MARQUETTE, Mich. — Bowling Green evened its Central Collegiate Hockey Association playoff series against
Northern Michigan at one game each Saturday night with a 2-0 victory.
The third and deciding game in the best-of-3 series is Sunday night at 7:35.
Andrew Hammond made 29 saves to lead the Falcons, who received goals from Jordan Samuels-Thomas in the
first period and Ryan Viselli in the third period.
The Falcons, although they were out-shot by a 29-20 margin, were vastly improved in Game 2 after a poor
performance en route to a 6-3 loss Friday in Game 1.
BG, which finished last in the CCHA, improved to 9-25-4 overall. Sixth-seeded NMU is 15-18-5.
The win was BG’s first since Jan. 29, a 2-1 win against Lake Superior. The Falcons were 0-7-2 since.
“We weren’t great in the first period,” BG coach Chris Bergeron said. “I wasn’t overly thrilled with our
first period. But in the second and third periods, the attention to the details of our game was really
good. Ultimately, our execution, especially defensively, was very good. There were plays to be made and
we made them in all three zones for the most part. We stuck to it pretty well.”
Hammond made nine saves in each of the first two periods and added 11 stops in the third period. The
sophomore was coming off a rare off night Friday. He allowed four goals in just 25 shots before he was
replaced by Nick Eno with 13:59 left in the second period.
Hammond has a 2.60 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage in 24 games this season.
The playoff shutout was BG’s first since March 11, 1994 when Bob Petrie made 16 saves in a 3-0 win over
Ferris in Game 1 of a first-round series at the Ice Arena.
“He was solid, but he didn’t have to win the game single-handedly,” Bergeron said. “We were better
defensively tonight and our attention to detail in our own zone in terms of controlling time and space,
and stick position and so on, was good.
“They did have some time (in our defensive zone), but for the most part, we defended it pretty well and
the shots were either from the outside or not even going on the net. The shots that did go on net,
Hammond was good on.”
The Falcons killed off three NMU power plays before Samuels-Thomas opened the scoring at 7:44 of the
second period, just 26 seconds after leaving the penalty box.
The three NMU power plays resulted from two hooking penalties and a rough penalty in the offensive zone
by the Falcons.
“None of the penalties were very good,” Bergeron said. “We can’t give teams opportunities on the power
play. But we did a good job of killing them and that was a huge part of the game.”
Both teams were 0-of-3 on the power play.
Viselli added an empty-net goal with 1:03 remaining after NMU pulled goalie Reid Ellingson for the sixth
attacker.
Bergeron praised his team for its play in the third period. The Falcons have had trouble holding leads
all season, especially in the final period.
“For a team that hasn’t won very much, you’re always waiting for something bad to happen,” Bergeron said.
“We’re a team that’s had one-goal leads in the third period before and come out on the wrong side of the
result.
“Tonight, we kept pushing forward, we kept defending hard and making plays. We were focused on making
something good happen, instead of waiting for something bad to happen.”
If the Falcons win the series, they’ll travel to CCHA regular-season champion and fifth-ranked Michigan
(23-9-4) for a quarterfinal series next weekend.
But if NMU wins the series, it’ll travel to third-seeded and eighth-ranked Miami (19-9-6) in the
quarterfinals.
BGSU 2, NORTHERN MICHIGAN 0
GOALS BY PERIOD
BGSU 0 1 1 —2
NMU 0 0 0 —0
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: None
Penalties: Mohler, BG, hooking, 11:14; Wojtala, BG, hooking, 19:34.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 1, BG Samuels-Thomas 9 (Wojtala) 7:44.
Penalties: Samuels-Thomas, BG, roughing, 5:18; Gron, NMU, slashing, 10:58; Fernandez, NMU,
cross-checking, 19:22.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 2, BG Viselli 2 (Fink, Sloat) 18:57 (5-6 en).
Penalties: Brown, NMU, slashing, 2:09.
SAVES BY PERIOD
Hammond, BG 9 9 11 —29
Ellingson, NMU 3 6 9 —18
Goalie statistics (goals against/minutes played): (BG) Hammond 0/60; (NMU) Ellingson 1/58:37, Empty net
0/1:03.
Penalties-Minutes: BG 3-6, NMU 3-6 Power plays: BG 0-3, NMU 0-3. Attendance: 1,434.
