Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Providence
Falcons Complete Trip To East Coast With A Loss
October 18, 2008 | Ice Hockey
Oct. 18, 2008
Providence, R.I. - For the second night in a row, special teams proved to be the difference for the Bowling Green State University hockey team. The Falcons dropped a 4-3 decision to Providence College Saturday night at Schneider Arena.
One night after a 5-3 loss to top-ranked Boston College, in which there were 30 minor penalties called and 21 power-plays between the two teams, a pair of extra-man tallies, 1:43 apart over the second and third periods, by the Friars put them ahead to stay.
After trailing by two goals at the end of the first period in each of the first three games of the season, the Falcons took a lead to the locker room in this contest on the strength of the rebound goal from sophomore forward David Solway.
Providence came back to tally twice in the second stanza before the Falcons evened the game at 2-all when junior forward Kai Kantola notched his third marker of the season at the 10:13 mark.
Providence then put a back-breaking score on the board, a power-play goal with one second left in the second stanza. Another power-play goal for the Friars at the 1:42 mark of the final period gave them a two-goal cushion, which they would need.
When a PC player was whistled for a five-minute major penalty with just under three minutes left in the game, the Falcons would play the rest of the game with at least a one-man advantage.
BG played the final 1:16 with the goalie pulled and it paid off with four seconds left as junior forward Todd McIlrath deflected in a goal in a 6-on-4 situation. But, that was a close as the Falcons would get.
Eight different players notched points on the evening while senior goaltender Jimmy Spratt recorded 27 saves. The Falcons were one-of-eight on the power-play while the Friars scored on two of their five man-advantage situations.
The Falcons have a short week as they prepare for a trip to Alaska to battle the Nanooks on Friday and Saturday night (Oct. 24-25).
"We laid so much on the line last night, I think it really took a toll tonight," head coach Scott Paluch said following the loss to Providence. "We didn't have the same consistent pop that we had through the first three games of the year. We did get the lead. I thought our first period was fine, we just ran into some troubles in the second period.
"The first goal was a good reward for coming out and playing well early on. But, Providence did a good job of taking over in the second period and we just could not continue through the three periods tonight."
"That was a real tough goal to give up," Paluch said about Providence's goal at the end of the second period. "On the whole, special teams really hurt us tonight. Our penalty kill didn't come up with the big stops and our power-play was ineffective in some real key situations, especially with the opportunity with the major penalty at the end to score as many times as you can to tie or maybe go ahead.
"Over the course of 60 minutes tonight, we did not have the same type of continued game strength as Providence had."
