Bowling Green’s defense corps picked the perfect time to have its best weekend of the season.
The team’s six defensemen all played well to help Bowling Green sweep its Western Collegiate Hockey
Association quarterfinal series.
The Falcons allowed just three goals and 55 shots en route to a 2-1, 5-2 sweep.
Manning the blueline were juniors Connor Kucera, Marcus Perrier and Mike Sullivan; senior Jake Sloat,
sophomore Ralfs Freibergs and freshman Sean Walker.
“The defense corps was as solid as they have been over the course of the year,” BG coach Chris Bergeron
said.
The six defended well and effectively broke the puck out of their defensive zone to start BG’s offense.

“We were playing the man pretty well,” Perrier said. “We were taking away time and space, and not giving
them a chance.”
DEFENSE II: The series was a bit of redemption for Kucera, Perrier and Sullivan, who have been up and
down this season. All three have been a healthy scratch at least once.
They were terrific as freshmen when BG won two playoff series and advanced to the Central Collegiate
Hockey Association semifinals. They’ve been inconsistent since.
And how the Falcons go in each game, often depends on how Kucera, Perrier and Sullivan play.
“That’s not necessarily fair, but they’ve been through a lot,” Bergeron said. “That’s why we’ve been a
little disappointed with their consistency during the course of the year. They set the bar (high). This
is the way they can play. We just have to find a way to be more consistent.”
WITH A LEAD: The Falcons never trailed in the series and even played well with the lead.
They’ve had trouble holding leads this season as they entered the series just 10-8-4 when scoring first
and 14-6-2 when leading after two periods.
“We’ve built up some resiliency the last three years,” Bergeron said. “We’ve built some mental toughness
which has showed in different ways this year. We didn’t go up and down in terms of our emotion, Our
execution did, but we stayed with it.
“You don’t get good at it unless it’s something you do all the time and have experience with it. This is
the first year we’ve played with a lead. This weekend, we played with a lead just fine.”
Bergeron praised BG’s juniors and seniors — especially Adam Berkle, Andrew Wallace, Cam Wojtala and
Carpenter — for their leadership on the bench during Saturday’s game.
The juniors and seniors won their fourth playoff series in the last three seasons, the first three coming
after losing Game 1 on the road in the best-of-3 series.
BG’s game showed no extended dips — even when it was scored on, missed a quality scoring chance or didn’t
like a call by the officials.
“Our guys stayed with it and I credit the older guys, the guys who have been through a bunch,” Bergeron
said. “You cant help but learn through those experiences. I’m absolutely proud of those guys.”
EFFECTIVE: Wallace, a senior center, played well for the fourth straight game as he was again matched
against the opponent’s top line.
Wallace and linemates Wojtala and senior Brett Mohler held Blake Pietila and Tech’s top line to no
even-strength points in the series.
The Wallace line was matched against Bemidji’s top line March 8 after Wojtala missed the series opener
with a lower-body injury.
“He said he’d love it,” Bergeron said of Wallace’s response when asked about being matched about
Bemidji’s top line. “The way they handled that against Bemidji, it was a no-brainer this weekend.
“He’s just a scrappy guy, a faceoff guy, he’ll block shots,” Bergeron added. “He has the the respect of
the locker room. He’s a big-time student. The fact that he wanted to play against the other team’s best
player is a tribute to him.”
SHARP: BG goalie Tommy Burke was sharp in the seires, stopping 52-of-55 shots.
Two of Tech’s goals came on the power play.
The sophomore has a 2.14 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage in 27 games.
FIERCE: The teams played a physical and firecely-contested game for the second striaght game.
Saturday’s game had 10 penalties, all minors and five to each team. Game 1 had just four penalties, two
minors to each team.
FACEOFFS: After losing 41 of the 70 faceoffs in Game 1, BG won 37 of the 73 faceoffs in Game 2.
PP: Both teams were 2-of-7 on the power play in the series.