Despite Ice Arena record crowd, Falcons fall to No. 3 Michigan (2-25-12)

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Brilliant goaltending from Andrew Hammond provided Bowling Green with a chance to
complete a sweep of third-ranked Michigan Saturday.
Unfortunately for the Falcons, they couldn’t score.
Shawn Hunwick stopped 22 shots and helped the Wolverines kill off all nine BG power
plays en route to a 3-0 victory.
On a night the teams played before an Ice Arena record crowd of 5,031, the Wolverines
scored all of their goals in the the third period.
Michigan — after losing a 4-3 decision to BG Friday — rebounded to play well.
The Wolverines finished with a 49-22 edge in shots, but Hammond kept BG in the game
with 46 saves. He had 12 saves in the first period, 19 in the second and 15 in
the third.
“We battled really hard and gave it our best,” Hammond said. “They’re the number
three team in the country for a reason and they proved it tonight.”
BG finished the regular season 10-21-5 overall and last in the Central Collegiate
Hockey Association with a 5-19-4-3 record. It’ll visit sixth-seeded Northern
Michigan (16-12-6, 11-11-6-3) next weekend for the first round of the league
playoffs in a best-of-3 series.
Michigan (21-11-4, 15-9-4-1) finished second and earned a first-round bye.
“He looked really good,” Michigan coach Red Berenson of Hammond, who stopped 27-of-30
shots Friday. “He’s really finishing up well. He’ll give them a chance in the
next round.”
The Wolverines’ first two goals came after BG lost faceoffs in its defensive zone.

David Wohlberg opened the scoring from the top of the left circle at 5:07, while
Kevin Lynch scored on a scramble in front at 8:12. Mac Bennett’s empty-net goal
at 17:51 clinched the win.
But long before Michigan scored, BG lost the game on the power play. It had seven of
its nine power plays during the first two periods, and played 16:15 of the
60-minute game with the extra man.
“I was happy we created nine opportunities when Michigan had to take a penalty,”
Bergeron said. “There were opportunities to really get the crowd into it and
really get the momentum early, and we weren’t able to do it.”
The Falcons had nine shots with the extra man. Michigan’s power play was 0-of-5.
“I’m not unhappy with the process,” Bergeron said. “The process wasn’t bad. We had
zone time. We had chances. For the most part, this was a pretty even game. We
executed almost enough. Around their net, we weren’t able to make that one more
play.”
The teams treated the loud and enthusiastic crowd to an action-packed game, filled
with scoring chances and hard hits. Both goalies faced a number of odd-man
rushes and breakaways, too.
The previous record crowd was 5,021 on Dec. 2, 1995, also against Michigan. The
atmosphere felt like the glory days of the BG program in the late 1970s and
early 80s.
“Shawn Hunwick came up to me at the end and said, ‘this is what Bowling Green should
be every night,’” Bergeron said. “I can’t thank everybody enough, on behalf of
this program. I know the results weren’t what they wanted and they weren’t what
we wanted. But we feel we’re making progress. If we can have crowds like this,
this will truly become a home-ice advantage.”
“It’s awesome,” Hammond said. “It’s special. It’s fun playing in front of a full
house.”
MICHIGAN 3, BGSU 0
GOALS BY PERIOD
MICHIGAN 0 0 3 —3
BGSU 0 0 0 —0
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: None.
Penalties: Sparks, UM, elbowing, 2:28; Brown, UM, elbowing, 10:40; Sinclair, BG,
tripping, 12:39; Bennett, UM, tripping, 13:59;T. Lynch, UM, hooking, 17:44;
Pateryn, UM, holding, 19:40.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: None.
Penalties: Glendening, UM, slashing, 5:07; Viselli, BG, hooking, 6:06; Pletsch, BG,
tripping, 9:09; T. Lynch, UM, roughing, 11:42; Shea, BG, roughing, 15:26.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 1, UM Wohlberg 13 (Guptill) 5:07. 2, UM K. Lynch 7 (Moffet) 8:17. 3, UM
Bennett 4 (Di Giuseppe) 17:51 (5-6 en).
Penalties: Kucera, BG, tripping, 2:18; Brown, UM, slashing, 9:00; Guptill, UM,
cross-checking, 12:52.
SAVES BY PERIOD
Hunwick, UM 7 8 7 —22
Hammond, BG 12 19 15 —46
Goalie statistics (goals against/minutes played): (UM) Hunwick 0/60; (BG) Hammond
2/59:19, Empty net 1/0:41.
Penalties-Minutes: UM 9-18, BG 5-10. Power plays: UM 0-5, BG 0-9. Attendance: 5,031.

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