By Ben Shanahan
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
St. Thomas defeated Bowling Green State University hockey, 4-3, in Central Collegiate Hockey Association action on Saturday to complete the two-game weekend sweep at the Slater Family Ice Arena.
Even though Bowling Green took a tough loss, coach Ty Eigner explained his players gave all they had but they wanted the win, too.
“Obviously not the result we wanted, but again, our kids worked their tail off and played well against a good St. Thomas team, but unfortunately we were not able to finish this one out,” Eigner said.
“There is not really anything I can say that will make the team feel better. I do not have a magic quote to say, but what I will say immediately after that fourth goal is that the team stood up and said, ‘We are not quitting.’
“Go give (BGSU junior goaltender) Christian (Stoever) a pat, which says a lot about those players on the bench. It is not just one player that wins or loses games, and we’ll get back to work on Monday,” added Eigner
Both teams appeared to be feeling each other out in the first nine minutes and 56 seconds of the game until St. Thomas went a man down for two minutes. St. Thomas junior Liam Malmquist was called for a slash that was eventually killed off by the Tommies.
One minute later St. Thomas sophomore Cooper Gay, who had two points in the game Friday, and another bad bounce would haunt the Falcons, just as a bad bounce did in the loss Friday.
A wide shot circled around the glass with Stoever losing sight of the puck until Gay would somehow baseball-swing the puck into the back of the wide open net to break the scoreless tie with 8:18 left in the opening frame.
Gay found himself on the stat sheet once again around four minutes later, however, this time for committing a tripping penalty.
The Falcons’ power play, which has been a struggle to start the year (.161) but improved with a goal Friday night, saw the puck in the back of the net once again.
This time the goal came from freshman defenseman Gustav Stjerberg, who fired a monster slap shot right in front of Tommies’ penalty box to light the lamp and tie the game at one with 3:25 left in the opening 20 minutes.
The Falcons’ special teams had one more chance with a man advantage as UST freshman defenseman Jase Sofo was called for interference, but the Tommies got the better of that time, killing it right before both teams headed to the locker room.
The Tommies took the lead early in the second period with another Gay goal as Quinton Pepper shot-faked a few times in the corner before finding the sophomore out in front and Gay beat Stoever to put the Tommies up 2-1 just one minute and 36 seconds into the second period.
Soon after, BGSU junior defenseman Tommy Pasanen headed to the box for a cross-check, giving the Tommies their first power play of the night. That man advantage failed for UST, and it remained 2-1 with 15:32 left in the middle frame.
However, Bowling Green tied the game just 20 seconds after the power play ended. First-year Falcon Josh Nodler passed the puck to freshman Bordy Waters, who put a beautiful deke around Tommie goaltender Jake Sibell.
Then, with 12:14 left in the second, sophomore Jaden Grant won the face off on the left side of Sibell, passing it through his legs to fellow sophomore Quinn Emmerson, who fired the puck immediately for his first of the season, giving BG 3-2 lead.
Emmerson said, even though the lead didn’t hold, it seemed as if the Falcons had finally found their game.
“Obviously, it has been a while, which was a little frustrating, but it felt good in the moment to get one, but it is just a tough loss tonight, which is frustrating.” Said Emmerson
Eigner credited his team by calling the second period one of their best of the season so far.
“It was a good second period last night (Friday). We had a good second period, and we did the same tonight,” Eigner said.
“We stayed with it and kept working, but again, just as things go in college hockey, we are not going to feel sorry about ourselves. We will go back to work on Monday and try to work on the things that make us better.”
The Falcons took the lead into the final twenty minutes of play but quickly found themselves on the penalty kill as junior Ben Wozney was sent to the box for interference one minute and three seconds after the opening faceoff.
However, the Tommies fell to 0-for-2 on power plays as the Falcons’ penalty kill squad held off the Tommies during the man advantage.
Twenty seconds after failing on the power play, the Tommies tied it as Stoever came way out of his net to save Jake Braccini. Stoever did not get back in time for freshman J.D. Metz’s rebound on a wide open net. Metz’s shot passed a diving Stjerberg to make it 3-3 with 16:37 left in regulation.
BG went back on the power play with 5:29 left as UST freshman Cole Miller was called for high sticking. Unfortunately, the Falcons once again could not capitalize on the power play and the game remained tied.
With 2:44 left in regulation, Stoever once again played the puck, this time all the way out by the left face-off dot. He fired a puck that was intercepted by sophomore Quinton Pepper, who won the game with a virtual empty net goal, 4-3.
The frustrations continued toward the final minutes and even after the game ended. After the final horn, tempers boiled over and a skirmish broke out. BGSU’s Ryan O’Hara was called for roughing, and Gay had been called for a slash.
