It was a short lived Central Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs for the fifth-seeded Falcons as the eighth-seeded Nanooks of Alaska-Fairbanks came into the Ice Arena on Saturday night and ended BG’s season in a surprising 6-3 upset to complete a two-game sweep in the best-of-3 first round series.
The Falcons had come into the series having never lost a playoff series on home ice having gone 33-3-0 at home in their playoff history. But, Fairbanks didn’t pay much attention to that and got revenge for a two-game series back in January at the Ice Arena which saw the Falcons out-score the Nanooks 12-3 by scoring 12 goals of their own on the weekend.
“We talked of how these series wouldn’t be won on skill, but would be won on work ethic,” UAF head coach Tavis MacMillan said. “Courage, desire and heart — and that was one thing I thought our team didn’t play with the first time we came here — and I thought we did that this weekend, which kind of enabled us to have success.”
UAF’s desire and heart really seemed to be there all weekend as they out-worked the Falcons in the first game on Friday in a 6-3 win and continued to early in the game on Saturday.
The Nanooks came out strong again fore-checking and creating turnovers in the BG zone which proved costly. They would out-shoot BG 16-8 in the opening period and took a 2-0 lead to the first intermission.
Aaron Lee struck first on the power-play at the 15:44 mark as he knocked in a rebound in front off a shot by teammate Curtis Fraser. Then with just 52 seconds remaining in the period, Ryan Muspratt scored off a BG turnover on the left side of the net to give UAF the early two goal advantage.
BG would make its first of three comebacks on the night in the second then as James Unger scored on a back-hand in front off a nice play by Michael Hodgson stealing the puck and making quick pass over to Unger in the slot. However, the Falcons just couldn’t seem to get over the hump as UAF would answer back each time the Falcons got a goal closer to the equalizer.
“I think the one part of the weekend is we never had a lead on the weekend and when you’re at home you really got to take advantage of that,” head coach Scott Paluch said. “Even in the third if we could’ve got that game tied at times with some of the chances we could’ve gotten some of that home flavor back, but I thought Wylie Rogers was outstanding on the weekend and made all the key saves when he had to make them.”
Rogers, a freshman goaltender for the Nanooks was a big part of UAF’s success on the weekend and made 34 saves on 37 shots in the game keeping his team in the lead from start to finish each game.
He continued to make big saves in the second and after Unger’s goal had given BG some momentum, Ryan McLeod ended that when he stole the puck from a BG defenseman just outside the BG blue line. He then advanced it ahead to Kyle Greentree whose shot from the top of the slot bounced off Jordan Sigalet and in to make it 3-1 at 16:17.
“They did a great job of being opportunistic and capitalizing when the breakdowns were there,” said Paluch.
BG out-shot UAF 12-9 in the second and came out in a fury to start what would be their final period of the season.
Freshman Mike Nesdill scored his first collegiate goal just 2:02 into the period on the Falcons’ power-play to once again get Bowling Green a goal closer, but Lee would put UAF right back at a two goal cushion as he scored off a BG defenseman’s stick in front with just nine minutes remaining.
BG was 2-for-4 with the extra-man on the game while UAF was 1-for-2.
Jonathan Matsumoto scored BG’s second power-play goal just 1:55 later as BG desperately tried to keep their season alive, but that chance ended when Fraser put a shot past Sigalet (who made 27 saves on the night) with just 1:02 left to make it 5-3. UAF added an empty-net goal then with just 20 seconds left to give BG their fifth straight loss and ruin their first home playoff series in 10 seasons.
“You feel like with five minutes to go we’re going to pound one in, you just kind of felt the tides turning,” said BG senior tri-captain Alex Rogosheske of BG out-shooting Fairbanks 17-9 in the final period. “Then (Curtis) Fraser makes a nice play and puts a goal in — just kind of breaks your backs and that was just kind of the story of the weekend.”
Fairbanks will move on to Detroit to compete in the Super Six Championship while the Falcons will now have to move on to their off-season schedule.
“A lot of positive progress was made this year, there is no question about that,” said Paluch of the team’s season. “What we did over the course of the regular season was a big step forward and we took another notch forward in our overall makeup with that work ethic which is a staple that is really big for us.”
BG finished the regular season in fifth place of CCHA standings and had a record of 16-14-4 and CCHA record of 13-12-3. It was their first winning season since the 1996-97 season.
