Whitmore's Third Hat-Trick Leads #25 Falcons To, 4-1, Victory Over Broncos

Friday, January 18

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:05 PM

Bowling Green State University

WESTERN MICHIGAN

Whitmore's Third Hat-Trick Leads #25 Falcons To, 4-1, Victory Over Broncos

January 18, 2008 | Ice Hockey

Jan. 18, 2008

Final Stats |  Quotes |  Photo Gallery 

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Senior tri-captain Derek Whitmore tallied a natural hat-trick, tallying a goal in each period to lead the #25 Bowling Green State University hockey team to a, 4-1, victory over visiting Western Michigan. The Friday night Central Collegiate Hockey Association contest was held at the venerable BGSU Ice Arena.

With the victory, the Falcons improved to 11-10-0 on the season and 8-7-0 in the CCHA, dropping the Broncos to 6-16-1 and 2-13-0, respectively.

The Falcons lead, 1-0, after the first 20 minutes and 2-1 heading into the second intermission, before they tacked on two empty-net goals in the game's final minute. Included in the two final markers was Whitmore's third and final goal of the night, which completed hat-trick number three on the season for the Rochester, N.Y. native. The school's single-season record is five set by Bob Dobek back in the 1973-74 season.

"He's [Whitmore] a big part of our success," said BG coach Scott Paluch. "We went through a stretch where Derek wasn't scoring, and we didn't have the same results we had when he was scoring. He tried to do a little too much, and he wasn't as effective when he was out there. But, he's really been an outstanding leader for our team. What he means to our team - he's been extremely valuable."

Back-boning the Falcons' win and Whitmore's effort was freshman goaltender Nick Eno, who made a career-high 35 saves on 36 Bronco shots. The win moved the Howell, Mich. native's record to 7-3-0 on the year as he has won two-straight games between the Falcon pipes.

"You got to earn wins in this league and I'm proud we were able to do that tonight," said Paluch. "There's been no difference in any of the games [against Western]. We made key plays at key times. This was no different than overtime tonight and we were able to pull it out."

It would be Whitmore getting the game's scoring started at 10:28 of the first period as the Falcons came out firing, holding a 12-10 advantage in shots on goal. Whitmore found the net for his 16th-goal of the season when his shot from the lower right-wing circle hit the crossbar and dropped in behind WMU goaltender Jerry Kuhn. Dan Sexton and Kevin Schmidt would both pick up helpers on the play as BG took an early, 1-0, lead.

The Falcons added to their lead early in the second when Whitmore tallied his second goal on the night just 3:33 into the stanza. Once again, Sexton and Schmidt would pick up the assists, as Whitmore's slapper from the slot found the net on what would be the game's eventual game-winning tally.

Up, 2-0, early in the second, the Falcon defense kicked things into high gear. BG would hold the Broncos without a shot on net for 10 minutes before WMU finally was able to capitalize on the power play. After Jeff LoVecchio poked the puck away from the BG defense deep in the Falcon zone, forward Dave Krisky took the loose puck and banged it past Eno to cut the Falcon lead to, 2-1, at the 10:34 mark.

Eno rebounded however, to keep the Broncos scoreless on the other 11-second period shots he'd face. That included a big save on a short-handed breakaway by Bronco forward Matt Clackson in the waning minutes of the period. The two teams would both record 12-second period shots.

Goaltending continued to define the game in the final period as both goaltenders kept their respective squads in the game with their impressive play. Eno would make 14 stops in the final 20 minutes, while Kuhn would stop all 16 shots he faced on way to a career-best 38 on the night.

With Kuhn out of the net in a desperate move by the Broncos to tie the game up in the final minute, BG would find the bare twine twice to stretch their lead to, 4-1. Tallying the first of the empty-netters would be Whitmore, who finished off his third-career hat-trick at the 19:11 mark, skating in from the left-wing side and finding the net from the left circle. Junior Brandon Svendsen then added his third lamp lighter of the season with just 20 seconds remaining, giving the game its' final count.

That's when things started to get chippy and emotions started to take charge.

With just 12 seconds remaining on the clock, a melee broke out that ended up leading to the disqualification of all 10 skaters on the ice. Involved in the fight, receiving majors for fighting and game disqualifications were BG's Tommy Dee, Ben Geelan, John Mazzei, Kyle Page and Brian Moore. For the Broncos, Chris Frank, Matt Clackson, Jordan Collins and Chris Clackson were all assessed the penalties and will miss tomorrow night's series finale.

The penalties in the final seconds gave both squads a combined 207 minutes in penalties. BG finished with 87 minutes on 16 penalties, while the Broncos finished with 120 minutes on 23 penalties.

Despite the penalties though, the Falcon power play struggled to find the net on the night, going 0-for-9, while the Broncos finished 1-for-5. BG held the overall edge in shots on the night, recording a season-high 42, while they gave up a season-high 36.

The two teams will conclude their two-game home-and-home series on Saturday night (Jan. 19) when they head to Kalamazoo, Mich. for game two at WMU's Lawson Ice Arena. The first puck will drop at 7:35 p.m. as all the action can be heard by tuning into WBGU 88.1 FM with Danny Nieves and Tim Baughman bringing you all the play-by-play.

SOME BG NOTES FROM FRIDAY:  Kevin Schmidt's two assists moved his single-season career best point total to 18 points, which is double his old mark of nine set last season.

 The Falcons are now 6-1-0 in game one of a two-game CCHA series. They are also 9-2-0 this season when scoring first and 9-1-0 when leading after the first period.

 When BGSU scores four or more goals this season, they are a perfect 7-0-0.

 The Falcons are now 14-6-1 in Derek Whitmore's career when he tallies a multiple-point game.

 Whitmore has now scored five goals in the last three games after being held off the scorer's sheet in four-straight prior to this stretch. He now also has five career goals against the Broncos in nine career games.

 Whitmore has tallied 13 of his 18 goals in the first and third periods.

 The Falcon offense has now tallied a goal in the second period in 11-straight games.