Bowling Green Falcons forward Ryan O’Hara (20) and Minnesota State Mavericks defenseman Jordan Power (13) look for the puck as they skate around the net during the first period of a hockey game on Saturday at the Slater Family Ice Arena. Minnesota State defeated Bowling Green 4-1. (Scott W. Grau|Sentinel-Tribune)
By Ben Shanahan
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
Minnesota State forced a series split by defeating Bowling Green State University hockey, 4-1, on Saturday at the Slater Family Ice Arena.
BGSU coach Ty Eigner said Minnesota State brought more energy than the Falcons.
“Disappointing result,” Eigner said. “We felt like we had a really good opportunity to get six points, and what I mean by that is if we played hard, it was something that could happen.
“Unfortunately, we did not play as hard as we did last night, and Minnesota State did. We knew they would come back and play well.
“They were not going to show up tonight and get an easy three points. It was frustrating that we were not able to have the weekend we wanted to have,” continued Eigner.
The first period was filled with penalties as both teams combined for 12 minutes in the box. The first penalty was served with 16:48 remaining as Minnesota State sophomore Luc Wilson was called for a crosscheck.
Twenty seconds after the penalty was killed, both teams played 4-on-4 as a post-whistle scrum resulted in BGSU sophomore Jaden Grant and Minnesota State senior Tony Malinowski being caught for roughing and sitting for the full two minutes as both teams killed off the penalty.
MSU got its first power play with 10:37 remaining in the period as BG freshman Breck McKinley, who returned from injury last night, was called for boarding.
Forty-five seconds later, BG went down another man as fellow freshman Gustav Stjernberg was called for kneeing, sending the Mavericks on a 5-on-3. Fortunately for the Falcons, they killed off both penalties with 7:51 remaining in the first frame.
BG got another chance to break the scoreless tie as they headed back on the power play when Minnesota State junior Kaden Bohlsen sat for two minutes for a trip, but the game remained scoreless as MSU killed off the minor penalty once again.
The Mavericks finally broke the tie on the power play as another BG freshman headed to the box. This time, it was Ben Doran for hooking, and 39 seconds later, Sam Morton fired a puck, beating BGSU goaltender Christian Stoever, making the game 1-0 with 3:12 left in the first.
The refs had one more penalty to give out before both teams went for the intermission break, as BG ended the period with the man advantage after Lucas Sowder was called for a late interference call.
Minnesota State kicked off the second period by killing off the rest of Sowder’s interference penalty. The second was much different than the first, as there were only two official penalty minutes, those coming from Doran, who this time was called for interference but later killed off by the Falcon penalty killers.
Mankato extended their lead as, once again, in a crowded crease, they would capitalize. Stoever never saw Bohlsen shoot past him, making it 2-0. Forty-eight seconds later, Sowder joined the scoring party, and MSU would head into final period up three.
Bowling Green would have an early man advantage in the third to break into a Minnesota State three-goal lead as MSU freshman Brett Moravec was called for a high stick, but the Mavericks power play converted on its fourth penalty kill of the game and kept the Falcons scoreless.
With 12:39 remaining, BG had another chance but did not succeed once again on the power play as Luc Wilson hit BG freshman Brandon Santa Juana hard into the board, forcing Santa Juana to leave the game and Wilson to head to the box for boarding.
Just over a minute and four seconds into that power play, it ended for the Falcons as a junior defenseman was called for interference, and both teams played 4-on-4 hockey but eventually killed their respective penalties off.
Then, the same thing happened again, but in reverse. This time, Minnesota State got the initial powerplay, as BGSU 6-foot-4, 208 pound freshman defenseman Gustav Stjernberg headed back to the box for a trip, and 12 seconds later, Wilson headed back to the box for a slash, sending both teams back to a 4-on-4 that was killed off by both teams.
With 5:51 left in regulation, tempers finally boiled over as Jordan Power slashed BG junior Owen Ozar and pouches were thrown between them, as well as Bohlsen and Doran, all of whom would be sent off with 10-minute game misconducts, with BG going on the power play for the initial slash.
A minute into that power play, the Falcons broke up Minnesota State goaltender Alex Tracy’s shutout as sophomore Dalton Norris’s short was tipped in by senior Sethe Fyten, making the game 3-1 with 4:49 left.
Mankato killed the Falcon fan comeback hope as Adam Eisele scored on a two-on-nothing breakaway, beating Stoever and forcing a split with a 4-1 win.
