Friday wasn’t very special for Bowling Green’s power-play and penalty-killing units.

The Falcon special teams were a disaster en route to a 5-3 loss to 10th-ranked Union
in a nonleague college hockey game at the Ice Arena.
BG played well early, building a 2-0 lead on two full-strength goals during the
game’s first seven minutes.
But the Falcons allowed the next five goals — the first three on the power-play and
the last two short-handed — as Union rallied for the win.
The Dutchmen tied the game in the first period and snapped the tie on Sebastien
Gingras’ second power-play goal of the game with 7:14 to play in the second
period.
Union stretched the lead to 5-2 in the third period before the Falcons’ Mark Cooper
scored a power-play goal with just six minutes remaining.
The Dutchmen were sharp on both special teams, going 3-for-3 on their power play and
holding BG to the one goal in five attempts.
BG is 0-1-1, while Union is 1-1. The teams play again tonight at 7:05.
“We have to bear down and make better plays,” said BG sophomore Adam Berkle, who
skates on both special teams.
“The special teams won us a game. If definitely wasn’t 5-on-5,” Union coach Rick
Bennett said.
Union returned 22 lettermen from last season when it won the Eastern College Athletic
Conference title and advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four.
The Dutchmen ranked fourth nationally in power-play conversions (24.2 percent) and
12th in penalty-killing (84.5) last season, and many of the key players from
those units return.
On the other hand, the Falcons are relying heavily on freshmen and sophomores on
their special teams.
“Their special teams execution … showed why they were in the Frozen Four last
year,” BG coach Chris Bergeron said.
Union tied the game on power-play goals by Gingras at 15:02 of the first period and
Josh Jooris just 1:46 later.
Although the Dutchmen made good plays to score their goals, the Falcons helped out
with turnovers or being in the wrong position.
“We’ve been trying to harp on execution and every play matters,” Bergeron said.
“There’s a process and details to the game. We were on the negative side of
those details and the special teams.”
BG had a chance to tie the game on the power play in the third period when Union was
penalized at 6:11. But the Dutchmen scored their two short-handed goals as Kyle
Bodie made it 4-2 at 6:22 and his brother, Mat, increased the lead to 5-2 just
59 seconds later.
“To give up those two short-handed goals, that’s just absolutely unacceptable,”
Bergeron said. “That’s the power-play people taking their foot off the gas.”
The first came after BG goalie Andrew Hammond misplayed the puck behind the net and
the second was off a 2-on-1.
“We’re going to learn hard lessons again? No. No way,” Bergeron said. “That was the
message to our team. If anybody feels happy because we played hard and lost,
we’ve got no time for them and they know it. We let one go by six, seven, eight
plays and making it a special teams game versus playing a 5-on-5 game which we
proved we can go nose-to-nose with them.”
The Falcons played well 5-on-5 and held the edge in play by controlling the puck down
low in the offensive zone.
BG’s line of Adam Berkle, Ryan Carpenter and Dajon Mingo was dominant early, thanks
to its mix of speed, size and skill.
Berkle opened the scoring at 3:16 of the first period and Carpenter made it 2-0 at
6:18.
“We got off to a great start,” Bergeron said. “Obviously, 5-on-5, we were a
formidable opponent. We all saw that. Union saw that. Down low from the top of
the circles, we were a handful. The momentum we created got destroyed by our
lack of execution on the penalty-kill.”
But the Falcons still had too many turnovers, allowing the game to become end-to-end.

BG held a 28-24 edge in shots on goal.
“It was still too many turnovers with the puck in the neutral zone,” Bergeron said.
“When …. we got into a race, they were better than we were at the race for
sure.”
UNION 5, BGSU 3
GOALS BY PERIOD
UNION 2 1 2 —5
BGSU 2 0 1 —3
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1, BG Berkle 1 (Carpenter, Kucera) 3:16. 2, BG Carpenter 1 (Mingo, Sullivan)
6:18. 3, UN Gingras 1 (Novak, Carr) 15:02 (5-4 pp). 4, UN Jooris 1 (M. Bodie)
16:48 (5-4 pp).
Penalties: M. Bodie, UN, kneeing, 6:18; Hafner, BG, boarding, 14:29; Mohler, BG,
high-sticking, 15:39.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 5, UN Gingras 2 (M. Bodie, Carr) 12:46 (5-4 pp).
Penalties: Hatch, UN, roughing, 5:42; Shea, BG, tripping, 12:29; DeSalvo, BG,
roughing, 15:55; K. Bodie, UN, roughing, 15:55.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 6, UN K. Bodie 1 (Simpson) 6:22 (4-5 sh). 7, UN M. Bodie 2 (K. Bodie,
Simpson) 7:21 (5-4 pp). 8, BG Murphy 1 (DeSalvo, Williamson)14:00 (5-4 pp).
Penalties: Coburn, UN, high-sticking, 6:11; K. Bodie, UN, cross-checking, 9:17; Roy,
UN, boarding, 12:29.
SAVES BY PERIOD
Grosenick, UN 9 7 9 —25
Hammond, BG 10 4 5 —19
Goalie statistics (goals against/minutes played): (UN) Grosenick 3/60; (BG) Hammond
5/57:58, Empty net 0/2:02.
Penalties-Minutes: UN 6-12, BG 4-8. Power plays: UN 3-3, BG 1-5. Attendance: 2,205.