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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
MICHIGAN STATE
Spartans Top Falcons 4-0 On Saturday Night At The BGSU Ice Arena
March 01, 2008 | Ice Hockey
March 1, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - A 32-save performance by Michigan State goaltender Jeff Lerg helped the #6 Spartans to a 4-0 victory over the Bowling Green State University hockey team Saturday night in the final regular-season games for both schools. The Saturday evening Central Collegiate Hockey Association contest was held at the BGSU Ice Arena.
With the victory, the Spartans improved to 23-9-5 on the year and 19-6-3 in the CCHA, dropping the Falcons to 16-18-0 and 13-15-0, respectively.
In defeat, the Falcons finished seventh in the final CCHA standings, pitting them in a 7-10 matchup next weekend with Lake Superior State. The Falcons and Lakers split their two meetings this season back in January in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Earning fifth-place was Ferris State, who will face 12th-seeded Western Michigan, sixth went to Northern Michigan who will host 11th-seeded Ohio State, while eighth went to Nebraska-Omaha who will host ninth-seeded Alaska.
The Spartans, who came in with third-placed already clinched, join CCHA Regular-Season Champion Michigan, second-place Miami and fourth-place Notre Dame as the top-four teams in the league who'll earn first round byes and host the winners of next week's first round pairings in a three-game home series in two weeks.
MSU was led on the night by a two-goal effort by senior forward Chris Mueller. Junior forward Tim Kennedy also pitched in a game-high two points with a goal and an assist.
The Falcons out-shot MSU 32-23, but couldn't find an answer for Lerg. Recording a team-best four shots on net for the night were forwards Jacob Cepis and Kai Kantola.
"Tonight we saw a real strong effort from our team," said BG coach Scott Paluch. "I thought we worked hard, but Michigan State was just really solid defensively tonight. We were able to get some shots through, we had a lot time with possesion of the puck in the offensive end, but we just couldn't break through. That performance was very reminiscent of last season's stretch run for them [Michigan State] and why they had a lot of success."
Getting the scoring started on the night for the Spartans was Mueller, who was able to back-hand a wrister on a 1-on-1 breakaway with BG goaltender Jimmy Spratt. Kennedy started the play with a nice outlet pass that found Mueller rushing towards the Falcon end in the neutral zone as he earned the lone assist on the play at 5:43 of the first period.
MSU took a 1-0 lead to the first intermission, despite the Falcons owning a 11-7 edge in shots.
Kennedy would add to the Spartan lead towards the mid-way point of the second period at 9:24. Coming down on a 2-on-1 with Muelller, Kennedy drew a Falcon defender and then put a shot under the blocker of Spratt to double their lead at 2-0. Justin Abdelkader picked up his fifth point of the weekend as he added the helper.
BG would enter the game's final 20 minutes trailing by two goals, though they owned a 21-14 edge in shots on net. Big stops by Lerg and strong defensive play by the Spartans though kept BG off the board even with another 11 shots in the game's final period.
Jeff Dunne's extra-man goal at the 5:20 mark of the third, increased MSU's lead to 3-0 as Mueller finished the game with an empty-net goal at 19:11 of the third to give the game its' final count.
Spratt would end his night making 19 saves for BG between the pipes on 22 Spartan shots.
BG finished 0-for-7 with the man-advantage, while MSU finished 1-for-5.
The Falcons will return to action next Friday when they host the Lakers in game one of their best of three series at 7:05 p.m. at the BGSU Ice Arena. All the action of BG's second home playoff series in the last four years can be heard by tuning into WBGU 88.1 FM. Danny Nieves and Bob Mills will bring you all the play-by-play as Saturday's game will start at 7:05 p.m. as well with Sunday's if-necassary game scheduled for 5:05 p.m. Saturday's game at the Ice Arena will also be televised on Comcast Local.
For more on the weekend against MSU and for a preview of next weekend's first round playoff series, tune into "In The Box" tomorrow at 7 p.m. A link to the show can be found by clicking on the show's box located near the top of the hockey page.
NOTES: The Falcons regular-season win total of 16 wins is the second-most wins by a Falcon team during the regular-season in the last decade ... Saturday's loss to MSU, marked the first time in the series that a team has swept a two-game series since the start of the 2002-03 season ... Saturday's shutout loss for the Falcons was their first since being shutout in the opening game of the season at Niagara on Oct. 18th when they lost 2-0 ... it was the first time BG has been shutout at home since losing 5-0 on Jan. 6th last season at home to Western Michigan ... BG is now winless in their last five Senior Nights going back to February of 2002.
