The Bowling Green power play finally stopped hitting the snooze button and woke up, carrying the Falcons to their first victory of the season.
After staring the year 1-for-29 with the man advantage the Falcons power-play units scored two goals in seven opportunities to give them a 4-2 victory over Alaska-Fairbanks.
“Getting the first win tonight and two points takes the heat off of a lot of guys,” Falcons coach Buddy Powers said. “Everybody feels pressure and you want to win. I think that we played a solid game tonight.”
The Falcons second power-play goal of the season was scored 12:55 into the second period on a one-timed bullet by defenseman Grady Moore that was set up by freshman Brian Escobedo and sophomore Ryan Fultz. The assist was Escobedo’s first point of his collegiate career.
The goal gave Bowling Green its first lead of the year until Nanook Troy Herman tied the game on the power play with his second goal of the season. Felipe Larranaga and Pat Hallett were credited with the power-play assists.
The third period is where the Falcons controlled the tempo of the game. Senior left winger Ryan Murphy netted his first goal of the year when he deflected a Kevin Bieska shot past Alaska-Fairbanks goaltender Preston McKay.
Bowling Green added an insurance goal with less than 10 minutes to go when Fultz gathered an Escobedo rebound by kicking the puck to his stick and lifting it up over McKay for the Falcons second power-play goal of the game.
Seven different Falcons got a point during the night. “A far as I am concerned balance is the key to our scoring,” Powers said. “If we get balance we can be pretty good, but of course when we struggle for that balance it’s hard to put up those kind of numbers.”
The Falcons almost got a third power-play goal in the first period when junior Greg Day scored his fourth goal in two games three seconds after Herman came out of the box.
The Nanooks’ Jim Lawrence scored the first goal of the game on the power play when he deflected fellow teammate Bobby Andrews shot with the shaft of his stick. Alaska-Fairbanks also went 2-for-7 on its power-play chances.
The man with the quietest but most productive performance was Bowling Green netminder Tyler Masters. Masters faced 21 shots on goal, quite a contrast to last Sunday, when Masters saw Michigan shoot 20 at him in the first period alone.
“It was good to get a lead and play with a lead,” Masters said. “It was a bit of a chance to have a lead for we have not had one all year. The defense played well so I really did not have to do a whole lot.”
On the other side of the rink Nanook McKay stopped 23 out of 27 shots by the Falcons, bringing the freshman’s record to 0-2. Alaska-Fairbanks coach Guy Gadowski said sophomore Lance Mayes will start for the return match on Saturday.
