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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Boston College
Falcons Hang Tough With Top-Ranked Eagles Before Losing
October 18, 2008 | Ice Hockey
Oct. 18, 2008
Chestnut Hills, Mass. - The Bowling Green State University hockey team scored a goal in every period but it was not enough to pull the upset of #1 ranked Boston College as the Eagles posted 5-3 decision Friday night at Kelley Arena.
In a game that had 30 penalties, all minors, BC scored two goals in a 1:23 span of the first period to take a 2-0 lead. Junior forward James Perkin got the Falcons on the board with a power-play goal, his second of the year, at 11:45.
BC built their lead back to two goals on a 5-on-3 tally with just 2:12 left in the opening stanza.
Again, the Falcons clawed back cutting the lead in half on a short-handed goal by senior defenseman Kevin Schmidt, his first of the season, at the 12:51 mark of the second period. The Falcons went to the locker room for the second intermission down just one goal to the top-ranked team in the country on their home ice.
But, BC's Joe Whitney notched a back-breaking goal just 18 seconds into the final stanza, in a 4-on-4 situation, to increase their lead, again, to two goals. A power-play goal by the Eagles at the 11:25 mark increased their advantage to three goals.
The Falcons cut the deficit again when sophomore forward Dan Sexton notched a second short-handed goal for the Falcons at 17:08. But, that would be as close as BG would get.
The Falcons, who play at Providence Saturday night, outshot the home team, 28-18, for the game, including a 22-11 edge in the first two periods. Senior Jimmy Spratt had 13 saves in goal.
Freshman forward Bryan Potacco notched the first point of his career with a helper on the Falcon's last goal. Senior defenseman Tim Maxwell and sophomore David Solway also had assists in the contest. Bowling Green falls to 1-1-1 on the season with the loss while BC improved to 2-0. "It was clearly a special teams kind of game," head coach Scott Paluch said following the game. "I thought our club played pretty well five-on-five. I liked the way we got it back to a 20-minute hockey game in the third. But we didn't start the third period the way we needed to. We were really feeling good going into the third. We thought five-on-five we could generate the chances we had for two periods to give ourselves a chance. The early goal in the third really knocked us back a bit.
"They are so good in transition. They are usually going to get a good scoring chance in that situation. They don't make many mistakes. They have guys who will finish plays off and that is exactly what happened tonight. They took advantage of our mistakes and put them in the net. Unfortunately, we just couldn't get enough five-on-five play, especially in the third period. I thought that was where we would have given ourselves the best chance."
