Excellent goaltending from Andrew Hammond enabled Bowling Green to snap two losing streaks Saturday
night.
The sophomore stopped 24 shots to lead the Falcons to a 2-1 victory over Lake Superior and a split of the
Central Collegiate Hockey Association series in the Ice Arena.
The Falcons had lost five straight overall and were 0-10-2 in their last 12 league games.
BG never trailed, building a 2-0 lead on goals by defenseman Ian Ruel with 27 seconds left in the first
period and defenseman James McIntosh at 5:36 of the second period.
Lake Superior cut the lead to 2-1 on Domenic Monardo’s power-play goal with 49 seconds remaining in the
second period, but BG held on to improve to 8-18-2 overall and 3-15-2-0 in the CCHA.
The was BG’s first overall win since Dec. 30 and first in the league since Nov. 12.
“Our execution isn’t great at times and that’s still the case,” BG coach Chris Bergeron said. “Tonight,
it didn’t necessarily cost us goals against where last night it did. I still think there’s still more
plays to be made around the other team’s net. We missed the net too much. A 2-1 win is nice, but it’d be
nice to be 3-1 or 4-1 and take some of the pressure off ourselves.”
The Lakers held a 25-20 edge in shots, with Hammond making 11 of his saves in the second period when BG
didn’t allow Lake Superior to score on a two-man advantage of 1:53. BG led 2-0 at the time.
Hammond made two big point-blank saves during the 5-on-3. He also recorded four clutch saves in the final
two minutes of the game, the last three coming in the last 70 seconds after the Lakers pulled goalie
Kevin Kapalka for the extra attacker.
“This is as good as I’ve felt all season,” said Hammond, who has a 2.85 goals-against average and a .905
save percentage in 16 games.
Hammond also played well in relief Friday, stopping 14-of-15 shots in 32:33 of the Lakers’ 4-2 victory.
But Hammond’s biggest play Saturday might have been a head-first poke-check with 17:27 to play in the
game and BG still holding a 2-1 lead. The play came just outside the top of the crease, foiling a 3-on-1
rush.
“That was really just a reaction,” Hammond said. “As soon as I saw the guy fumble (the puck) for a
second, it was just instincts. I knew I had to come up with a save. That would have been a big turning
point.”
The Falcons also played better as a team Saturday.
“There weren’t too many chances that were A-plus chances, but nothing that I had to make a huge save on,”
Hammond said. “I was seeing everything and the guys were letting me see all of the shots, that was the
biggest thing.”
The Lakers also made it tough on Hammond by putting heavy traffic around the crease. He was knocked twice
in the second period alone.
“You can’t focus on that,” Hammond said. “You’ve just got to keep focusing on trying to find pucks.”
The Lakers fell to 7-12-7, 5-9-6-4.
“(Hammond) played great,” Laker coach Jim Roque said. “I just told my kids, ‘they worked hard and they
played hard.’ We had chances. My only regret about our team, is we don’t shoot the puck enough. We tried
to get too cute there. We struggle to score and when you struggle to score, you’ve got to put pucks on
net. “
Ruel’s goal came on a shot from the top of the right circle near the boards that appeared to be going
wide of the net on the right side, but the puck went in off a Laker defender.
McIntosh scored a rebound goal off a 2-on-1 from the bottom of the left circle after Kapalka made save
the on Jerry Freismuth’s shot from the right circle.
The BG power play was 0-of-4, while the Lakers were 1-of-6.
LAKE SUPERIOR 2, BGSU 1
GOALS BY PERIOD
LAKE SUPERIOR 0 1 0 —1
BGSU 1 1 0 —2
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1, BG Ruel 2 (Viselli)) 19:33.
Penalties: Williamson, BG, interference, 7:54; Perrault, LS, tripping, 12:42 Lain, LS, roughing after the
whistle, 19:41; Rodriguez, BG, roughing after the whistle, 19:41; Solway, BG, roughing after the
whistle, 19:41.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 2, BG McIntosh 6 (Freismuth, Viselli) 5:36. 3, LS Monardo 10 (Acton, Cowie) 19:11 (5-4 pp).
Penalties: Freismuth, BG, tripping, 3:26; Wojtala, BG, roughing, 9:33; Grover, BG, high-sticking, 9:38;
Lain, LS, goalie interference, 13:08; Rushing, BG, tripping, 18:10.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: None.
Penalties: Nehring, LS, interference, 0:16; Radke, LS, interference, 6:02.
SAVES BY PERIOD
Kapalka, LS 7 7 4 —18
Hammond, BG 6 11 7 —24
Goalie statistics (goals against/minutes played): (LS) Kapalka 2/59:04, Empty net 0/0:56; (BG) Hammond
1/60.
Penalties-Minutes: LS 5-10, BG 7-14. Power plays: LS 1-6, BG 0-4. Attendance: 2,510.
