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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN MICHIGAN
Northern Michigan Skates Past Falcons, 4-1
January 21, 2007 | Ice Hockey
Jan. 20, 2007
MARQUETTE, Mich. - The Bowling Green State University hockey team dropped a 4-1 decision Saturday night to Northern Michigan inside the Berry Events Center in Marquette, Michigan. In the loss the Falcons out-shot the Wildcats 23-21 and held the opposition to just 12 shots in the final two periods.
"I thought Northern came out and played a very good first period," said BGSU head coach Scott Paluch. "I liked the way Eddie Neville held up in goal and gave us an opportunity. Overall Northern played a very good weekend."
Bowling Green had a great scoring chance just 45 seconds into play after John Mazzei intercepted a Wildcat pass and fired a wrister down the right side. Bill Zaniboni made the save, but the rebound bounced towards Tomas Petruska, who batted the puck out of mid-air, but Zaniboni slid to his left to make a nice save.
Northern Michigan got off to a rolling start following the early BGSU scoring chance, recording two goals in the first six minutes of action, one coming via a 4-on-3 power play for an early 2-0 lead.
The Falcons were unable to score to open the second period, despite having a 5-on-3 power play advantage for 45 seconds. Their following Falcon power play BG recorded five shots in the two-minute span, but could still not solve Zaniboni.
NMU added their third goal of the night at the 16:07 mark of the second to give the Wildcats a 3-0 advantage heading to the third period.
BGSU scored eight minutes later as Derek Whitmore tipped a Petruska one-timer from the point. Jonathan Matsumoto also assisted on the goal. The Falcon goal came seconds after Petruska fired a shot off the far post.
Northern Michigan added an empty-net goal at the 18:50 mark of the third for the 4-1 final.
For the game BGSU held a 23-21 shot advantage.
Bowling Green was 1-for-7 on the night with the man-advantage, while the Wildcats went 1-for-6 on their power play attempts.
"We had a lot of guys go out with injuries," said Paluch. "We lost Perkin early, we lost Dee early in the third and Matsumoto was playing extremely hurt, but I like how the guys battled and stayed with it until the end and ultimately gave us a chance to pull the goalie."
Up next for the Orange and Brown will be round two with Alaska, after splitting a weekend series with the Nanooks back in Alaska. The Falcons will host UAF on Jan. 26-27, with both games starting at 7:05 inside the BG Ice Arena.
