Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
FERRIS STATE
Falcons Hit Posts, Not Goals, In 5-2 Loss To Ferris State
February 18, 2007 | Ice Hockey
Feb. 18, 2007
BIG RAPIDS, Mich. - The Bowling Green State University hockey team hit three posts, missed an empty net and were stoned twice on breakaway attempts Saturday night as they fell 5-2 to the Ferris State Bulldogs inside Ewigleben Ice Arena. The Falcons also out shot the Bulldogs 30-28, despite having just four power-play opportunities, compared to FSU's nine.
"I thought we worked hard and played much better as the game went on, but once again we found ourselves in to many penalty kill situations to be successful," said BGSU head coach Scott Paluch. "We kind of took over the game five-on-five, even though we were always battling from behind. We were playing well and had ourselves within a shot of tying the game, but we just took to many penalties."
Ferris recorded the first goal of the night at 18:11 of the first, off the blade of Adam Miller, the lone goal of the opening period.
BGSU had a great opportunity on their first power-play attempt of the second period, when Tomas Petruska found an open Kai Kantola between the circles, but the freshman rang the wrister off the left post mid-way through the second.
On their very next power-play attempt Kantola once again rang a shot off the post as he grabbed a rebound off the stick of Jonathan Matsumoto at the 11:00 mark of the second.
"It's no secret that we don't have a lot of offensive confidence in terms of scoring goals," said Paluch. "Sometimes you will see those shots go off the pipe and in, and sometimes they won't. We just have to stay with it."
The Bulldogs stretched their lead 2-0 at 15:39 of the second, but Kantola was finally able to solve that pesky post and he scored on a wrap-around goal 12 seconds later.
"We were able to get a lot more pucks to the net [in the second period]," said Paluch. "We were able to stay out of the box in the second and able to play more people to get us back in the game."
The Orange and Brown continued to roar back, but could not capitalize as junior Derek Whitmore hit the Falcons' third post of the night with just under two minutes to play in the second while on a breakaway opportunity. A minute later Whitmore once again was left in awe as he missed an open net with just seconds remaining in the middle period.
The Falcons entered the third trailing 2-1, the seventh straight game they have either been tied, or down one lamp-lighter, entering the final stanza, and Jimmy Spratt kept it that way early.
Just over a minute into the final period Spratt stoned a wide open Matt Frank just outside the goal crease. He made another diving save a minute later to keep the Falcons within one.
FSU tallied power-play goals at 3:43 and 14:35 to take a commanding 4-1 advantage.
Following the second Bulldog power-play goal Brandon Svendsen received a pass from Freshman Todd McIlrath at 14:45 to get the Falcons to within 4-2, but FSU added an empty net goal with 20 seconds remaining in the contest for the 5-2 final.
On the night BGSU held a 30-28 shot advantage. The Falcons were 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Bulldogs went 2-for-9.
Up next for the Orange and Brown will be a home-and-home with Michigan State. The Falcons host the Spartans on Friday, Feb. 23 at 7:05, the Falcons' final home game of the season.
