Tuesday, February 9
Ann Arbor, Mich.
7:35 PM
Bowling Green State University
0
at
4
Michigan
Andrew Hammond (above) came onto the ice in a relief effort in the Falcons' 4-0 loss to Michigan Tuesday night.
Falcons Finish Michigan Series with Loss at The Yost, 4-0
February 09, 2010 | Ice Hockey
Box score - (PDF)
Post game audio - Dennis Williams
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- With the thought that the Falcons had won in their last two trips to the Yost Ice Arena, Bowling Green looked to continue the streak on Tuesday night against the Michigan Wolverines (RV / No. 19). The streak was not to be as U-of-M surged offensively in the last two periods of play with four goals to win, 4-0, Tuesday night.
The first half of the opening period was marred by defense from both teams. The first 11 minutes of the contest featured only six total shots, three coming from each team, and each team killing off their opponent's power play. Within the last six minutes however, the Wolverines would turn up the heat.
Nick Eno (Jr., G) stood his ground and made three noteworthy saves, including a pair that came from point blank range. Just inside the sixth minute, Eno was met by back-to-back shots from Lindsay Sparks and Ben Winnett in a three second span. Sparks came from the right side in a blaze, but Eno deflected it left back out to his own blue line. Winnett stepped in and immediately fired another shot on Eno, but the junior goalie again came up big with a second pad save to preserve first period perfection.
With a 0-0 tie going into the second period, U-of-M brought the offense to the sheet and tested both Falcons goalies. After a superb first period and a promising beginning to the second, Eno suffered a minor lower leg injury and skated off for examination. He would later return to the ice. Relieving Eno was freshman netminder, Andrew Hammond in his first action since Jan. 15 at Northern Michigan, also in a relief effort.
After making his first save, Michigan started to put pressure on the freshman early. Louis Caporusso circled around with the puck and from the far-side faceoff circle put a shot on goal that at first glance had been stopped. But before the play was whistled dead, the puck found a hole through Hammond's left arm and trickled to the back of the net for the game's opening tally.
Following the goal, the freshman made ten consecutive saves including a pair of highlight reel stops. Coming down the ice, Winnett created a turnover deep into Bowling Green territory and attempted a one-on-one with Hammond starting his attack from the near-side corner. As he crossed the crease Winnett's shot cause Hammond to go post-to-post for a diving goal-sparing save.
Hammond would later be tested by the Wolverines deeper into the second period. With a pair of snares with a quick glove, the freshman would finish the period with 11 saves.
Early in the third period, Caporusso made his mark in the scoring column again when the Michigan offense took advantage of a downed Falcon on the ice.
After some hard contact out in front of the BGSU net, Kyle Page (Sr., D) went down to ice giving the Wolverines an extra body in the Falcon zone. Page would skate off the ice and return soon after. Moving the puck from circle to circle, the Wolverines' Chad Langlais set up Caporusso on the near-side circle for a shot that caught Hammond leaning right for his second goal of the game.
Bowling Green had their chances for the comeback, starting with Tommy Dee (Sr., F). Dee created a Wolverine turnover in the neutral zone while the Wolverines were on a power play at 9:30 and broke away for a one-on-one with Wolverine goalie, Bryan Hogan. Dee charged forward but with a slap shot and the ensuing follow-up from the rebound came away empty.
After a pair of coincidental penalties, Michigan's Carl Hagelin was whistled for obstruction giving the Falcons another power play chance. However all three shots by BGSU went wide and Josh Boyd's (Sr., F) hard slap shot was stopped by Hogan to eliminate the threat.
After the Bowling Green offensive attack, Michigan scored two goals to close out the contest.
Michigan's Chris Brown caused a turnover and streaked down the ice with the puck and despite Kai Kantola (Sr., F) making his best effort to dive and break up a leading pass, Ben Lebler trailed behind the play and was fed a pass to set up his top-shelf shot, beating Hammond and putting the Wolverines up 3-0 at 15:08 in the third period.
Just over a minute after their third marker, U-of-M hit their fourth marker of the game. Following a battle for the puck on the boards behind the BGSU net, Matt Rust came away with the puck and sent it out to the top of the near-side faceoff circle for Brandon Burlon's scoring wrister.
Despite a late power play chance for Bowling Green and two shots to close out the game, Bowling Green fell to the University of Michigan by a final of 4-0.
Before leaving the game, Eno made saved all 13 shots he faced in his 23:09 of ice time. Hammond finished the remaining 36:51 with 24 saves on 28 shots faced.
Bowling Green finishes the season with their clustermate, pending playoff seeding, with a 1-3-0 record. They reside with a 4-20-4 overall mark and a conference record of 3-15-4-3. The Falcons will have a quick turnaround and prepare for a weekend matchup with the No. 1 Miami Redhawks to be played the BGSU Ice Arena on Friday and Saturday night. Visit BGSUFalcons.com for complete details of this weekend's matchup.
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