Saturday, January 15
Oxford, Ohio
7:05 p.m.
Bowling Green State University
1
at
3
Miami
Falcons’ Weekend Ends in Sweep By Miami
January 16, 2011 | Ice Hockey
OXFORD, Ohio -- The Bowling Green Falcon hockey team returned to the Goggin Ice Center (Oxford, Ohio) for their final regular season matchup with the No. 12/12 Miami RedHawks on Saturday night. In an attempt to salvage a weekend split and avoid a season sweep, Bowling Green put their best foot forward in the weekend finale. All scoring was settled in the first period and Miami's three-goal jumpstart propelled them to victory and for the Falcons a bitter 3-1 defeat.
Box score (.html) | Box score (.pdf) | Updated statistics (.html)
Weekend photo gallery -- click here
All four of the game's goals were scoring in the first 12 minutes of the game but the excitement extended through all sixty minutes. Bowling Green scored the night's first goal just five and a half minutes after the opening puck drop. Achieving a deep, offensive zone faceoff on the far side in the RedHawk end, Brett Mohler (Fr., Yorba Linda, Calif.) won the draw and slid the puck to his right where winger Andrew Wallace (Fr., Bedford, Nova Scotia) gained possession. Skating around the crease, Wallace caught Miami goaltender Cody Reichard leaning, drove to the near post and pushed in his second goal of the season to give BGSU a 1-0 lead.
The lead was short lived when just over a minute later Miami's Reilly Smith scored the first of his two goals on the night. Out of a breakout coming down the ice, Andy Miele hit his linemate with a pass at the top of the point and while skating away from traffic Smith's shot raced past BGSU netminder Andrew Hammond (So., Surrey, British Columbia).
Nearly 90 seconds following the game-tying goal, Trent Vogelhuber gave the RedHawks the lead with his fifth tally of the season. While the puck changed hands through the neutral zone, Bowling Green made a shift change. Miami saw its opportunity to slip in behind the line change and turned it into the team's second goal. Vogelhuber skated with the puck into the BGSU end and with a quick wrist shot to Hammond's glove side, gave the RedHawks a 2-1 advantage at 7:57 of the first period.
Still not done, the RedHawks added one more score to further the distance between the two teams. Reilly Smith again lit the lamp for this 16th goal of the season and fourth of the weekend at 11:36, still of the first period. Stemming from a three-on-one rush by Miami, Miele fed Smith with another crisp pass that set up for another well-placed shot that sounded the horns of Steve Cady Arena. The RedHawks ended the period with a 3-1 lead.
The second period gave equal opportunity for both teams to score as well as showcase their defenses. For the second period in a row, each squad posted double digit shot on goal totals (BGSU 12, Miami 13) and each goaltender putting forth flawless efforts in the frame. Much of the action for Hammond happened in close quarters around the net while BGSU took potshots from all over the ice against Cody Reichard. Neither team was successful in scoring a goal but a late penalty against Miami with three seconds remaining on the clock gave Bowling Green a power play opportunity to open the third period.
Unsuccessful in their power play effort to open the final period of play, the Falcons struggled to continue to success of putting shots on net. After two periods, the Falcons had 24 shots on goal, already four more than they had all the previous night. Bowling Green managed to fire off an additional seven shots on net for a game total of 30 shots, but with no more success than they had in their scoreless second period.
As time elapsed, the Falcons turned the heat up on the RedHawk defense before head coach Chris Bergeron decided to pull Andrew Hammond out of net for an extra attacker. Andrew Wallace nearly scored his second goal of the game near the 12 minute mark of the third period when freshman forward Camden Wojtala (Trenton, Mich.) tried to feed a centering pass to Wallace. However on the attempt, MU's Cameron Schilling tied up Wallace and prevented him from reaching the puck and getting a shot off.
Freshman Bryce Williamson (Seba Beach, Alberta) had an opportunity to close the gap near the 15 minute mark. Coming off of a Camden Wojtala shot that was sticked aside by Reichard, Williamson acquired the puck and put a toe drag move on the Miami netminder to create space and allow for a shot. While gliding toward the far post, Williamson fired a shot aiming for the top-right hand corner of the RedHawk cage. Anticipating the move, Reichard sprawled outward and tipped away Williamson's shot at the last second to prevent the BGSU goal and keep the score locked at 3-1.
With under 2:30 to play in regulation, the Falcons emptied the net and added a sixth attacker for one last press. Despite three more shot attempts before the final horn sounded, Reichard stonewalled BGSU and maintained the two goal advantage until the game had ended.
Hammond took the loss to run his season record to 3-10-1 while Reichard picked up his second win of the series and ninth of the year. The Falcon goaltender finished with 29 saves on 32 shot attempts.
Both teams' special teams units did not record a power play goal in the contest. Bowling Green finished 0-for-4 on the night and 0-for-13 in the weekend set while on the power play, while Miami fared only one goal better with a man advantage on the weekend, having finished 1-for-10 over two games and 0-for-3 on Saturday night.
Bowling Green (7-17-2, 2-14-2-0), now riding a four game losing streak, heads into their bye week. They will not play again until the weekend of Jan. 28 when they host the Lake Superior Lakers in their second series of the 2010-11 season. The Falcons and Lakers will meet at the BGSU Ice Arena (Bowling Green, Ohio) for a pair of 7:05 p.m. ET games on Jan. 28 and Jan. 29 to close out the month.
Full coverage of Falcon hockey and all 18 varsity sports can be found on the official online home of BGSU athletics, www.BGSUFalcons.com.
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