Hockey Team Loses 5-2 Decision To Western Michigan

Friday, February 27

Kalamazoo, Mich.

7:35 PM

Bowling Green State University

WESTERN MICHIGAN

February 28, 2009 | Ice Hockey

Feb. 27, 2009

Final Stats

KALAMAZOO, MICH. - The Bowling Green State University hockey team dominated the first 35 minutes of their game at Western Michigan Friday night, but did not convert enough of their early opportunities. When the Broncos got into the game late in the second period, the two goals the Falcons had scored with the edge in play early was not enough as Western Michigan posted a 5-2 victory at Lawson Arena.

BG junior forward Kai Kantola got the Falcons on the board at the 11:30 mark of the first period when he tipped in a shot by freshman James McIntosh from a severe angle near the face-off dot to the right of WMU goalie Riley Gill. It was Kantola's 12th goal of the season.

The Falcons converted some early second period pressure into their second goal as junior Todd McIlrath circled behind the WMU net with his centering pass to Kantola finding the mark and his shot from in front was saved by Gill but the rebound went to junior James Perkin who made sure his shot found the back of the net. It was Perkin's sixth red-lighter of the year. The Falcons had a 14-4 edge in shots in the middle period, but WMU would cash in on two of their four shots to tie the score and begin a string of five unanswered goals.

WMU scored at the 15:00 mark and at the 16:33 mark of the second period on very similar plays, shots that were tipped in front.

Western then took the lead for good with another point shot that was tipped in front at the 2:08 mark. That goal came just over 1:30 into a power play for the Broncos. They added two late goals when the Falcons were pressing offensively - one at the 14:50 mark and an empty-netter with just 29.6 seconds left in the game.

Sophomore Max Campbell scored two goals for the Broncos and added one assist while leading scorer senior Patrick Galivan had one goal and one assist. Gill ended the game with 40 saves as the Falcons had a 42-23 edge in shots.

Senior Jimmy Spratt was in goal for the Falcons and was credited with 18 saves.

With the loss, the Falcons are locked into the #12 spot in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs and will play at either Ohio State or Alaska. If Ohio State wins or ties with Miami tomorrow night the Falcons are headed to Alaska. If the Buckeyes lose to Miami, they will be the Falcons' opponent for the first-round CCHA best-of-three series next weekend.

Bowling Green will take an 11-21-3 overall mark and a league record of 8-18-1-0 into Saturday night's regular season finale at Western Michigan (11-17-7, 8-13-6-2).

BGSU head coach Scott Paluch
"I thought we played another game the way we need to. We did control the play and enjoy the territorial edge. Unfortunately, we had two point shots that got through without blocks and we let them go in our net. Then to start the third period the exact same thing happens. We generated a lot of chances, but I did not think we shot the puck with enough authority to score goals. We couldn't bounce back from the goals we did give up."

"We had so much of a territorial edge and a positional edge we created a lot of chances. We didn't make Gill (WMU goalie Riley) have to make enough real good saves. We made it a little bit too easy on him, but we did have a ton of chances."

"Clearly, their deflections found a way in and ours didn't. But, we have to find a way to tie up sticks in front and do a better job of scoring."