.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Minnesota State
Falcons and Mavericks Skate To A Tie
November 28, 2008 | Ice Hockey
Nov. 28, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - Behind two goals from junior Kai Kantola, the Bowling Green State University hockey team earned an overtime tie with Minnesota State Friday night at the BGSU Ice Arena. The two teams skated to a 2-2 deadlock after playing the 60 minutes of regulation and the five-minute sudden death overtime. Because it was a non-league game, there was no shootout.
Minnesota State, who came into the game ranked ninth or 10th in the country depending on the poll, scored the first two goals of the game.
The Mavericks of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, opened the scoring on a goal by senior forward Mick Berge at the 10:35 mark of the opening period on the power play. The visitors, the first WCHA team to play a weekend series in Bowling Green since 1990, doubled their lead on a tally at the 6:58 mark of the second period.
And about the time it looked like the Falcons might have a tough time getting back in the contest, Kantola's second multi-goal game of the season helped the Falcons earn one point.
Kantola first score came as he re-directed a shot from freshman Nick Bailen in front of the net that beat senior goaltender Mike Zacharias for the Mavericks. Bowling Green sophomore forward Patrick Tiesling earned his first point of the season with an assist on Kantola's first goal.
The Raleigh, N.C. native then knotted the score at the 19:37 mark of the second period as one Maverick penalty was expiring and another was only 10 seconds old. He banged in a shot from the left side of the net after Bowling Green sophomore forward Jacob Cepis had wound up to take a shot from between the circles and did not get all of the puck with it going right to Kantola who beat Zacharias who had come out of his net anticipating the shot from Cepis.
Those were the fifth the sixth goals of the season for Kantola.
The Falcons had a 40-23 edge in shots and were one-of-seven on the power-play. MSU was one-of-four with the man-advantage. Zacharias was credited with 38 stops while Bowling Green senior netminder Jimmy Spratt had 21 stops. Both teams had four shots in the overtime with both goalies making a couple big saves to preserve the tie.
The Falcons, who are now 4-2-2 at home this season, broke an eight-game losing streak to WCHA teams with the tie. BGSU is now 5-7-3 overall while Minnesota State, which was tied for third in the WCHA coming into this weekend, saw its record go to 7-3-3.
"It was an important bounce-back game for us," Bowling Green head coach Scott Paluch said. "I liked the way we played for all three periods. I thought we were pretty quick tonight against a very good team. I thought we got a 65-minute complete game from a lot of guys.
"I thought we played well against a proven top 10 team. Their body of work is pretty good. I can clearly see why they have won a lot of games and beat some really good teams.
"I thought we had all four lines contributing quite a bit, and we got scoring chances out of all four lines."
The same two teams will conclude the series Saturday night at the Ice Arena in a 7:05 contest.
