Falcons Flummox Ferris On Friday The 13th, 4-1

Friday, February 13

Big Rapids, Mich.

7:07 P.M.

Bowling Green State University

18-6-5, 14-4-3

Ferris State

11-18-1, 8-13-0

Team	1	2	3	F
Bowling Green	1	2	1	4
Ferris State	0	0	1	1

February 13, 2015 | Ice Hockey

Box Score

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

Final Boxscore (.html)

Big Rapids, Mich. – Junior goaltender Tommy Burke tied his career-high with 43 saves and the Bowling Green State University hockey team got goals from four different Falcons in a 4-1 win over defending Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) regular season champions Ferris State Friday night.

Although Ferris State held a 44-23 shots advantage, Burke was up to the challenge throughout the evening. He made 12 saves in the first, 19 in the second and 12 more in the third before finally giving up a score late after the Falcon offense had staked out a 4-0 lead.

"He played well," BGSU Head Coach Chris Bergeron said. "They had a hard push in the second period that we didn't have a response for and Tommy was there. He's stolen us a game in this building before. I don't necessarily think that's what tonight was, but he was very good."

By the time the dust settled on the contest, BGSU continued to show the balance it has displayed all year long. Four different players scored goals and 11 different players had at least one point. Mitch McLain was the only multi-point scorer for the Falcons, posting two assists for the third two-point game of his freshman campaign.

The win was Bowling Green's tenth road victory of the 2014-15 season, the most since the 1995-96 team won 11 away from the BGSU Ice Arena. It was also the team's 18^th of the year, equaling the total set a year ago. With the team's 14^th conference win, the Falcons exceeded last year's Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) record and moved to within one point of earning home ice for the first round of the WCHA Tournament. And all of that comes with seven regular season games remaining.

"We're excited about the number of wins," Bergeron said. "A goal of ours is to play at home in the playoffs and that goal is achievable with seven games left. We'll focus like we always do, rest tonight and give ourselves another opportunity tomorrow."

And the Falcons won in a place that is not easy for teams to leave victoriously. Ferris State was 22-5-1 in its last 28 games in Ewigleben Ice Arena prior to Friday night, going undefeated at home a year ago. But freshman Brandon Hawkins put the Falcons in the driver's seat early and BGSU never let off the gas pedal.

Less than seven minutes into the first period, Hawkins scored on a wrister that goaltender CJ Motte got a glove on, but was unable to catch cleanly. It trickled past the veteran for a score. Connor Kucera and Ben Murphy each assisted on the play and each extended their point-scoring streaks to three games.

(Listen to Evan Pivnick call Hawkins' goal by CLICKING HERE)

Dajon Mingo almost made it 2-0 midway through the first as he rang one of the post, but Ferris State has some quality opportunities as well, hitting posts on three separate occasions in the first.

Burke worked his way through that first period and then settled in during a second period flurry that saw Ferris State put up 19 shots in the frame. Despite that total, Bowling Green was the team that came away with two goals in the frame.

Freshman Ben Greiner, playing in just his seventh game of the season, scored his third goal when he picked up a loose puck and pushed it past Motte early in the second. His shot caught part of Motte and found its way behind him. Freshmen Mark Friedman and McLain added assists on the goal.

(Listen to Evan Pivnick call Greiner's goal by CLICKING HERE)

Brent Tate added a goal late in the third period as Nolan Valleau and Dan DeSalvo showed off a nifty passing display to find Tate on the doorstep. He slammed it home for the 3-0 lead headed to the third.

(Listen to Evan Pivnick call Tate's goal by CLICKING HERE)

Matt Pohlkamp closed out Bowling Green's scoring midway through the third as he picked up a deflection and beat Motte, as Sean Walker and McLain added assists.

(Listen to Evan Pivnick call Pohlkamp's goal by CLICKING HERE)

BGSU's penalty killing unit entered the game as the No. 1 ranked unit in the country and the Falcons held Ferris State scoreless on four power play opportunities during the game. BG moved up 0.2 percent to 93.3 percent with the effort. No other team in the country is better than 90.5 percent this year.

On the flip side, Bowling Green was 0-for-3 on the power play and the Falcons have now gone scoreless on their last 22 power play opportunities. For Bergeron, it's an area for improvement that can only make this team that much tougher.

"There's only so much tinkering you can do on the power play," Bergeron said. "The effort's not even close to good enough. We've given a bunch of guys opportunities on the power play, but we keep coming back to the same people."

With the victory, Bowling Green improves to 18-6-5 overall and 14-4-3 in the WCHA. Ferris State falls to 11-18-1 overall and 8-13-0 in WCHA play. The two teams will complete their weekend series Saturday evening at 7:07 pm at Ewigleben Ice Arena.