Falcon Seniors Sent Off With a Shootout Win over No. 12/13 Michigan State

Saturday, February 27

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:05 PM

Bowling Green State University

Michigan State

The 2009-10 senior class celebrated a shootout victory on Saturday night after Tomas Petruska hit the game-winner against the No. 12/13 Spartans.

Photo by: Brad Phalin, BGSU Marketing and Communications

Falcon Seniors Sent Off With a Shootout Win over No. 12/13 Michigan State

February 28, 2010 | Ice Hockey

By: by Ryan Gasser, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

Box score
Post game press conference with Dennis Williams
Post game press conference with Tomas Petruska
Post game press conference with Andrew Hammond
Photo gallery

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- Bowling Green seniors received their wish to be sent off as winners as they took the ice for the final time at the BGSU Ice Arena Saturday night. Hosting the No. 12/13 Michigan State Spartans, it took more than 65 minutes of hockey to decide a winner, but senior Tomas Petruska had no objections in deciding the game for anybody, as he led the Falcons to their fifth shootout win of the season in a 1-0 decision following a 2-2 regulation tie.

Prior to all of the game action, eight dedicated and talented young men were honored for their contributions toward the Bowling Green Falcon program over the past four years. The senior class of 2009-10 took one final sprint out of the tunnel and onto the ice where they were greeted by the BGSU Ice Arena's largest crowd of the season, totaling 3,027 people. Team captain Kyle Page (Wixom, Mich.), Phil Greer (Franklin, Mass.), assistant captain Tommy Dee (Maple Grove, Minn.), James Perkin (Calgary, Alb.), Josh Boyd (Columbus, Ohio), Kai Kantola (Raleigh, N.C.), Brian Moore (Carmel, Ind.) and the eventual hero of the night Tomas Petruska (Presov, Slovakia) were greeted by friends, family and fans for one final hoorah.

Another special guest was in attendance and dropped the ceremonial first puck. Former BGSU Falcon all-American defenseman and U.S.A. Olympian, Ken Morrow, returned to Bowling Green to give his support to the program and the senior class. After Mr. Morrow dropped the rock, it was time to play some puck.

As had happened the previous night, Michigan State got the ball rolling on the offensive end when Andrew Rowe scored his 15^th goal of the season while on the team's first power play of the game. After setting up the Spartan offense, Nick Sucharski took a shot from between the circle that was redirected in front by Rowe as he was stationed near the far-post of the Falcon cage. The redirection found its way into the Bowling Green goal to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead at 8:23 in the first period,

Junior David Solway (Green Bay, Wisc.) evened up the score with a power-play goal of his own, scoring the first of two BGSU power-play scores on the night.

The Falcons thought they had tied up the score on an even-strength goal when a delayed penalty was being called on the Spartans. As Nathan Pageau (Stoney Creek, Ont.) celebrated after slapping the puck past MSU goaltender Drew Palmisano, officials signaled that a Spartan had touched the puck before the shot had been taken, resulting in a null goal and a Falcon power play after Jay Sprague headed to the penalty box for contact-to-the-head, roughing.

Despite the slight setback, the Falcons took advantage of being a man up and scored anyhow. Sixty seconds after the penalty was called, Solway made his mark on the scoreboard with a slap shot from inside the far faceoff circle, tying the score at one at 3:42 in the second period. His fifth goal of the season was set up by senior Tomas Petruska and freshman Jordan Samuels-Thomas (Windsor, Conn.).

Nearly a full period later, the Falcons scored their second power-play goal to give them a 2-1 advantage. After Torey Krug was whistled for interference, it took only 12 seconds for Bowling Green to sound the horns around the BGSU Ice Arena and make the Falcon faithful fans rise to their feet. Tommy Dee made a move towards the Spartan cage and put a shot on Palmisano, to which he saved bouncing it off his left blocker. Unaccounted for, Samuels-Thomas crept along the near-post and acquired the loose puck before wristing it into the Spartan cage and putting the Falcons up by one. The Samuels-Thomas goal was the freshman's team leading 11^th goal of the season and gave two Falcons multi-point nights with Solway's second-hand helper giving him a pair as well.

Michigan State did not give up without a fight. After making 27 saves through the first two periods, freshman goaltender Andrew Hammond (Surrey, B.C.) succumbed to heavy traffic in front of his net and the Spartans second goal of the night.

Before the goal was scored, Trevor Nill of MSU tested Hammond three times, once sailing wide and twice having been saved by the keeper. On Nill's last shot attempt, Hammond made the initial save but was pinned up under the traffic that began to build in front of his net, allowing Michigan State's Chris Forfar to escape the pack and send in the Spartan's game-tying goal with exactly five minutes remaining on the clock in the third period.

The remaining five minutes did not determine a winner and the game was sent to overtime.

The overtime period gave an opportunity for each goaltender to showcase their skills between the posts against their opposing offenses, with five combined shots being served up. Hammond made two key saves to extend the game for the Falcons.

Midway through the overtime period, Chris Forfar looked to notch his second goal of the game but was denied by “The Hamburglar”, Andrew Hammond. Near the two-minute mark, Forfar took a point blank shot on Hammond who quickly kicked out to his left, making the game-saving block.

Soon thereafter Hammond was called upon again when Jeff Petry came to play. Petry's shot was blocked into the air by Hammond and nearly floated back down and into a hoard of MSU sticks looking to tap the puck in. Playing mindful defense, Samuels-Thomas swatted the puck out of the air and back out towards the BGSU blue line, averting certain danger and again extending the game. After a five minute overtime frame, a shootout was needed to decide a winner on this Senior Night.

Michigan State received the first shootout attempt and sent out leading scorer Corey Tropp against Hammond. On his way toward the Falcon cage, Tropp lost the handle before getting his shot off resulting in a failed attempt.

David Solway took Bowling Green's first shot in the shootout and took a shot that was initially signaled a successful attempt. However upon official review, it was determined that Solway took two shots, the first denied by Palmisano and the rebound attempt was hit home. After the rebound was noticed, the goal was nullified and the score after one round remained tied at zero.

Andrew Rowe took to the ice for Michigan State's second round and looking to replicate his first goal of the evening, he slid left on Hammond and tried to find a hole on his right, but was denied. Senior James Perkin took to the ice for Bowling Green's second shootout attempt but was also denied after stopping in front of Palmisano and failing to fool the sophomore on his wrist shot attempt. After two rounds, both teams remained scoreless.

Round three featured MSU freshman Dean Chelios who took a shot while merging on Hammond with his approach. His shot sailed wide right of the net, setting up the show for Tomas Petruska.

With the final shot in the three-round shootout Petruska used his patented move, streaking up the ice along the far dashers, Petruska redirected himself to the front of the Spartan cage and caught Palmisano leaning and went five-hole on the sophomore for the game deciding tally. With one shot, Petruska gave the Falcons a shootout win, two points in the conference standing, sole possession of the 11^th seed and the proper sendoff for the entire 2009-10 senior class.

The shootout win gives Bowling Green their fifth such win this season, the most in the CCHA. The Falcons finish the regular season with 23 points on a 4-18-6-5 conference record, tabbing them with the eleventh seed in the CCHA tournament.

With the dust settling from a weekend of CCHA action, Bowling Green will take on the six-seed Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks, who played out of conference this past weekend. With Northern Michigan defeating Lake Superior 3-0 in regulation, both Alaska and UNO move down in the conference rankings to fifth and sixth, respectively. The Mavericks will host the Falcons this upcoming weekend in a best-of-three series to determine who will travel to play third seeded Ferris State March 12-14. Times of this weekend's matchups will be release as soon as possible.

Continue to follow the Falcons as they begin their “Road to the Joe” against UNO this weekend through the official online home of Falcon athletics, BGSUFalcons.com.