Bowling Green State University
Lake Superior State
Falcons Earn First Playoff Victory In Seven Years With A, 4-3 Game One Victory Over Lake State
March 07, 2008 | Ice Hockey
March 7, 2008
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - A three-goal first period and a third period game-winning goal by sophomore forward Todd McIlrath helped the Bowling Green State University hockey team to its' first playoff victory in seven years as they defeated Lake Superior State 4-3 in game one Friday of the first round best-of-three series. The Friday night contest was held at the BGSU Ice Arena.
The victory gave the Falcons their first playoff win since a 2-1 overtime win at Northern Michigan in the 2000-01 CCHA Play-In game. It was also their first playoff win at home since a 1994-95 first round sweeping of Notre Dame as eight different players contributed in the win.
The win moved BG to 17-18-0 on the year, while LSSU fell to 9-19-7.
The 17 wins this season are now tied with the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 teams for the most single-season wins in the past decade.
With BG leading 3-2 with just under 10 minutes to play in the final period, McIlrath recorded his third goal of the season to put the Falcons ahead by a two-goal cushion. Assisting on the game-winning play was senior tri-captain John Mazzei and Tomas Petruska.
McIlrath finished his night tied for a team-high two points with Mazzei as they both tallied a goal and an assist.
"We saw an extremely good 60-minute hockey game tonight," said BG coach Scott Paluch. "Obviously we started off extremely well. We generated a lot of chances, but we did a really good job tonight of understanding that it is a 60-minute game. We did a good job of extending the lead to 4-2 when thing got tight in the third and then we also did a great job holding up at the end. This was a big win for us and got to win two in the playoffs, so we need to keep it going."
The Falcons got the game's scoring started in the opening stanza as they exploded for three goals.
Netting the first goal of the night was freshman defenseman Andrew Krelove as he gave BG a 1-0 lead at the 5:03 mark. For Krelove, it was his first career goal as he fired the puck in from above the right-wing circle after Brandon Svendsen won the faceoff. Svendsen picked up his ninth assist of the year on the play as he passed it right back to Krelove for the first lamp lighter.
It wouldn't take long for BG to add another goal as just 1:23 later Mazzei picked up his seventh goal in the last 13 games and eighth of the season. After McIlrath fired a shot on net from the right-wing circle, Mazzei collected the loose puck in front of Laker goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson and put it in from the left side of the net just outside the crease. Tim Maxwell also picked up a helper on the goal at 6:23.
Sophomore forward Tommy Dee then brought the first period scoring to close with just 3:28 till the intermission with his second of the season. Feeding Dee for the goal on the left side of the crease was James Perkin and senior tri-captain Derek Whitmore.
For Whitmore, the point made him just the 69th player in school history to eclipse 100 career points. It was his 34th point of the season and eighth assist.
BG held an overall 16-6 edge in first period shots and held a 9-6 edge in the second period.
However, the Lakers would fight back in the second as sophomore defenseman Steven Kaunisto recorded two lamp lighters in the frame to get LSSU back to within just one at 3-2. The first came at 8:53, while he added another on the LSSU power play at 14:50. Zac MacVoy, Rick Schofield, Nathan Perkovich and Troy Schwab all recorded helpers.
Up 3-2 going into the final 20 minutes, BG picked up the goal by McIlrath at 9:10 to go up 4-2. They then held on in the game's final minutes as LSSU fired 11 third period shots at freshman Nick Eno, who collected 10 third period stops.
The Lakers tried to get back in the game on a goal by Perkovich with 6:01 remaining, but Eno held strong down the stretch. The Howell, Mich. native, playing in his first career CCHA playoff contest finished with 20 saves on the night on 23 Laker shots.
His counterpart, also playing in his first playoff game, finished with 32 saves on 36 BG shots.
BG finished the evening 0-for-4 with the man-advantage, while LSSU finished 1-for-5.
The same two teams will return to playoff action on Saturday when they play game two of their best-of-three series. First puck is scheduled to drop at 7:05 p.m. from the BGSU Ice Arena as the game can be heard on WBGU 88.1 FM and can be seen by tuning into Comcast Local.
