The No. 13/12 BGSU Hockey team lit the lamp four times in a 4-1 win while simultaneously taking game one of the weekend series against No. 11/11 Quinnipiac from the People’s United Center on the campus of Quinnipiac University.
Special teams were the story for the Falcons as they went 2-for-6 on the extra man advantage, and were perfect on the penalty kill with seven opportunities.
BGSU Stat Facts:
-Junior Alex Barber scored one goal and two assists, pushing his point scoring streak to four games.
-Junior forward Taylor Schneider lit the lamp for the second time this season, while also extending his point streak to four games.
-Senior captain Connor Ford picked up his fourth assist on the year, giving him a two-game point scoring streak.
-Alternate captain Brandon Kruse notched his third goal of the campaign, lengthening his point scoring streak to two games.
-Senior winger Cam Wright also spanned his point streak to two games, after he assisted on Kruse’s goal in the third period.
1st period:
Things started even during the first few minutes as each team was getting used to playing against each other. With Bowling Green on the power play, junior forward Barber tipped home a shot from defenseman Tim Theocharidis at 14:19 of the first period. Sophomore TJ Lloyd picked up the second assist on Barber’s fifth goal of the campaign.
In the waning seconds of the opening frame, BGSU went back on the power play and they struck gold once again, this time from Schneider with only 30 seconds left. The junior from Lakeville, Minn. scored his second goal of the year after his shot redirected off of a Bobcat defender. Alex Barber and Sam Craggs assisted on the play.
Bowling Green continued to dominate the shot department after the first period as they put up 17 shots while Quinnipiac only managed to take two shots on goal.
2nd period:
The middle stanza didn’t have any goal scoring, but Bowling Green goaltender Zach Rose came up with a few huge stops to keep his team in front. There were a plethora of penalties and at one point, the Falcons successfully killed off a 5-on-3 Quinnipiac power play after Wright and Kruse combined for two penalties on the same preceding play.
At the end of 40 minutes from Hamden, BGSU put up 11 shots while the Bobcats mustered five for a subtotal of 28-7 in favor of Bowling Green.
3rd period:
With the same score heading into the final frame, it remained even throughout. With his team on the power play, Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold pulled his goalie for the 6-on-4 advantage with over six minutes remaining in the period. BGSU’s Evan Dougherty took advantage of the situation and potted his second goal of the year, with an assist from Ford at 13:49 of the period.
Then, just over a minute later, the Bobcats finally solved Rose with a shot from the blueline on the left point. Zach Metsa scored the lone assist on Bochen’s second tally of the season.
But the Bowling Green lead would once again be pushed to three as Vegas Golden Knights prospect, Kruse, slid the puck into another empty net, scoring his third goal of the year and stabbing the dagger into the heart of Quinnipiac at 17:32 of the third period.
Quinnipiac, despite surrendering two empty-net goals, led in shot-on-goal that period by shooting 17 pucks at Rose while Bowling Green directed 11 shots at Quinnipiac goalie Keith Petruzzelli.
The final shot total stood at 39-24 in favor of Bowling Green.
Both squads conclude their two-game, non-conference series Saturday night at 7:00 PM. The game can be streamed with a subscription to ESPN+.
