Falcon hockey loses series finale at Alaska (1-21-12)

0

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Bowling Green’s hockey team couldn’t complete a sweep of the
University of Alaska Saturday night.
The Falcons scored first, but Alaska came back for a 4-1 victory and a split of the
Central Collegiate Hockey Association series at the Carlson Center.
Cody Kunyk scored twice and Scott Greenham made 17 saves for the Nanooks, who dropped
a 3-1 decision to BG in the series opener Friday.
BG took a 1-0 lead on Adam Berkle’s goal at 3:43 of the first period, but Kunyk tied
the game at the 10-minute mark and put UA ahead for good 41 seconds into the
second period.
UA finished with a 22-18 edge in shots. BG’s Andrew Hammond made 18 saves.
“We played hard,” BG coach Chris Bergeron said. “All in all, we showed a lot of
fight.”
BG fell to 7-14-5 overall and 2-12-4-3 in the CCHA. UA is 8-12-4, 5-11-4-2.
The Nanooks are 10th in the league with 21 points, eight ahead of last-place BG. The
Falcons have 10 games left, two more than UA.
“We played well. We had some jump,” Bergeron said. “Ultimately, our process and
details were better tonight than last night, but the results were different.”

Berkle’s second goal and third point of the series gave the Falcons the lead, but UA
tied the game after a defensive-zone turnover by BG.
“The first goal (UA scored) was really bad on our part,” Bergeron said. “That gave
them some momentum after we had created some momentum for ourselves with our
goal. That was really poor execution on our part. Unfortunately, it happens way
too much.”
BG also had to kill four straight penalties after Berkle’s goal, including a two-man
advantage for 1:30 in the final three minutes of the period.
“The penalties should have been a momentum builder once we killed them,” Bergeron
said.
After Kunyk broke the tie, UA made it 3-1 on Carlos Finucci’s goal at 9:03 of the
second period. The Nanooks’ Justin Filzen finished the scoring with an empty-net
goal with just 33.4 seconds to play.
Greenham played well after not being sharp of late. He didn’t play Friday.
The senior made two point-blank stops in the first period when it was still 1-0 BG
and another point-blank stop in the second period when it was 2-1 UA. He also
stopped a breakaway in the first minute of the third period with the Nanooks
holding a 3-1 lead.
The Falcons have scored just 45 goals in 26 games, including 25 goals in 18 league
games.
“We had chances that we weren’t able to capitalize on,” Bergeron said.
Greenham is 3-0 against BG this season. He stopped 39 shots in a 3-0, 2-0 sweep at BG
Nov. 25-26.
The Falcons were hurt by their power play, which was 0-of-5. UA also was 0-of-5 with
the extra man.
“We’ve talked about it 1,000 times, special teams are going to make a difference in
games like this,” Bergeron said. “We didn’t score on the power play, but our
penalty-killing gave us a chance to win the special teams game. But our power
play didn’t take advantage of their opportunities.”
BG has scored just three power-play goals in its last 12 games, but the Falcon have
killed off 22 of their last 24 short-handed chances over the last six games.
ALASKA 4, BGSU 1
GOALS BY PERIOD
BGSU 1 0 0 —1
ALASKA 1 2 1 —4
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1, BG Berkle 3 (DeSalvo, Grover) 3:43. 2, UA Kunyk 9 (unassisted) 10:00.
Penalties: Rodriguez, BG, boarding, 5:03; Grover, BG, hooking, 15:07; Sloat, BG,
interference, 17:19; DeSalvo, BG, interference, 17:49.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3, UA Kunyk 10 (Beck) 0:41. 4, UA Finucci 4 (Odegard) 9:03.
Penalties: Gens, UA, clipping, 4;24; Perry, UA, charging, 9:55; Quinn, tripping,
13:32; Grover, BG, tripping, 19:32; Beck, UA, unsportsmanlike conduct-diving,
19:32.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 5, UA Filzen 2 (Meyers, Gens) 19:26 (5-6 en).
Penalties: Campbell, UA, interference 8:37; Filzen, UA, elbowing, 11:35; Rodriguez,
BG, hooking, 16:54.
SAVES BY PERIOD
Hammond, BG 7 5 6 —18
Greenham, UA 5 5 7 —17
Goalie statistics (goals against/minutes played): (BG) Hammond 3/59:35, Empty net
1/0:25; (UA) Greenham 1/60.
Penalties-Minutes: BG 6-12, UA 6-12. Power plays: BG 0-5, UA 0-5. Attendance: 2,965.

No posts to display