Bowling Green State University
OHIO STATE
Falcons Drop High Scoring Game With Ohio State
January 10, 2009 | Ice Hockey
Jan. 10, 2009
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BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - The Bowling Green State University hockey team scored a season-high five goals, but it wasn't enough as they allowed eight goals to Ohio State Friday night at the BGSU Ice Arena and the Buckeyes earned their ninth win in a row.
Those in attendance probably should have known what was coming after the Buckeyes opened the scoring just 26 seconds into the game. The 13 combined goals by the two teams were the most in a BG game since the Falcons and Notre Dame combined for 13 tallies in a 9-4 BG loss in November of 2005.
The Falcons battled back taking their only lead of the contest, BG's first since a December 20 win over Clarkson, on a Nick Bailen goal at the 5:44 mark of the first period to tie the game, and sophomore David Solway put the Falcons in the lead less than three minutes later, at the 8:11 mark. It was Solway's 10th goal of the season.
But, OSU would score the next four goals to take the lead for good. They scored two of those just 1:27 apart in the opening stanza, at 15:00 and 16:27, to take a 3-2 lead to the locker room.
The Buckeyes then scored the first two goals of the second period, at 6:33 and 9:25, to take a 5-2 lead. After Bailen knocked home his second of the game at the 10:28 mark, Jon Albert of Ohio State beat BG goalie senior goalie Jimmy Spratt with a shot at the 11:14 mark and OSU had a 6-3 lead going into the final period.
Albert's goal meant the end of the night for Spratt, and head coach Scott Paluch put sophomore Nick Eno in between the pipes for the Falcons, his first game action of the season after suffering a left ankle sprain before the opening game of the year.
BG had an early opportunity in the third period to get back in the game as OSU was whistled for a five-minute major at the 1:21 mark. But, while BG could manage only three shots on goal during the five-minute penalty, Ohio State turned the tables on the Falcons scoring short-handed at 3:05 to put the game out of reach at 7-3.
The Falcons did score twice in the middle portion of the period to cut the deficit to two goals, but an empty-netter with just 1:27 left in the game made it the final score.
Eight different players scored goals for the Buckeyes while the Falcons got scores from junior Kai Kantola and sophomore Dan Sexton in addition to Bailen and Solway. Sexton ended the game with three points (1-2), his second three-point effort of the season and seventh multi-point game of the year. Senior Brandon Svendsen equalled his career best with three points on a career-high three assists.
Spratt made 16 saves working just over half of the game while Eno gave up one goal and made 10 saves in his 28:23 of play. OSU goalie Dustin Carlson was credited with 32 saves as the Falcons had a 37-34 edge in shots. The game matched the teams that are one-two in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association in average shots on goal per game.
The Falcons had a power-play goal in their fourth-straight game going 2-for-5 while OSU failed on all five of their man-advantage situations. BGSU has now killed of 26 of the last 28 opposition power-play opportunities.
Bowling Green will take a 7-11-3 overall record into the rematch Saturday night at 7:05. With the loss, the Falcons dropped to 4-8-1-0 in league play. OSU, ranked 15th or 16th in the country depending on the poll, improved to 14-6-1 overall and 7-5-1-1 in CCHA action.
(head coach Scott Paluch) "I thought it was a game when either team was doing what they do well, good things happened. When they were in transition, they were really good. When we had puck possession in the offensive zone and played the game down there, we were pretty good. Unfortunately, we gave up too many transition chances. They were pretty dangerous when they were in the open ice."
"We didn't give ourselves a chance on the five minute penalty after being pretty good on the power-play most of the night. That was a critical point in the game. It would have been nice to cut into the deficit there and extend the game a little bit."
"For 12 minutes of the first period, we thought we were doing exactly what we wanted to do - there wasn't a lot of contact and we were playing in the offensive zone. Unfortunately, we gave up the transition chances."
