No. 10 Falcons Start Slowly In 4-1 Loss To Western Michigan

Tuesday, October 13

Kalamazoo, Mich.

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

2-1-0

Western Michigan

2-0-1

Bowling Green

Western Michigan

Photo by: Brad Phalin, BGSU Marketing and Communications

October 13, 2015 | Ice Hockey

Box Score

By: by Jason Knavel, Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications

Boxscore

Kalamazoo, Mich. – Western Michigan scored just 1:15 into the game against No. 10 Bowling Green, then added another goal 10 minutes later to defeat the Falcons 4-1 Tuesday night at Lawson Ice Arena. The Falcons were never able to recover in losing for the first time in 2015-16 to fall to 2-1-0.

"Everybody knows what the rankings say," BGSU Head Coach Chris Bergeron said. "Western was well aware of what they were playing tonight and they were prepared for that. We weren't."

Western Michigan's Kyle Novak scored on a breakaway with an extra attacker on a delayed penalty call just 75 seconds into play. Although Bowling Green was able to kill off the ensuing penalty, the goal put the Falcons in a position they hadn't been in yet this year – trailing.

"We were chasing the game in the first five minutes," Bergeron said. "It was not the start we were looking for. We're going to have a target on our back and Western came at us hard."

The Broncos added to the lead at the 10:41 mark of the first period when Oliwer Kaski's shot from the right boards trickled in. Western Michigan built a three-goal lead when Matheson Iacopelli rifled home a shot on the power play.

Bowling Green did answer back a little over two minutes later as Pierre-Luc Mercier found Kevin Dufour streaking to the net with a beautiful pass from the right boards. Dufour one-timed the pass for his second goal of the season. Junior Matt Pohlkamp picked up the second assist, giving him four points in the first three games of the season and a three-game point-scoring streak to open the year.

BGSU continued to push to get closer and had three power play opportunities during the latter half of the second period and early stages of the third. But the Falcons went 0-for-7 with the man advantage and remained scoreless on 12 power play chances this year. Eventually, Western Michigan iced the game with an empty netter with less than two minutes remaining.

For the game, Western Michigan outshot Bowling Green 28-26. The Broncos added 17 blocked shots compared to just four for the Falcons. Lukas Hafner made 25 saves to get the win for the Broncos and Chris Nell had 24 saves in a losing effort for Bowling Green.

Western Michigan improves to 2-0-1 on the season. Bowling Green, at 2-1-0, will head to New York for a pair of games this weekend. The Falcons will play at Canisius Friday before playing RIT Saturday at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester.