MARQUETTE, Mich. — Bowling Green’s hockey team played well Friday night.
Unfortunately for the Falcons, their special teams weren’t a part of the equation.

Andrew Czernichan’s power-play goal with 18:33 to play snapped a 2-2 tie and
17th-ranked Northern Michigan held on for a 4-2 victory in the Central
Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs.
Tyler Gron increased the lead to 4-2 with 8:19 remaining, and the Wildcats killed off
three BG power plays in the final 11 minutes to clinch the victory.
Gron scored just seven seconds after the first BG penalty ended, and NMU held BG
scoreless on a two-man advantage of 40 seconds with less than seven minutes to
go.
NMU can close out the best-of-3 first-round series with a win tonight. A BG victory
forces a deciding game Sunday night. Faceoff is 7:35.
The Wildcats, seeded sixth for the playoffs, are 17-12-6 overall. BG, the 11th seed,
is 10-22-5.
Special teams have hurt BG all season.
The Falcons have just 15 power-play goals in 37 games after going 0-of-3 against NMU.
BG’s penalty-killing is 10th in the CCHA at 83 percent.
On the other hand, NMU is second in the CCHA in power-play conversions at 20 percent
and its penalty-killing is seventh nationally at 85.5 percent.
Each team had just three penalties, the last BG penalty coming as the game ended. The
NMU power play was 1-of-2.
The Falcon power play didn’t have a shot on goal during its 5-on-3.
“We were on the poor end of some plays on the special teams,” BG coach Chris Bergeron
said.
The Falcons finished with a 33-26 edge in shots, including a 13-7 margin in the first
period and 10-9 in the third period.
“We had our chances,” Bergeron said. “This wasn’t about not getting opportunities or
not having opportunities. We had opportunities to execute and we did a fairly
good job through two periods. There were times in the third period, we did some
good things. But we didn’t finish and they finished their plays around our net.

“I really liked our effort and intensity,” Bergeron added. “I liked our attention to
detail for the most part. We were really good with our sticks. We blocked a
couple of big shots. We started really well. Ultimately, we didn’t finish
properly. That leaves a bad taste in your mouth heading into tomorrow night.”

The Falcons — who won a first-round series at NMU last season with the third game
going to double overtime — played a strong first period.
BG took a 1-0 lead on Dan DeSalvo’s goal just 53 seconds into the game.
But NMU scored the next two goals for a 2-1 lead, Justin Florek at 11:58 of the first
period and Ryan Daugherty at 4:58 of the second period. The Falcons later pulled
even on Adam Berkle’s goal at 13:32 of the second period.
Three of NMU’s four goals were scored by seniors. BG dressed just one senior, forward
Cameron Sinclair.
The Falcons had the 33 shots, but NMU’s Jared Coreau stopped 31 of them.
The sophomore has stopped 94-of-98 shots in three wins against BG this season. NMU
won 4-2, 2-0 at BG three weeks ago.
“They had people step up and make plays and we didn’t in those particular
situations,” Bergeron said. “We did make plays, but it wasn’t a consistent thing
all night long.”
BG’s Andrew Hammond made 22 saves, nine in the second period.
Berkle, who assisted on DeSalvo’s goal, has a goal in three of the last four games.
The freshman forward has three goals and one assist in that span.
DeSalvo, who had missed the last five games with a shoulder injury, ended a streak of
15 games without a goal. His last goal was Nov. 19 at Miami.
NORTHERN MICHIGAN 4, BGSU 2
GOALS BY PERIOD
BGSU 1 1 0 —2
NORTHERN MICHIGAN 1 1 2 —4
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1, BG DeSalvo 5 (Berkle, Kucera) 0:53. 2, NMU Florek 18 (Thurber, Follmer)
11:58.
Penalties: None.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3, NMU Daugherty 3 (Baker, Jones) 4:58. 4, NMU Berkle 6 (Carpenter, Sloat)
13:32.
Penalties: Sloat, BG, boarding, 8:28; Carpenter, BG, interference, 19:57.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 5, NMU Cherniwchan 10 (Vigier, Jones) 1:27 (5-4 pp). 6, NMU Gron 17 (Ludwig)
11:41.
Penalties: Gron, NMU, unsportsmanlike, conduct, 9:34; Kaunisto, NMU, slashing, 11:57;
Epp, NMU, checking from behind, 13:17; Shea, BG, roughing after the whistle,
20:00.
SAVES BY PERIOD
Hammond, BG 6 9 7 —22
Coreau`, NMU 12 9 10 —31
Goalie statistics (goals against/minutes played): (BG) Hammond 4/58:44, Empty net
0/1:16; (NMU) Coreau 2/60.
Penalties-Minutes: BG 3-6, NMU 3-6. Power plays: BG 0-3, NMU 1-2. Attendance: 1,664.