No. 10 Falcons Skate To 4-2 Win At Canisius

Friday, October 16

Buffalo, N.Y.

7:35 PM

Bowling Green State University

3-1-0

Canisius

0-2-0

Bowling Green

Canisius

October 16, 2015 | Ice Hockey

Box Score

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

Boxscore

Buffalo, N.Y. – The Bowling Green State University hockey team, ranked No. 10 in the country, overcame an early deficit to defeat Canisius Friday night at the HarborCenter, 4-2. Four different Falcons scored goals and senior Tommy Burke made 20 saves to improve to 2-0-0 on the season.

Bowling Green rebounded from its first loss of the season Tuesday night to outshoot Canisius 34-22. After a scoreless first period, the Falcons outshot Canisius 15-8 in the second to take a 2-1 lead into the third. The Golden Griffins tied the score midway through the final frame but Mark Cooper scored the game-winner and John Schilling added an empty-netter with 2.2 seconds left.

"We came on the road and faced some adversity," BGSU head coach Chris Bergeron said. "There were some ups-and-downs that could have thrown us sideways, but it didn't. We found a way to continue to make plays and to give us opportunities to win the game in the third."

There were just three penalties called in the contest and neither team was able to pick up a power play goal. The Falcons held Canisius off the scoreboard on two attempts and Bowling Green was 0-for-1.

The Orange and Brown outshot the Golden Griffins 9-6 in the first period but Canisius got in the scoring column first as Ralph Cuddemi grabbed the lead for his team just 52 seconds into the second.

Kevin Dufour, though, tied the game less than four minutes later, picking up his team-leading third goal of the year when he corralled a loose puck on the doorstep, sidestepped the goalie and buried the puck at the 4:28 mark of the middle period. (CLICK HERE for the goal call)

The Falcons took the lead five minutes later as Tyler Spezia outraced two Canisius skaters to gain possession at the blue line. He raced in and deked the goalie for his first goal of the season. (CLICK HERE for the goal call)

It remained 2-1 until the 8:26 of the third period when Bowling Green turned the puck over in the neutral zone and Canisius' Shane Conacher scored on a wrister to tie it up.

The game stayed tied for a little over four minutes until Mark Cooper put home the game-winner. Kevin Dufour centered a puck from behind the net that deflected off of Cooper and onto Ben Murphy's stick. Murphy's shot rattled around the goal and Cooper pushed it home for the lead. (CLICK HERE for the goal call)

Canisius was forced to pull its goalie late and Burke made a handful of difficult saves to preserve the lead. Schilling closed out the game with his empty-netter for the 4-2 win. (CLICK HERE for the goal call)

Burke earned his 35^th career victory between the pipes, taking over sole possession of 10^th place on the program's all-time wins list. The Falcons improved to 4-0-1 all-time against Canisius and dropped the Golden Griffins to 6-29-3 all-time against nationally ranked opponents. It was the first time that Canisius hosted a nationally ranked opponent since playing No. 1 New Hampshire in 2003.

Canisius falls to 0-2-0 with the loss and Bowling Green improves to 3-1-0. The Falcons will make the short trek to Rochester to face RIT Saturday night at Blue Cross Arena at 7:05 pm.