Bowling Green’s hockey team played well during the first 30 minutes Saturday to build a two-goal lead.

The Falcons then — in the story of their season — threw it all away under an avalanche of mistakes.
They held a 3-1 lead midway through the second period before Michigan Tech stormed back to earn a 5-4
overtime victory in the Ice Arena. BOX
SCORE
Blake
Pietila scored a power-play goal just 1:22 into overtime to give Tech the win and a sweep of the Western
Collegiate Hockey Association series. WCHA
STANDINGS WCHA
SCORES
He scored from the right side of the crease after BG was penalized just eight seconds into the extra
period.
The Huskies reached overtime on Jacob Johnstone’s second goal of the game with just 3:42 to go in
regulation. He won a faceoff in BG’s defensive zone and cut across the front of the net, scoring from
the left-side of the crease.
The Falcons were playing well before they were beaten by an assortment of turnovers, missed shot blocks,
coverage breakdowns, poor penalties and the lost faceoff.
“Mentally, we’re not focused enough. It’s all part of the mental game, that’s what we have to sharpen
up.” said Matt Pohlkamp, who scored twice for BG.
Mark Cooper and Kevin Dufour had the other BG goals. Each team had 31 shots, with BG’s Tommy Burke
stopping 26 shots.
The Falcons also were 0-of-6 on the power play, while Tech was 2-of-7
“It’s unacceptable — this play or that play, finding yourself on the negative side of those five or six
plays … we can’t, I can’t figure out a way to not let that happen,” Falcon coach Chris Bergeron said.

The collapse came after BG didn’t play well Friday en route to a 5-2 loss.
The Falcons, third in the WCHA, fell three points behind second-place Minnesota State.
BG also finds itself just two points ahead of fourth-place Alaska-Anchorage, and three points ahead of
fifth-place Tech, Bemidji State and Alaska.
The Falcons and Alaska each have played 22 games — two more than MSU, Anchorage, Tech and Bemidji, and
four more than Ferris.
“You can review every goal … every play matters,” Bergeron said. “When the detail isn’t quite right,
teams take advantage of it.”
The Falcons finished a six-game home stand with a 2-3-1 record. BG is 13-12-5 overall and 10-9-3 in the
WCHA.
Tech — third in the WCHA coaches poll — improved to 10-14-6, 8-8-4.
“They were working harder than us,” said Pohlkamp. “They were forechecking, they were moving their feet
and they were creating scoring chances. We didn’t play good enough defense to stop a couple of goals.”

The Falcons played the final 29:33 with just four defensemen — Walker, Connor Kucera, Jose Delgadillo and
Jake Sloat.
BG defensemen Ralf Freibergs and Marcus Perrier each received majors and game-misconduct penalties in
separate incidents with 9:33 to go in the second period.
Perrier was called for grasping the facemask of Tech’s Alex Petan, who had charged into Burke. Petan
received a minor for charging.
On the ensuing faceoff, Freibergs was called for spearing and Tech’s Ryan Sweeney was called for slashing
after the two lined up next to each other.