Bowling Green State University
MIAMI
#24 Hockey Stuns Top-Ranked Miami, 4-2, To Earn Ninth Win Of The Season
January 05, 2008 | Ice Hockey
Jan. 4, 2008
Final Stats | Quotes
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Freshman forward Jacob Cepis tied a career-high with two goals, while junior goaltender Jimmy Spratt stopped 25-of-27 shots as the No. 24 Bowling Green State University hockey team earned its' first win over a No. 1 team since 1993 with a 4-2 victory over top-ranked Miami. The Friday night Central Collegiate Hockey Association contest took place at the BGSU Ice Arena.
For Cepis, his two goals tied a previous mark he set back on Dec. 8th at Michigan as he combined with linemates Kai Kantola and James Perkin for seven total points. Kantola finished his night with a goal and an assist, while Perkin added a goal and a pair of helpers, for a game-high three points. Also adding two assists would be junior defenseman Tim Maxwell.
With the win, the Falcons improved to 9-8-0 on the season and 6-5-0 in the CCHA, dropping the RedHawks to 18-3-0 and 10-3-0, respectively.
The last known time the Falcons took down the nation's top-ranked opponent came on Nov. 6, 1993 when BG defeated No. 1 Lake Superior State, 3-2, in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Friday's win was also the tenth-known win overall against the nation's top squad as five different Falcons contributed points in the contest.
"This win feels real good," said BG coach Scott Paluch. "We've been in a stretch here where we'ver played a lot of good hockey teams and played well, but we haven't got the wins. We took a lot of time this week to talk about that. We needed to do a lot of things well, and confidence-wise, it's real big for our program to get a win like that."
BG jumped out to an early 2-1 lead after the first 20 minutes of play and added two more tallies in the second to break open a 4-1 advantage going into the games' final 20 minutes. MU would try to mount a late comeback with an early third period goal, but Spratt held tough, earning second star honors on the night, making 10 saves in the final period.
BG wouldn't waste anytime letting MU know they came to play as it took just 1:17 to take an early 1-0 advantage. After Perkin collected the puck along the boards behind the BG net, he hit a streaking Kantola, who hit Cepis right in stride down the right-wing side. Cepis proceeded to put a nice wrist shot over RedHawk goaltender Jeff Zatkoff's shoulder from the lower right circle, giving the Falcons the lead on his eighth goal of the season.
BG would pepper Zatkoff with 10 first period shots, while the Falcon defense limited MU's top-ranked offense to just seven shots on net.
One of those seven shots however, would find the back of the net at the 14:38 mark. Forward Brian Kaufman notched his seventh goal of the season on the power play after he tipped a shot from teammate Alec Martinez from the point to even the game at, 1-1.
Just when it looked as though the RedHawks might swing the momentum, Cepis struck again with his second goal of the night to put the Falcons back ahead at 2-1. This time it would be Maxwell finding him on a rush to the net as the Parma, Ohio native tallied his second multiple-goal game of the season and fifth-goal overall in the last five games.
The Falcons took their 2-1 lead to the dressing room and wouldn't waste time adding to it in the second frame against MU's second-ranked penalty-kill. BG's third-ranked power play would strike at the 6:03 mark of the stanza with the game's eventual game-winning goal as Perkin would light the lamp from the right side of the crease on pass from Maxwell. For Maxwell, it was his second helper of the evening, after he received a pass from defensive zone partner, Mike Nesdill, who also assisted on the goal.
Despite the two-goal edge, the Falcon defense kept fighting as Spratt turned away nine second period shots, including four late in the period on a mad scramble in the Falcon crease.
With Spratt and the defensive core playing well behind them, the Falcons' line of Cepis, Kantola and Perkin continued to give the RedHawks fits. With just 32 seconds remaining in the second period, Perkin won a draw in the left faceoff circle next to the Miami net and found Kantola in the lower part of the circle. Kantola's shot would find the net past Zatkoff for his fourth-goal of the season as the Falcons built their lead to, 4-1, entering the game's final 20 minutes.
MU forward Tommy Wingels would try to keep MU within striking distance with an early goal at 5:52 of the period, but it wouldn't be enough to stop the Falcons. Spratt made 10 third period saves as the Falcons completed the upset and earned their biggest win of the season after falling short on several previous occasions.
Zatkoff would finish his evening with 17 saves for the RedHawks as he was replaced by Charlie Effinger in the final period who made five saves on five Falcon shots.
Both squads would finish 1-for-7 with the man-advantage as the teams combined for a total of 19 penalties in the contest for 49 total combined minutes.
BG will look to complete the sweep of the nation's top team on Saturday evening when they entertain the RedHawks in game two at 7:35 p.m. The game can once again be heard by tuning into WBGU 88.1 FM as Danny Nieves will bring you all the play-by-play, while it can also be seen live on BCSN. Greg Franke and former Falcon coach Buddy Powers will provide all of the commentary as the game will be shown live following Falcon basketball at 4 p.m. from Anderson Arena.
NOTES:BG's win over the RedHawks ended a seven-game losing skid the Falcons had against MU going back to a 2-1 win at home on Nov.27, 2004... the last BG sweep of Miami came in the first round of the 2001 CCHA playoffs, while their last weekend earning at least three points came in a two-game home series on Nov.26th and 27th of 2004 ... with Jaocb Cepis' two goals, the falcon freshmen have now accounted for 11 of BG's last 14 tallies in the last five contests ... Cepis now has 16 points (9-7-16) on the season, which puts him second on the team in scoring ... with his three points, James Perkin tied a career game-high ... BG forward Kai Kantola received a game disqualification at the 19:41 mark of the second period for a hit from behind on RedHawk defenseman Ray Eichenlaub ... BG is now 8-2-0 when scoring the game's first tally and 4-1 in game one of a two-game CCHA series ... the Falcons are also 8-1-0 when leading at the first intermission.
