OXFORD, Ohio — Bowling Green had taken control of the contest on hostile ice. Mark Friedman’s tying strike with 66 seconds remaining in regulation silenced the raucous RedHawks faithful. But a Stephen Baylis boarding in overtime gave Miami a power play, and Anthony Louis was left unchecked as he walked in on Falcons goaltender Chris Nell at the 2:55 mark.
One wrist shot later and the Falcons were forced off the ice empty handed Friday evening, with a 2-1 loss and still in search of their first win this season.
“We’re not going to talk about what could have happened and what should have happened,” Bowling Green bench boss Chris Bergeron lamented following his squad’s heartbreaker. “It would just be good to get off this losing situation that we’re in.”
It could be argued that this was the best 60 minutes and change that the Falcons have played so far this season. Nell’s bounce-back performance featured a number of marquee saves to keep his team in the game and the defensive corps, lead by captain Sean Walker, limited Miami to 14 total shots – less than half of the 29.4 shots the team averaged heading into the contest. But Bergeron and the boys are not in the business of celebrating moral victories.
“I thought we defended better and our goaltending was better,” Bergeron explained. “Other than that, we lost.”
For his part, Anthony Louis reprised his role as a thorn in the Falcons side. The junior’s Friday night tally sure had a familiar feel to it; the last time these two teams faced off at the Goggin Ice Center, Louis’s game-winning goal with two seconds left to play was the deciding factor in last season’s Jan. 16 win. The score of that contest? 2-1.
Here this evening, the RedHawks extended their unbeaten streak to five contests. In a game that saw them struggle to mount much of anything in the way of offense, the Red and White found a way to finish it off. The Falcons applied their trademark physical play at every turn and still the RedHawks managed to escape with the win, even though they were outplayed for a majority of the evening.
“It seemed like every time you’d get the puck, no matter where you were on the ice, you’d get crushed into the boards,” Carson Meyer, who posited the first goal of the game just 10 seconds into the final frame, said. “We couldn’t really get sustained pressure … but we got the win. We ended up getting the bounces, and I just know we are going to be a lot better tomorrow.”
For the fans in Oxford, Ohio, the game boasted everything but a high score: bruising play, a five-minute penalty kill that surrendered only one shot on goal and a spirit-killing equalizer with a minute remaining in regulation all made for an entertaining evening of hockey. But for Enrico Blasi’s RedHawks, it was another example of late game resiliency and a building block for future success.
“The things you can’t replicate in practice are the situations we’re going through,” Blasi said. “[It’s] an opportunity for us to gain experience. We’ve got to build on those experiences … and we’re reacting to it fairly well right now. We know we probably got outplayed tonight. Okay, now how are we going to react tomorrow? At the end of the day it’s an opportunity for the guys to grow.”
A victory on Saturday would cap a successful homestand for the RedHawks (3-1-2), who have remained unbeaten in their last five outings. The Falcons (0-6-1), however, just cannot seem to find that first win. The talent is certainly there, and the roster is not radically different from the one that managed a 22-14-6 record last year, so there is no need to hit the panic button just yet. But a win on the road against an in-state rival might be the spark this Bowling Green team needs to get the season back on track.
NCHC roundup
No. 10 St. Cloud State 5, Alabama-Huntsville 1
The Huskies’ four third period goals came in a span of five minutes Friday evening en route to a 5-1 route of the Chargers. This marks the third win in a row for St. Cloud, following last weekend’s road sweep of then-No. 7 Minnesota.
No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth 5, No. 1 North Dakota 2
The Bulldogs gained the series advantage in the first contest between the nation’s top two teams. Alex Iafallo’s hat trick included the game-winning goal and an empty-net insurance policy. The loss was the first of the season for the Fighting Hawks.
Omaha 5, No. 5 Massachusetts-Lowell 1
A first period goal was all the No. 5 River Hawks could muster. Tyler Vesel managed to register goals on both the power play and penalty kill Friday night in a game that saw four of the five Maverick tallies come in special teams situations.
