It was a defensive slugfest at Slater Family Ice Arena on Friday.

The Bowling Green State University hockey team couldn’t overcome their slow start in the first period and lost to Minnesota State University, 3-1.

“We weren’t very good in the first period. We were watching Minnesota State play hockey,” head coach Ty Eigner said. “We were on the wrong side of battles, we weren’t engaged in the battles.”

Senior goaltender Dryden McKay was almost on his way to his 33rd shutout of his career before senior Nathan Burke scored his 14th goal of the season late in the third period.

The Mavericks also tallied 23 blocked shots in the game.

The Falcons had trouble maneuvering around each obstacle of the Mavericks defense. They had 73 total shots with 28 on goal. They only had two shots on goal after the first period.

“To get that many attempts against Minnesota State, that’s a really good effort when you consider we only did it for 40 minutes,” Eigner said.

Freshman goaltender Christian Stoever did all he could to keep the Falcons in the game. He had 22 saves in the game.

The team held MSU to 25 shots on goal. It was a great defensive effort, but the offense just lagged behind.

“You’re going to have to defend and you’re going to be in your own zone. For the most part, we did a good job of handling that. We sorted things out in our defensive zone and were connected with people,” Eigner said.

MSU senior Julian Napravnik and junior Cade Borchardt both got two points on two assists.

Toledo native Brendan Furry scored two goals. One came on the only MSU power play and the other was an empty netter.

There were very few penalties called. MSU only had one power play while BGSU had two.

The only noticeable penalty was on sophomore Chrystopher Collin. He was called for a 10-minute major for a game misconduct.

Eigner said he was happy with how the team played the last 40 minutes of the game. It just wasn’t good enough against MSU.

“They’re the number-one ranked team in college hockey for a reason. We went toe-to-toe with them and played really well. But, really well doesn’t get what you want to get,” Eigner said.

The Falcons will be back at it again against the Mavericks Saturday at the Slate. Puck will drop at 7:07 p.m.