Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN MICHIGAN
Hockey Has Streak-Snapped With 3-2 Loss To Northern Michigan
November 17, 2007 | Ice Hockey
Nov. 17, 2007
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - A two-goal third period propelled the Northern Michigan Wildcats to a 3-2 victory over the Bowling Green State University hockey team Saturday night as the Falcons lost for just the third time this season, falling a win short of sweeping their third-straight weekend series. The Saturday evening contest was held at the BGSU Ice Arena.
With the victory, the Wildcats improved to 3-9-0 and 2-8-0 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. With the loss, BG fell to 6-3-0 and 5-2-0 respectively.
"I thought tonight we saw another hard fought college hockey game," said BG coach Scott Paluch. "In this league our games are going to come down to the third period and the last 10 minutes of a hockey game and this time they made the plays and they scored the goals to win the game. Even though we lost, I think we continued to see some real good play out of a lot players and we would've liked to have gotten both wins this weekend, but you got to give the credit to Nothern [Michigan]."
Despite holding a 32-26 advantage in shots on the night the Falcons would have a hard time beating NMU goaltender Reid Ellingson, as the freshman made 30 stops on the night, including 16 in the third period as the Falcons got 17 shots on net. Ellingson's effort allowed for the Wildcats to out-score BG, 2-1, in the final period and steal a split in the two-game series.
Wildcat forward Ray Kaunisto would tally the eventual game-winning goal at the 14:00 mark of the final period with Derek May and Matt Bucher adding helpers.
That game-winning goal would come just 59 seconds after BG tied the game up at 2-2 on a goal by Tomas Petruska, who made a nice play in front of the net to tuck the puck past Ellingson. For Petruska, it was his second goal of the season, as Kevin Schmidt and Dan Sexton would both add assists.
It would be the lone goal of the evening for the Falcons though in what was a wild third period that saw a total of 28 combined shots go on net. BG had their chances however, as forward James Perkin thought he'd tied the game up at 3-3 with just a little over four minutes to play in the game, but instead had found the crossbar on top of the net upon further review of the play.
The two teams entered the final 20 minutes tied at 1-1 after a second period dogfight that saw just nine total shots on goal. NMU's first goal of the period would come at the 8:17 mark, as Phil Fox pushed the Wildcats ahead at 2-1 on a pass from Andrew Fernandez.
The game got to that point after the two sides traded goals in the first period. The first goal would come from NMU's Nick Sirota, who tallied his third-goal of the series and his second when short-handed, as the Wildcats took a 1-0 lead just 8:07 in. It would take just 1:04 seconds for the Falcons to counter though, as a nice wrist-shot from Schmidt near the top of the slot found the net high on Ellingson to tie it at 1-1. Sophomore Todd McIlrath and freshman Jacob Cepis would both record the assists on Schmidt's third goal of the year.
For Schmidt, his two points (1-1-2) on the night would give him a new single-season high of 11 points, breaking his previous high of nine set last season.
Unfortunately for Schmidt and the Falcons it would come in a losing effort. Junior goaltender Jimmy Spratt tried to keep BG in the game stopping 23-of-26, but it wouldn't be enough.
The Falcons would finish 1-5 with the man-advantage on the night, while the Falcon penalty-killers held NMU scoreless on four tries.
BG will look to rebound on Tuesday night when they head to South Bend, Ind. to take on defending CCHA champion Notre Dame. Face-off for the mid-week tilt is scheduled for 7:35 p.m., as you can hear all the action by tuning into WBGU 88.1 FM with Danny Nieves bringing all the play-by-play.
