Hockey Point in Time: McLain Scores Dramatic Shorthanded Overtime Winner

The Bowling Green State University Athletics Department is celebrating 50 years of the Slater Family Ice Arena this season, culminating on Feb. 11, 2017 to honor the 50th anniversary of the arena's grand opening on Feb. 25, 1967. The Falcons will host Mercyhurst on that date, in what will be the team's final non-conference game of the 2016-17 season.

Leading up to the anniversary, BGSU Athletics is taking a look back at some of the great moments in Slater Family Ice Arena history. This week, we remember Nov. 28, 2015, when Mitch McLain scored the rarest of goals: a short-handed overtime winner.

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The Bowling Green State University hockey team has won in many different and dramatic ways during their five decades of play at the Slater Family Ice Arena. None were as arguably stunning as Mitch McLain's miracle in November of 2015.

The Falcons arrived at that Saturday night game against Northern Michigan with a four-game winning streak and a 10-game home unbeaten streak, which was tied for the longest active streak in the country. Those streaks included a 2-1 victory over NMU on the previous evening, in which the Wildcats had only ten shots on goal.

BGSU appeared to take the lead midway through the first period, but the goal was waved off. NMU then took the lead less than a minute later.

The Falcons waited until the last possible moment in the opening frame to answer. Brandon Hawkins fired a pass to Mark Cooper in front of the Wildcat goal, and Cooper snuck the puck past Atte Tolvanen with just one second remaining on the clock.

Mark Friedman gave Bowling Green the lead 4:33 into the second period, and Brett D'Andrea extended it to 3-1 five minutes later. However, Northern Michigan tied the game at 3-3 with a pair of goals in 3:28 spanning the end of the second and beginning of the third periods.

Neither team could dent the scoreboard for the remainder of the final 20 minutes. Chris Nell saved six shots, but the Falcon offense could not get any of their 12 shots past Tolvanen.

The five-minute overtime period did not go well for BGSU. The Falcons were out-shot 6-2, and D'Andrea took an interference penalty with 1:49 remaining.

With just ten seconds left to break the tie, McLain won a faceoff in the offensive zone. Friedman dumped the puck into the corner, and McLain beat NMU defenders to it. After skating the puck up the side board to the tip of the left circle, he sent a shot that caught Tolvanen by surprise and went between his legs with 5.3 seconds on the clock.

The short-handed overtime winner was the first for a BGSU player in at least 14 seasons and helped propel the Falcons to a 22-14-6 record during the 2015-16 season. BGSU's home unbeaten streak would ultimately reach 14 games.

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