Bowling Green’s hockey team hung on for a 3-2 win over No. 10 Miami (OH) Friday night in its season
opener at the Ice Arena.
Kevin Dufour, a sophomore, scored twice, including what would turn out to be the game-winner with 10:34
to play in the third period.
Nolan Valleau had two assists.
The Falcons led 2-0 and 3-1 before Miami countered with goals of its own cut the lead to one on two
occasions.
“It’s nice to have a good, strong effort,” said Bowling Green coach Chris Bergeron. “We take pride in our
effort and I thought our effort was good tonight.”
Tomas Sholl made 22 saves in the win, including 12 in the second period where Bowling Green was out-shot
12-10.
The Falcons held a 38-24 advantage in shots, including a 16-7 edge in the first period, where Bowling
Green led 1-0 after Dufour’s first goal at 1:55.
“We wanted to be aggressive early, and that’s the way we want to play,” Bergeron said.
Bowling Green took a 2-0 lead on a goal from Brent Tate at the 7:43 mark of the second period, but Miami
quickly responded just 20 seconds later when Ben Paulides found the back of the net to cut the lead to
2-1.
“I definitely thought we handled adversity, which was the second period,” Bergeron said. “We got in a
little bit of a track meet. … We got away from the way we played in the first (period).
“They upped it,” Bergeron added of Miami. “You cannot be careless with the puck with those people on the
ice — their forwards. We got careless with the puck. If it wasn’t for Tomas making a couple of monster
saves, who knows what the score is at that time.
“We lost our poise a little bit. They started to push back harder and we didn’t know what to do. All we
needed to do was get back to playing our game.”
Dufour added his second goal at the 9:26 mark of the third period when he was assisted by Ben Murphy and
Valleau. But again, the Redhawks had an answer when Riley Barber cut the lead to 3-2 at the 12:15 mark.

“We handled that adversity. … The last seven minutes were good,” Bergeron said. “We could have
definitely gone sideways based on what we were through last year in that same situation, in a tight
game.
“This is going to be our league every night, so we might as well get used to play in these games.”
Bergeron said that goaltender Tommy Burke will play Sunday at Miami (OH).
“I hope it’s a goaltending situation that is very difficult because all three are playing great,”
Bergeron said.