Big Rapids, Mich. – The inability to produce points at opportune moments in a hockey game has been a regular conundrum for the BGSU hockey team in the first three weeks of the season.
The Falcons’ lack of scoring on the power play and inability to capitalize on good scoring chances has cost them games that could have gone their way.
That problem continued Saturday at Ferris State, as once again the Falcons saw golden opportunities pass them by as Ferris held on for a 2-1 win despite being out-shot 28-24. The loss dropped the Falcons to 0-4-1 overall and 0-2-1 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
“We’re not getting enough production out of our team right now,” BG coach Scott Paluch said. “It was another solid road effort there that we couldn’t take advantage of.”
Whether it was five-on-five, four-on-four, five-on-four or even five-on-three, the Falcons just couldn’t get their sticks going again as yet another key league game slipped on by.
The BG power play went 0-6 on the night as they struggled to get quality shots off and missed on numerous passes that could have put them in good scoring positions.
“The power play didn’t do a good job especially on the five-on-three when we really needed to get some chances,” Paluch said. “We missed on a couple of first passes which really hurt and we need to have the guys continue to put the pucks in the areas that they’re most comfortable with.”
With nine minutes left in the game, trailing 2-1, the Falcons had a five-on-three opportunity that they couldn’t take advantage of and mustered a few chances as Ferris killed off yet another penalty. BG would only get five shots off with the extra-attacker.
Eric Vesley would put home the game-winner as his shot was able beat BG goaltender Jon Horrell for an unassisted goal at the 18:06 mark of the first period.
Horrell would go on to make 22 saves as he earned third star honors on the night.
“I thought he (Horrell) was outstanding,” Paluch said. “He made some terrific saves early on – let us get our game going.”
Mitch O’Keefe was also outstanding on the night for Ferris as he came away with first star honors after stopping 27 BG shots.
Only seven of those shots would come in the first period, as Ferris came out and put pressure on Horrell early as they generated 11 shots to begin the game.
Matt Stefanishion got the scoring started at the 14:49 mark as his shot beat Horrell as BG struggled early on with the transition.
“One of the things that happen when you are struggling to score goals, you will make a riskier pass and try to do too much,” Paluch said. “The transition game gave Ferris some good chances.”
Vesley would follow Stefanishion’s goal just 3:17 later to give Ferris a 2-0 lead heading to the intermission.
BG would then come out in the second period and would start to apply a little more pressure. They out-shot the Bulldogs 10-8 in the period and would do a much better job in transition as they tried to climb back in it.
Mike Falk would score the lone tally of the night for the Falcons at the 9:45 mark of the period when he was able to deflect a hard shot past O’Keefe from the point to make it 2-1. Michael Hodgson and Rich Meloche picked up the assists on Falk’s third goal of the season as he continued his two-game goal streak.
“We did a great job as the game went on of not giving up a lot chances,” Paluch said. “Very little of the night we spent in the defensive zone on a sustained basis and I think we did an outstanding job of coming back on transition defense and getting the pucks out of the danger areas.”
Though the defense picked up for BG in the final two periods, they still had problems creating good shots. Once again in the third period the Falcons would out-shoot Ferris, but couldn’t get quality shots in front of the net as the two teams failed to score in the final stanza.
“The bottom line is we just couldn’t score out there,” forward Jonathan Matsumoto said. “Coaches just told us to stay positive. We have a good team here and if we just keep working hard the wins are going to come.”
Only four upperclassmen have been able to score on the season as 7-of-13 goals scored have come from the freshmen or sophomores. Matsumoto leads the team with four goals and ranks first in the CCHA averaging two points per game.
