ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Bowling Green added another disappointing performance to its
already disappointing season Wednesday night.
The Falcons didn’t play well in a 3-1 loss to 19th-ranked Michigan in a Central
Collegiate Hockey Association game at Yost Arena. BOX
SCORE
They generated little offense and had too many defensive mistakes as they were
out-shot by a 38-16 margin.
Still, Michigan had to come from behind to earn the win.
The Wolverines scored all of their goals in the second period to erase a 1-0 deficit,
the result of Bobby Shea’s goal with just 2.4 seconds to play in the first
period.
The performance wasted the excellent 35-save goaltending of Andrew Hammond, who gave
the Falcons a chance to win on a night they were badly out-played.
BG’s problems were compounded by Michigan, which played well from start to finish.
The Wolverines were coming off three straight losses, including two defeats at
home to No. 6 Notre Dame last weekend.
“A poor effort,” BG coach Chris Bergeron said.
The Falcons fell to 0-5-1 in their last six games. They’re 2-9-3 overall and 1-6-2-1
in the CCHA. Michigan is 5-6-1, 3-5-1-1.
BG is idle until a Dec. 7-8 CCHA series at Alaska.
“Full credit to Michigan,” Bergeron said. “They handled their adversity like a
championship program does. They were in a little bit of a skid and they came out
and took it to us. They beat us to every loose puck. Every stick battle was
theirs. They were quicker out of corners. They did what you expect Michigan to
do."
“At times, when we did what we wanted to do, we put them in tough spots. But it was
so few and far between. We couldn’t get any momentum from the lead after the
first period.”
Shea scored with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle to allow the Falcons to
escape the first period with the lead.
But Michigan came right back to dominate play again in the second period.
The Wolverines held a 12-5 edge in shots in the first period and a 15-6 margin in the
second period.
“With our group, I find we have a tough time getting it going if we don’t have it
right away,” Bergeron said.
The Wolverines made good offensive plays to score all of their goals, goals that also
were helped by BG’s defensive mistakes. All three goals came from close in.
Michigan’s goals were scored by A.J. Treais at 4:23, Alex Guptill at 13:01 and Justin
Selman at 13:17.
The Wolverines lead the CCHA and are fourth nationally in goals per game, scoring 3.6
per game. BG is tied for eighth in goals allowed (2.92).
“They weren’t anything we didn’t expect,” Hammond said. “We just didn’t play up to
what we expect. It came down to them making a few more plays around our net and
taking advantage of some of our defensive lapses. They were relentless and
created some good chances, and they capitalized.”
Hammond was outstanding in his best outing since Nov. 2 when he stopped 29 shots in a
1-0 win at Michigan State. The victory over MSU was BG’s last win.
“Andrew Hammond, he played a really strong game,” Bergeron said. “That’s probably the
start and end of the list of guys who had strong games.”
Hammond has been inconsistent this season, entering the game with a 3.32
goals-against average and an .889 save percentage. The senior had split the last
two weekends with freshman Tommy Burke.
“I battled hard and that’s the one thing to get my game back on track,” Hammond said.
“That’s a good place to start, making sure I’m working hard and I thought I did
for the most part.”
Hammond missed almost four full games because of an elbow injury. The MSU game was
his first game back from the injury.
“I just competed,” Hammond said. “I fought for pucks and was intense, and that was
reason for my success tonight.”
The Falcons had a chance to break the game open in the first period when they had a
5-minute power play, thanks to Travis Lynch’s penalty for checking from behind.

But BG failed to score and had just one shot on goal.
“That was probably our worst power play. After that, we had some decent chances,”
Bergeron said. “We’re not sharp enough on the power play yet, not enough guys
intense. How we don’t play hockey with intensity, I don’t understand, because
our margin for error is so small. We have to play with intensity because of
that.”
The BG penalty-killing was perfect, killing off all four of Michigan’s chances with
the extra man.
“The penalty-kill was fine, although we have some areas to tighten up,” Bergeron
said.
BG forward and captain Cam Wojtala returned after missing four games with a lower
body injury.
However, forwards Brent Tate (back) and Ted Pletsch (back), and defenseman Jake Sloat
(broken leg) remained out.