Bowling Green’s hockey team quickly redeemed itself everywhere but the scoreboard Saturday night.
The Falcons — just 24 hours after a poor performance against 19th-ranked Northern Michigan — rebounded to
work hard and play well in the series finale.
But BG’s continued inability to score and Jared Coreau’s 31-save goaltending enabled the Wildcats to
record a 2-0 victory in the Ice Arena.
NMU’s goals were scored by Mitch Jones on the power play at 4:12 of the second period and Andrew
Cherniwchan into an empty net with just 1:31 left in the game.
BG played a physical, energetic, poised and disciplined game, unlike Friday when it dropped a 4-2
decision to NMU. The Wildcats took advantage of three poor BG penalties to build a 3-0 lead in the 10
minutes Friday.
“From a coaching perspective, we’re happy we answered the bell,” BG coach Chris Bergeron said. “Our guys
showed some resiliency by coming out and playing better.
“The lesson learned from this weekend, we can’t cheat who we are like we did last night by having a
performance like we did last night and expect to get bounces and have things go (our way).”
The Falcons had played consistently well in their last eight games before Friday, going 3-3-2 in that
span.
BG is 9-18-5 overall and 4-16-4-3 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
“The bounces we’ve been getting over the last three or four weeks have been because we’re playing well
and not taking nights off and periods off,” Bergeron said. “Things seem to work themselves off when that
happens.”
BG finished with a 31-23 edge in shots, including a 21-13 margin over the final two periods. It attempted
a total of 72 shots in the game, but 20 were blocked by NMU, another 20 missed the net and one hit the
post. At times, BG had the puck all around the NMU net.
“Last night, we definitely came out flat,” BG sophomore forward Cam Wojtala said. “Tonight, we had some
pretty good jump. For the most part, we were pretty hard on pucks.
“We were frustrated with ourselves,” Wojtala added. “We knew we didn’t bring the game we needed to bring
every night. We were all pretty confident we’d be able to bounce back. We knew what we had to do. For
the most part, we did that with a few exceptions.”
The Falcons have scored just 54 goals in 32 games, including 34 goals in 24 CCHA games.
“You just have to bear down and make a play and some how get the puck in the net,” Wojtala said.
BG also was 0-of-4 on the power play, the seventh straight game it hasn’t scored with the extra man.
NMU’s power play was 1-of-3.
The Wildcats (14-10-6, 9-9-6-3) are tied with Miami and Notre Dame for seventh place in the CCHA. The
sixth-, seventh- and eighth-place teams host first-round playoff series.
NMU is 10-4-3 in its last 17 games overall and 8-4-3 in its last 15 league games.
Jones’ goal came on a blast from the center point as BG goalie Andrew Hammond was screened. Hammond also
played well with 21 saves.
“(BG) gave us everything we could handle,” NMU coach Walt Kyle said. “They pressed us. We were resilient.
We bent in a lot of instances, but we didn’t break. They make you play hard.”
Coreau, a 6-foot-5, 208-pound sophomore, stopped 63-of-65 shots in the sweep to improve his goals-against
average to 2.03 and save percentage to .935.
“He was outstanding,” Kyle said.
The Falcons played without forward Dan DeSalvo, who hurt his shoulder Friday; and defenseman Ryan
Peltoma, who remained out with a high ankle sprain suffered in practice earlier in the week.
BG then lost defenseman Rusty Hafner late in the first period Saturday, the result of a knee-to-knee hit
by NMU’s Wade Epp, who was penalized on the play. The extent of the injury was undetermined.
The Falcons already were without forward Brett Mohler (back/shoulder), who missed his ninth straight
game.
NORTHERN MICHIGAN 2, BGSU 0
GOALS BY PERIOD
NORTHERN MICHIGAN 0 1 1 —2
BGSU 0 0 0 —0
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: None.
Penalties: Hafner, BG, interference, 10:03; Epp, NMU, kneeing, 16:17
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 1, NMU Jones 4 (Vigier) 4:12 (5-4 pp).
Penalties: Fink, BG, boarding, 3:16; Seckel, NMU, unsportsmanlike conduct after the whistle, 5:44; Epp,
NMU, holding the stick, 10:05; Rodriguez, BG, elbowing, 19:43.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 2, NMU Cherniwchan 7 (unassisted) 18:29 (5-6 en).
Penalties: Epp, NMU, cross-checking, 19:53.
SAVES BY PERIOD
Coreau, NMU 10 12 9 —31
Hammond, BG 10 7 4 —21
Goalie statistics (goals against/minutes played): (NM) Coreau 0/60; (BG) Hammond 1/58:26, Empty net
1/1:34.
Penalties-Minutes: NMU 4-8, BG 3-6. Power plays: NMU 1-3, BG 0-4. Attendance: 1,864.