Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN MICHIGAN
Hockey Wins Fifth-Straight With 4-2 Win Over Northern Michigan
November 16, 2007 | Ice Hockey
Nov. 16, 2007
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - For the second time in his collegiate career and second time in as many games, senior forward Derek Whitmore tallied a hat trick to lead the Bowling Green State University hockey team to a, 4-2, victory over the visiting Northern Michigan Wildcats. The Friday night tilt was held at the BGSU Ice Arena.
With the victory, coupled with a Miami sweep of Michigan State, the Falcons moved into sole possession of fourth-place in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association standings as they've won five-straight games to improve to 6-2-0 overall and 5-1-0 in league play. In defeat, NMU fell to 2-9-0 and 1-8-0, respectively.
"I thought it was a good game for us," said BG coach Scott Paluch. "I thought we came out extremely well and played hard. Obviously there were some similarities in the game to our last home game with Western Michigan, but even though we gave up the two goals, I still didn't think we played a bad third period. I thought we created some chances and they did a good job of creating chances as well, but we got another big power play goal to their finish it off and it's another good win for us."
Getting another win in net for the Falcons was freshman Nick Eno, who made 17 stops on 19 shots in his home debut to move his record to 4-0-0 on the season. The Howell, Mich. native kept the Wildcats off the scoreboard for 42 minutes before they were finally able to find back of the net, making 13 stops on all 13 shots he faced in the first two periods.
His play allowed for Whitmore and the Falcon offense to jump out to an early first period lead, as the Falcons took a 3-0 advantage to the dressing room. It all started with Whitmore knotting his sixth power-play goal of the year, as he was able to beat NMU goalie Brian Stewart to give BG a 1-0 lead just 2:28 in. Jacob Cepis and John Mazzei picked the assists on the play, as Whitmore tallied a goal for the third-straight game.
It wouldn't take long for the Falcons to add to their lead, as Tim Maxwell tallied the first goal of his Falcon-career and just the third of his collegiate career at the 8:30 mark to make it 2-0. His shot from the point above the right-wing circle beat Stewart high on the glove side as Todd McIlrath picked his first of two helpers on the night with Whitmore also adding an assist.
Whitmore would then finish the period's scoring at the 16:56 mark of the period, tallying his 10th-goal of the season. After Brandon Svendsen got control of the puck on the left-side boards, he hit the rushing Whitmore with a nice pass in the neutral zone, as the Rochester, N.Y. native took it in on net and was able to beat Stewart on a nice wrist-shot from the lower left-wing circle.
Stewart would settle down to keep BG off the board in the second as the Falcons took their 3-0 lead into the final 20 minutes. That would be where the Wildcats would try to make a comeback. NMU forward Nick Sirota tallied a short-handed goal and a power-play marker just 1:24 apart, cutting the Falcon lead to 3-2 just 4:07 into the period.
Eno would hold tight though, making some key saves to keep the Falcons ahead. Finally with the game still in balance in final four minutes, Whitmore would finish the night off with his seventh power-play goal of the season to move him into a tie for the league-lead with MSU's Tim Kennedy. McIlrath would add his second helper of the evening, as Whitmore notched his 11th goal of the year to move him to 54 total for his career and just 14 shy of tying for 19th on the all-time list.
The Falcon power play would finish the night 2-4, while NMU ended their evening 1-4 as BG has now tallied 12 goals in their last 32 chances with the man-advantage. BG would also finish the night with a 30-19 hold on the shots on goal.
The two teams will conclude their two-game set tomorrow at the Ice Arena with another 7:05 p.m. face-off. You can hear all the action once again on WBGU 88.1 FM or you can see it by tuning into BCSN, as the Falcons will go for their third-straight CCHA sweep and first since the 1987-88 season.
