The Bowling Green Falcons (11-11-1, 7-9-1 CCHA) played a strong 60 minutes and lit the lamp five times en route to a 5-2 victory over the Western Michigan Broncos (5-14-3, 5-9-2).<\/p>\n
“We were able to limit Western’s speed and odd man rushes,” said Falcons head coach Scott Paluch.<\/p>\n
The first period ended scoreless as Bronco netminder Daniel Bellissimo and Bowling Green netminder Jimmy Spratt made 8 saves and 6 saves, respectively. Although both teams had their chances including a power play for each team, both goalies stood on their heads.<\/p>\n
The second period, however, was a different story, as the Broncos got on the board first when Mike Erickson lit the lamp for the sixth time this season. Erickson took a pass off the boards from Mike Lesperance, used a Bowling Green defender as a screen and beat Spratt high on the glove side. The goal came four minutes into the second period while Brett John was serving a minor penalty.<\/p>\n
“Me and Lesperance have been working on that, trying to pop a shorthanded goal,” Western Michigan captain Erickson said. “He passed it up the boards to create a one-on-one situation and I used the D for a screen and put all I could on it.”<\/p>\n
Mike Lesperance added another tally for the Broncos just under four minutes later. Brian Bicek dropped the puck to Lesperance who snapped a shot and beat Spratt five hole, giving the Broncos a 2-0 lead eight minutes into the second period.<\/p>\n
Derek Whitmore answered right back when he took a one-time feed from Brett Pilkington and beat Bellissimo as he was sliding across the cease. The second assist went to James Unger. Bowling Green trailed, 2-1, with 11:45 to go in the second period.<\/p>\n
Erickson seemed to add his second of the contest and give the Broncos a 3-1 lead on the power play when he deflected a shot from the point. However, referee Craig Lisko immediately waved the goal off.
\nLisko then skated over to the Broncos penalty box and looked at the goal on reply.<\/p>\n
“It was pretty close. I didn’t feel that I had my stick up that high but that’s why they have replay,” Erickson commented.<\/p>\n
Lawson Ice Arena is one of three CCHA arenas who are experimenting with instant replay.<\/p>\n
“I’m in total favor of it (replay). I was one who really pushed for it. I feel we really need it in college hockey and in our league,” Culhane said.<\/p>\n
Bowling Green scored its second goal while on the power play when Pilkington took a shot through a screen and beat Bellissimo. Bellissimo had lost his stick and blocker while making a diving save just a few ticks earlier. Mike Nesdill and James Unger were credited with the assists on the play.<\/p>\n
“I know when the helmet comes off the whistle is blown. If you lose another piece of equipment I’m not sure on that ruling,” Culhane said.<\/p>\n
Mike Falk gave the Falcons a 3-2 heading into the locker room when he beat Bellissimo low to the stick side during a scramble out front of the net. Alex Foster was given his 31st assist of the season and Jonathan Matsumoto received his 19th assist of the season.<\/p>\n
7:11 into the third period, Matsumoto scored his 13th goal of the season and gave the Falcons a commanding 4-2 lead. Matsumoto beat Bellissimo low to the stick side. Jon Ralph got an assist on the goal, his first of the season.<\/p>\n
John Mazzei finished the scoring with 4:57 left in the game when he and Ben Geelan broke in on a two-on-one rush. Mazzei beat Bellissimo low to the glove side. Bryan Dobek was also given an assist on the game.<\/p>\n
“I’m really happy with the effort bouncing back. It was a pretty critical game after yesterday’s game. I think Western really took it to us yesterday,” Paluch said.<\/p>\n
The Broncos finished the game with 20 shots on goal and were 0-for-5 on the power play. The Falcons sent 34 shots Bellissimo’s way and finished 1-for-5 on the power play.<\/p>\n
The Broncos travel to Oxford, Ohio to face off with the first place Miami RedHawks (15-4-4, 12-3-2) next week, while Bowling Green plays host to Ferris State (9-8-5, 4-6-4) on Tuesday, Jan. 16 and then play a home-and-home series with the Michigan Wolverines (13-7-1, 8-4-1).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Bowling Green Falcons (11-11-1, 7-9-1 CCHA) played a strong 60 minutes and lit the lamp five times en route to a 5-2 victory over the Western Michigan Broncos (5-14-3, 5-9-2). “We were able to limit Western’s speed and odd man rushes,” said Falcons head coach Scott Paluch. The first period ended scoreless as Bronco […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6988"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}