Falcons Ring In The New Year With Impressive 5-1 Victory Over WMU

Friday, January 5

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:35 PM

Bowling Green State University

WESTERN MICHIGAN

Falcons Ring In The New Year With Impressive 5-1 Victory Over WMU

January 05, 2007 | Ice Hockey

Jan. 5, 2007

Final Stats |  Quotes

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - It had been 33 days since the last Bowling Green State University home hockey game, but it was worth the wait. The Falcons pounded out five unanswered goals en route to a 5-1 win Friday night over the Western Michigan Broncos.

"I liked the way we came out," said BGSU head coach Scott Paluch. "I thought we got better as the game went on and I really liked the third period. I think it's a good sign for a young team to take a 2-1 lead and keep the hammer down and play a really good third period."

Western Michigan (6-11-1, 5-8-1 CCHA) got on the scoreboard first with a power-play goal at the 8:13 mark of the first period off the blade of Chris Clackson. It was the lone goal of the opening 20 minutes.

BGSU (5-15-1, 3-10-0) answered back with a power-play goal of their own as sophomore Kevin Schmidt recorded his second goal of the season at 6:15 of the second. As Western Michigan attempted to clear the puck by swinging it around their boards, freshman Kai Kantola knocked the puck out of mid-air behind the WMU cage, and found a pinching Schmidt, who went five-hole on WMU's Daniel Bellissimo.

The Orange and Brown got the lead for good as Derek Whitmore scored his team-leading 11th goal of the season with just 14 seconds remaining in the second period. Freshman Todd McIlrath fired a pass off the boards to center ice. Kantola was able to get the end of his stick on the puck and nudge it forward to Whitmore, who went five-hole for a 2-1 Falcon lead after two periods.

"Nothing beats winning," said Whitmore. It's a pivotal time of the year coming up with all of the league games here. It was just a great feeling, a very complete game by everyone on the ice, Spratt, defense, offense everyone played well and it was a really big win for us."

Just over four minutes into the third junior assistant-captain Jonathan Matsumoto stripped a WMU defender and went stick-side for an unassisted goal and a two-goal advantage for the Falcons.

Three minutes later the floodgates opened as Kantola found Brandon Svendsen in the slot for a one-timer that spotted the Falcons a commanding 4-1 lead, but the excitement was not over yet.

John Mazzei found a streaking Matsumoto down the right side who went one-on-three and nearly snuck the puck past Bellissimo. Though Matsumoto did not score the rebound laid directly in front of the Bronco cage, where freshman Tomas Petruska pushed in his sixth goal of the year at the 10:58 mark of the final stanza.

The Petruska goal, which was assisted by Matsumoto and Mazzei, was the 100th career point for Matsumoto. In 93 games the Orleans, Ontario native has 46 goals and 54 assists. He becomes just the 68th Falcon to surpass the 100-point plateau.

Lost in all the offensive firepower was an impressive Jimmy Spratt. Spratt, who stopped a breakaway early in the first period, finished the game with 18 saves on 19 Bronco shots. Bellissimo had 30 saves in the loss.

"It's huge for the team," said Spratt. "It's not rocket science that we've been struggling this year, but if you look at the schedule our next few games against teams that are just above us. If we can get on a run and put a lot of wins together we can make a jump and really turn the season around."

On the night BGSU held a 35-19 shot advantage. The 19 shots allowed were the second fewest of the season. Only the 17 UConn shots on Oct. 13 were less.

Bowling Green was 1-for-8 on the power play, while WMU was 1-for-5.

These same two teams will do it again tomorrow night inside the BG Ice Arena. Opening face-off is 7:05 p.m.