Falcons Close 2006 With 4-3 Loss To Minnesota Duluth

Saturday, December 30

Columbus, Ohio

5:05 PM

Bowling Green State University

Minnesota-Duluth

December 30, 2006 | Ice Hockey

Dec. 30, 2006

Final Stats

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University hockey team suffered their second straight loss, and third straight one-goal loss, as the fell 4-3 to Minnesota Duluth on Saturday night in the Consolation game at the Ohio Hockey Classic inside Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. In the loss the Falcons got all three goals from freshman.

Bowling Green opened the scoring just over two minutes into the contest as freshman Tommy Dee recorded his first career collegiate goal. Kyle Page found junior Jon Erickson at center ice, who fed the puck to Dee along the left boards. The freshman beat his man wide and skated in on UMD's Alex Stalock, scoring between his pads.

"I thought we played a really good 17 minutes of hockey," said BGSU head coach Scott Paluch. "We did a lot of things necessary to be successful, but we had a real tough finish the last three minutes and got away from what we were doing and I think it carried over into the second period. We just turned the puck over to many time s to be successful."

BGSU (4-15-1) contained their 1-0 advantage until two Bulldog goals in the final two minutes of the first period sent the Falcons to the locker room, trailing 2-1.

Minnesota Duluth came out firing in the second period, but BGSU sophomore Jimmy Spratt was up to the challenge. Just 45 seconds into the second period Spratt denied a Bulldog forward on a breakaway and just four minutes later Spratt gloved down a 2-on-1 Bulldog rush.

UMD (5-13-3) finally snuck one past Spratt at the 5:56 mark on a laser shot off the blade of Matt Niskanen.

The Spratt show continued midway in the second as he got his right pad on a Bulldog shot inside his own crease and 30 seconds later he stopped his second breakaway of the period.

The Orange and Brown reward Spratt by clawing back to within one as freshman Todd McIlrath beat his man wide and backhanded a shot over the glove-hand of Stalock with just over one minute to go in the second period. Mike Nesdill grabbed his sixth assist of the season on the goal that put the score 3-2 at the end of two.

Matt McKnight beat Spratt down low to extend the Bulldog lead to 4-2, 4:45 into the final period.

One minute later the Falcons gained a five minute power-play attempt as McIllrath was hit from behind trying to retrieve the puck, but were unable to convert on the opportunity, but the effort was reward just 13 seconds after the penalty concluded.

Freshman Kai Kantola deflected a Kevin Schmidt shot into the UMD cage with 8:30 minutes remaining in the consolation contest to once again get the Falcons to within one, 4-3, but that would be as close as the Falcons would get.

Even with Spratt on the bench for the extra attacker, the Falcons were unable to convert as they dropped their second straight game.

On the night UMD held a 28-24 shot advantage, while converting on 1-of-3 power-play attempts. Bowling Green was 1-for-9 on their power play.

Up next for the Falcons is a pair of home contests with Western Michigan, scheduled for January 5-6, opening the new year. The Friday contest with the Broncos can be seen of FSN, starting at 7:35 p.m. Saturday's game is set for 7:05.