Bowling Green registered 24 shots on goal Friday night, but needed just one to topple Nebraska-Omaha.
Alex Rogosheske scored on the Falcons’ first shot on goal and goaltender Jordan Sigalet stopped all 31 Maverick shots as the Falcons rolled on to a 5-0 win at the Civic Auditorium.
“Our first shot on goal happened to come off a good forecheck and we got a 10-foot slapper in front of Danny Ellis,” Falcon coach Scott Paluch said. “That’s a hard first save for a goaltender to make.”
Early in the first period, Bowling Green killed a 5-on-3 power play. Sigalet made two key saves which led to the Falcon counterattack and the first goal.
“We were getting frustrated because we had some great shots and some great opportunities, but we just couldn’t bury it,” UNO winger Anthony Adams said.
The Falcons then capitalized on a 5-on-3 of their own by scoring two goals. Mark Wires scored his first of two power-play goals at 9:36 as his cross-ice pass went off UNO defenseman Joel Andresen’s skate and into the net. Rogosheske scored his second goal of the game just 58 seconds later by banging in a loose puck in the crease.
Those accounted for two of four Bowling Green power play goals on the night.
“From a consistency standpoint we were able to do a lot of things really well tonight for a long time,” Paluch said. “Our power play has been inconsistent at times, but tonight we kept possession in the offensive zone and that’s been the key to our power play.”
On top of making the first eight saves of the game, Sigalet had to stop breakaways by Maverick wingers Joe Pereira and David Brisson in the second period.
“Seeing those shots gets you into the game right away,” Sigalet said. “You get kind of cold if you don’t get a shot until the 10-minute mark or whatever, so it was nice to get those first few.”
The Falcons added to their 3-0 lead in the second period on Wires’ second power-play goal of the game. His wrist shot just slipped through Ellis and fell across the line.
A great individual effort by Mike Falk gave BGSU their last goal. Falk skated nearly coast to coast and deked Ellis low glove side.
Bowling Green remained soundly in 11th place in the league with the two points, but the Falcons don’t feel the season is over.
“People keep saying we’re not going anywhere in the standings and we’re just trying to make a statement,” Sigalet said.
The Mavericks, on the other hand, took a step back from the sweep of Ohio State a week ago.
“This is a tough one to figure out,” UNO coach Mike Kemp said. “You can’t give enough credit to Bowling Green. They came to work tonight, they created bounces and took advantage of their bounces.”
And for the second straight Friday night tempers flared at the Civic as another altercation broke out. All ten players on the ice were given penalties. Ben Assenmacher for Bowling Green and Mike Lefley of UNO will both sit Saturday night for getting fighting majors. The scrum resulted in 46 total penalty minutes.
The series concludes Saturday in Omaha.
