PITTSBURGH – The last time Tomas Sholl was between the pipes for the Bowling Green hockey team it was
Halloween and he was making his third appearance in seven games.
That night he gave up five goals to Minnesota State. He fared much better this time around.
Sholl stopped 34 of 35 shots and No. 13 Bowling Green pulled away with two third-period goals as it
defeated No. 19 Robert Morris 4-1 Sunday night.
Sholl had been stapled to the bench the previous 10 games, falling victim to the impressive play of both
Tommy Burke and Chris Nell in net. Despite that layoff, Bowling Green (12-3-3) head coach Chris Bergeron
said Sholl has continued to practice hard and earned the start.
"It had been a long time since he had played and he definitely deserved it," Bergeron said.
"Obviously he’s wanted to play and the other two have played well. He earned his opportunity and
tonight he played well."
But the start of the game wasn’t exactly confidence inspiring.
Scott Jacklin scored his eighth goal of the season to get Robert Morris (12-4-4) on the board just 1:38
into the game. But after that he settled down, making key saves to keep the Falcons in the game.
"He made some huge saves at 1-1 and at 2-1," Bergeron said. "They had some big-time
chances and I thought Sholl was there. There was a couple really good opportunities that we gave up and
Tomas was there to stop them when we did give them up."
Six minutes later, Kevin Dufour ended a nine-game scoreless drought to knot the game at 1-all. It was one
of 12 shots in the first period for the Falcons, who put double-digit shots on Colonials goalie Dalton
Izyk in each period, including 16 in the third.
For the game, Bowling Green had 43 shots.
"I don’t think we took our foot off the gas offensively, and I thought we did a nice job playing in
the offensive zone," Bergeron said. "That was the focus going into tonight’s game. Tonight we
just played our game for longer, and obviously we were able to win the third period. I thought we were
more consistent with our game plan."
Brandon Hawkins, Brent Tate and Mark Friedman also scored for the Falcons. Nolan Valleau and Dan DeSalvo
each had two assists, and Friedman added an assist.
Perhaps most importantly for the Falcons, they were better able to limit the times Robert Morris skated
with a man advantage. A night after Bowling Green put the Colonials on the power play seven times, the
Falcons were short handed only three times.
"I still felt like one wasn’t great, but ultimately we adjusted," Bergeron said. "I
thought our guys did a good job. We have a team that needs to play hard, but has to play disciplined
within playing hard. That was something we did a much better job of today."