Bowling Green State University
NIAGARA
Falcons Skate To Tie With Niagara
October 11, 2008 | Ice Hockey
Oct. 11, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University hockey team did all it could do to put win #2 on the board Saturday night at the Ice Arena. Unfortunately, Niagara senior goaltender Juliano Pagliero also has something to say about the outcome.
BGSU peppered the Purple Eagles netminder with 50 shots but had to settle for a 3-3 tie in overtime.
The two teams traded power-play goals in the opening six-and-a-half minutes of the first period, but the Purple Eagles took a 3-1 edge to the locker room on the strength of a pair of even-strength goals 50 seconds apart later in the stanza. Despite trailing by two goals, the Falcons held a 16-8 edge in shots after the first 20 minutes.
Much like their opening night win over RIT, the Falcons tightened things up after the first intermission, holding the Purple Eagles off the scoreboard over the last 50+ minutes, including the overtime. Last night in the win over RIT, BG held the Tigers scoreless over the last 47+ minutes of the game.
But it took a goal from Falcon junior Josh Boyd early in the second period and a third period tally by sophomore David Solway with just 4:04 remaining in regulation to send the game to an extra period.
The Falcons held a 46-15 edge in shots at the conclusion of regulation, but Pagliero, who had 32 saves in the Falcons' season opening 2-0 lost at Niagara last season, was the difference in keeping the Falcons from claiming two points.
In overtime, both goalies (Pagliero and Falcon senior Jimmy Spratt) made a pair of point blank saves to salvage a tie for their teams.
Junior James Perkin scored the first BG goal of the game with the man-advantage, one of six opportunities the Falcons had in the game with a manpower edge.
Spratt ended the game with 15 saves while Pagliero had 47. Sophomores Jacob Cepis and Dan Sexton along with senior defensemen Kevin Schmidt and Tim Maxwell chipped with assists for the Falcons.
The contest was the first of 14 this season for the Falcons against teams who played in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, including a date in their next contest (Oct. 17) against defending national champion Boston College.
"That was another real good effort out of our team," head coach Scott Paluch said after the tie with Niagara. "We stayed right with it and were able to get a real good goal by David (Solway) there at the end.
"He (Niagara's Juliano Pagliero) is a terrific goalie. We played well and it was a hard- fought game, but their goalie was terrific.
"We wanted to get a lot of people in front of Pagliero, and I thought we did a very good job of that, but he just made a lot of saves."
"We are clearly disappointed with the tie because we did so many of the things that we have to do. We played very good hockey this weekend. We generated a ton of scoring chances. We thought we had a team that was quick and would generate some chances and we came away from this weekend realizing we have an opportunity to make some plays."
