Bowling Green State University Athletics
Team White Outlasts Team Orange In Hockey's Falcon Face-off
October 06, 2007 | Ice Hockey
Oct. 6, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University hockey team held its annual "Falcon Face-off" on Saturday evening at the BGSU Ice Arena, with team White coming away with a 5-4 victory over Team Orange. It was a game that saw seven total goals (two goals were awarded via the skills competition) scored from the two teams with the Falcon freshmen accounting for six of the total 17 points tallied.
Leading the way on the scorer's sheet with two points each were sophomore forward Josh Boyd (0g, 2a), junior defenseman Kevin Schmidt (1g, 1a) and freshmen forwards Jacob Cepis (0g, 2a), Dan Sexton (1g, 1a) and David Solway (1g, 1a).
Solway, in his first contest for the Falcons, would make the play that proved to be the difference in the contest. With just 2:15 remaining in the game and his team up one, Solway collected his own rebound in front of the net and put it in from the slot to give Team White a then 5-3 lead.
Team Orange would try to answer back on a 6-on-4 power-play in the final two minutes, but would strike too little too late, as senior Ben Geelan found the net with just nine seconds remaining to give the game its final count.
All 28 members of the team took part in the game, as the teams were divided into two teams of 14. The three goaltenders then split time playing for each squad, as to give them experience playing with different lineups.
"I was really excited with the way the game progressed tonight," said coach Scott Paluch. "It was an outstanding pace for really the first real hockey minutes of the season for these guys. There were some real good plays made, the quickness and tempo were very good and I liked what I was seeing from the special teams."
The game, which was split into two halves, saw a running 25-minute clock in the first half and then another 25-minute second half that consisted of a time period where both teams were forced to play 4-on-4 hockey, before regular clock stoppages were put back in place in the final four minutes. During the intermission a skills competition was held where the two teams took part in a fastest skater competition and a shootout where goals were awarded to the winning team in each event. (complete contest results listed below)
Starting off the scoring in the first half of the game would be Team Orange, as they came out on the attack right from the start to take an early 3-0 lead.
It would be Sexton striking first for Orange in his Falcon debut as he made a nice defensive play, stealing the puck from the White defense before sliding the puck past freshman goaltender Nick Eno on a breakaway. Shortly after, senior forward and tri-captain Derek Whitmore picked up a goal after some nice passing from Schmidt and Boyd to make it 2-0. That would all be followed by one of two power-play tallies on the night for Team Orange, as sophomore forward Tomas Petruska and Sexton setup Orange's final first half goal on a hard slap shot from Schmidt to give them a three-goal cushion.
White would come back strong however, as red-shirt freshman Ryan Hohl was able to beat junior Jimmy Spratt on a shot from the slot to make it 3-1. Junior Brandon Svendson then brought Team White within one, as he tallied his team's lone extra-attacker goal on a nice crossing pass in front from Cepis to make it 3-2.
During the intermission Team White would turn the tide of the game, as they collected wins in both the fastest skater competition and the shootout to take a 4-3 lead. Junior defenseman Russ Sinkewich would be crowned the fastest skater over fellow Team White teammate Kai Kantola, while senior Mike Nesdill broke a 1-1 tie in the shootout tiebreaker to also give Team White a win.
Defensive play would dominate most of the second half then, as the two late tallies would be the only markers the rest of the way.
"It was to be expected that the pace would wear down later in the game with the lack of practice we've had," said Paluch. "It's a lot of hockey to throw at a team right away, but I was really fired up about the amount of skilled plays that were made throughout the course of the game."
"I think probably the most important aspect of the game was that the freshmen were involved tonight and are off to a pretty good start."
The Falcons will resume their preseason festivities when they host the University of Windsor in exhibition play on Fri., Oct. 12 at the BGSU Ice Arena. Face-off is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
Fastest Skater Results
Russ Sinkewich defeated Dan Sexton
Derek Whitmore defeated Brandon Svendson
Kai Kantola defeated Kevin Schmidt
Michael Hodgson defeated Jacob Cepis
Second Round
Sinkewich defeated Whitmore
Kantola defeated Hodgson
Championship
Sinkewich defeated Kantola
