Falcon hockey falls short to Northern Michigan (2-19-11)

Bowling Green saved its best for last Saturday night.
Unfortunately for the Falcons, they couldn’t solve Northern Michigan goalie Reid Ellingson.
The junior made 10 of his 26 saves in the third period — including two terrific pad saves with just over
a minute to play — to preserve the Wildcats’ 3-2 win in the Ice Arena.
BG played well and with urgency in the third period in an attempt to erase a one-goal deficit, but its
10-3 edge in shots on goal during the final 20 minutes wasn’t enough.
The Wildcats earned a split of the series after they didn’t play well in Friday’s 3-2 shootout loss.
Phil Fox scored twice for NMU, his second goal off a 2-on-1 rush at 3:35 of the second period, snapped a
2-2 tie.
The goal came just 88 seconds after the Falcons’ Bryce Williamson tied the game from the left side of the
crease.
The Falcons, last in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, are 8-22-4 overall and 3-19-4-2 in the
league. NMU is 14-15-5, 12-11-3-0.
The game was BG’s Senior Night, with goalie Nick Eno, defenseman Andrew Krelove, and forwards Wade
Finegan and David Solway playing their final home games.
“We threw everything on net and gave them everything we could in the third period,” said sophomore
defenseman Ryan Peltoma, whose breakaway goal gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead just 1:22 into the game. “The
main thing was to go out there and create some offense.”
Ellingson made point-blank saves on BG’s Camden Wojtala and Andrew Wallace with just over a minute left
after BG pulled Eno for the sixth attacker. He also made another close-in save on Ryan Viselli with four
seconds left after NMU’s Andrew Czerniwchan was penalized for cross-checking with nine seconds to play,
giving BG a 6-on-4 advantage.
Peltoma just missed a half-open net from the deep slot with 35 seconds to go.
“This team has been resilient all year long,” BG coach Chris Bergeron said.
The Falcons, who scored two or fewer goals for the 12th straight game, played without two of their top
forwards — Jordan Samuels-Thomas and Marc Rodriguez.
Samuels-Thomas, who leads BG with eight goals and 18 assists, was a healthy scratch for the fourth time
in the last 11 games and fifth time this season. Rodriguez, who has six goals and 15 points, missed the
series with a concussion.
The Falcons held an 18-16 advantage in shots during the first two periods, but NMU owned the better of
the play.
After Peltoma scored, NMU rallied for a 2-1 lead later in the period on goals from Fox at 13:02 and
Greger Hanson on the power play at 14:48.
All five goals in the game resulted from major turnovers, mental mistakes or physical mistakes.
“The most disappointing thing to me about tonight is the goals we gave up,” Bergeron said. “We just don’t
make those plays when we’re good. We were way too loose at times with the puck and then the urgency came
(in the third period). It was nice to see us not quit and keep pushing.”
Justin Florek added three assists for NMU, including two excellent passes to set up the goals by Fox.
Those two played well on NMU’s top line with Erik Higby.
“(NMU’s) forwards had a different type of jump tonight,” Bergeron said. “They were really good. (NMU)
defended hard. Their urgency and intensity, especially in that first period, was much better.”
Eno played well with 16 saves and had no chance to stop any of the goals.
Fox’s goal to make it 3-2 was a huge momentum swing as it came just after BG tied the game. That goal
resulted after the Falcons were trapped up ice, giving NMU the 2-on-1 advantage that set up the score.
Florek easily set up the goal, sliding a perfect cross-ice pass to Fox, who rifled the puck into an
empty net.
“I’m disappointed with the way we’re compounding one mistake with another with another,” Bergeron said.
“We’ve got two defend 2-on-1s better because they happen and teams are executing way too easy. You ask
your goalie to make big saves, but it’s just no where near possible to make back-door saves all of the
time,” Bergeron said.
NORTHERN MICHIGAN 3, BGSU 2
NMU 2 1 0 —3
BGSU 1 1 0 —2
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1, BG Peltoma 3 (unassisted) 1:22. 2, NMU Fox 10 (Florek) 13:02. 3, MMU Hanson 5 (Macaulay,
Florek) 14:48.
Penalties: Ruel, BG holding, 6:43; Ruel, BG, high-sticking, 13:45.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 4, BG Williamson 2 (unassisted) 2:07. 5, NMU Fox 11 (Florek) 3:35.
Penalties: Solway, BG, holding, 9:15; Handly, NMU, hooking, 12:21; Epp, NMU, tripping, 19:52.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: None.
Penalties: Solway, BG, holding, 0:53; Cherniwchan, NMU, cross-checking, 19:51.
SAVES BY PERIOD
Ellingson, NMU 6 10 10 —26
Eno, BG 8 5 3 —16
Goalie statistics (goals against/minutes played): (NMU) Ellingson 2/60; (BG) Eno 3/58:26, Empty net
0/1:24.
Penalties-Minutes: NMU 3-6, BG 4-8. Power plays: NMU 1-4, BG 0-3. Attendance: 2,675.