Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN MICHIGAN
BG Loses 3-0 On The Road To Northern Michigan
February 06, 2009 | Ice Hockey
Feb. 6, 2009
MARQUETTE, MICH. - The Bowling Green State University hockey team played one of its best road games of the season, but as happens sometimes - your best efforts don't get rewarded. Northern Michigan scored one goal in the second period and added two in the final stanza for a 3-0 victory over the Falcons Friday night at the Berry Events Center in Marquette, Mich.
The two teams played an even opening period as neither team scored, both had one power-play opportunity and BG had a slim 11-8 edge in shots.
NMU got what turned out the be the game-winner at 5:09 of the middle period as freshman Andrew Cherniwchan found the back of the net with a shot from high in circle to the left of BG goalie Jimmy Spratt with a lot of traffic in front.
The back-breaker came just 46 seconds into the final period as a shot from sophomore Jared Brown beat Spratt to the stick side on a nice passing play from junior Billy Smith and senior Nick Sirota.
BG would have four power-play opportunities in the third period, including 29 seconds of a 5-on-3 with about five minutes left and 41 more seconds of a 5-on-4. But, the Falcons could not solve junior goalie Brian Stewart who played well in the earlier meeting of the two programs and went home saddled with two losses.
The Falcons won both games of the series in mid-November by 2-1 scores. BG won the first game of the series in overtime after tying the game with 1:40 left and winning it 1:57 into the extra period. BG scored the decider with 2:14 left in the Saturday contest. BG had 93 shots on Stewart in the series.
Northern Michigan made it the final Friday night when Brown notched his second of the game at 18:25 into an empty net.
BG, who was shutout for the fourth time this season, had 28 shots on Friday night to 23 for the Wildcats. BG finished 0-for-7 with the man-advantage in the game while Northern Michigan came up empty on six opportunities.
Stewart was credited with 28 stops and his third shutout of the season and sixth of his career. Spratt played well and had 20 saves.
BG is now 9-17-3 overall and 6-14-1-0 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. NMU, which is now 7-1-1 in its last nine games, improved to 10-13-4 overall and 7-10-4-3 in conference action.
The two teams finish up the weekend series with a 7:35 p.m. game Saturday night as the Falcons look to end a four-game losing streak.
BGSU head coach Scott Paluch "I think our guys truly deserved better. I think that along with the game at Ann Arbor, this was one of our two best road games we've played all year. We limited them to 23 shots and played a really good road game. I thought our guys played hard and deserved better."
(on limiting NMU's chances) "We needed to keep their chances to a minimum. The last two road games at Miami we gave up too many chances. This team has been playing very well and scoring a lot of goals. So we needed to shut them down. We limited them to - when you look at grade "A" chances - to only five or six in the game. We made a few changes and our guys responded real well."
(on BG's play offensively) "We were able to generate some good chances. We weren't able to get enough second chances to beat Stewart. He is a big goalie who takes up a lot of room. He was really strong tonight. But, I thought we generated enough chances to score a few more goals, but he was very good tonight. We couldn't put it behind him."
