3, in the third period with a PPG from Jeff Tambellini (1:07) and an even-strength goal from Kolarik (6:46).
Junior Bryan Dobek brought the visitors to within one, 5-4, with a 4-on-4 goal at 12:03 of the third period, but BGSU could not score the game-tying goal.
"I thought Jon Horrell was just outstanding for us," said BGSU Coach Scott Paluch. "He made some outstanding saves for us tonight. Jon has played great against Michigan and we thought it was the right move. It's something we talked about leading up to the game. Jordan's healthy. We feel good with the game Jon gave us."
"Ultimately, their special teams were better than ours and the difference in the game tonight. We rallied right back. We had great grit from our players."
UM held a 38-26 shot advantage for the game and finished 4-for-7 on the power play. BGSU was 2-for-8 on the power play.
BGSU ends the regular season 16-14-4 overall and 13-12-3 in the CCHA. Michigan improves to 26-7-3 overall and 23-3-2 to win the CCHA regular season title.
The Falcons finish fifth in the CCHA and will host Alaska Fairbanks, who finished eighth, in the first round of the league playoffs next weekend, March 11-13, in a best-of-three series at the BGSU Ice Arena. It will be BGSU's first home playoff series since 1995. Friday's and Saturday's contests are scheduled for 7:05 p.m., with the start time of Sunday's game, if necessary, yet to be determined.
BGSU Post-Game Notes...
• CCHA First-Round Playoff tickets are available at the BGSU Ticket office, located in Anderson Arena, for next weekend's best-of-three series at the BGSU Ice Arena (March 1-13). Ticket prices are $12 for reserved seats, $10 for general admission, $7 for high school students and youths, and $3 for BGSU and opponent students. Call 1-877-BGSU-Ticket to purchase tickets.
• JR Bryan Dobek became the 14th Falcon to hit the double-digit point total with his goal on Saturday night (3g, 7a, 10 points). The last time BGSU had 14 players reach double-digit point totals in a season was in 1996-97
• FR Jonathan Matsumoto (16g, 14a) became just the ninth Falcon freshman to reach the 30-point plateau over the past 20 seasons. Fellow frosh Alex Foster currently has 27 points (7g, 20a). The last BGSU frosh to hit 30 points was Curtis Fry over a decade ago in 1993-94 (16-18--34). George McPhee set the standard for BGSU rookies with 88 points in 1978-79.
• BGSU recorded an overall regular-season and CCHA regular-season winning record for the first time since the 1995-96 season (26-14-1 overall, 18-11-1 CCHA, 2nd place). BGSU's 16 wins are the most since the 2000-01 season (16-19-5) and the 13 league victories are the most since the 1998-99 season (13-14-3). The fifth-place finish for the Falcons is the best since tying for fifth in the 1996-97 season.
