The Bowling Green hockey team earned their first season-opening victory in four seasons Friday after beating Niagara 4-1 at the Lefty McFadden Invitational in Dayton.
The Falcons advanced to the finals Saturday and lost 2-1 to Miami to give BG and first-year head coach Scott Paluch an overall record of 1-1.
“We were real excited about the Niagara game,” Paluch said. “It was a real good official start to the year. We saw a lot of strong play from a lot of guys starting with Tyler Masters in goal.”
Masters registered 23 saves off of 24 shots on goal.
“We had some tremendous saves from Masters,” Paluch said. “He was in good positions to make some saves.”
However, Masters wasn’t the only one who had a good game for the Falcons.
Junior Roger Leonard scored the first goal of the regular season for the Falcons on a back-hander from just outside the crease to give BG a 1-0 lead.
Niagara, however, answered back in the second period to tie the game at one apiece.
Then junior Mark Wires scored the game-winner with a power play goal that was set up by freshman Mike Falk and Leonard.
“We had a real strong enthusiasm and the competitive level was really high,” Paluch said. “We were able to make plays down the stretch in the third period.”
The Falcons cut down the opportunities by Niagara in the third period and stepped up on offense creating more scoring chances.
Sophomore Ryan Minnabarriet extended the Falcons’ lead to two goals at 17:12. He came back with two seconds left on the clock and added another power play goal to give the Falcons a 4-1 victory.
BG advanced to the championship game and faced Miami, who defeated Air Force 12-1 in the first round.
“Through most of the night we competed hard,” Palcuh said. “Miami was able to get to a lot more pucks and win a lot more loose puck battles then we were and because of that they were able to generate more scoring chances.”
Miami had a 40-22 shot advantage over the Falcons, but Masters was able to keep BG in the game with 38 saves on 40 shots. He made 61 saves on 64 shots faced in the two games and earned a spot on the All-Tournament team.
“Masters was very strong in goal again,” Paluch said. “He gave us a chance down the stretch. He was real solid all weekend.”
The Redhawks had the first break scoring at 4:06 in the second period. However, Wires answered back for the Falcons on a power play at 8:35 on a pass by Brian Escobedo to tie the game 1-1.
“Mark [Wires] had a very good weekend,” Paluch said. “He’d been injured with a fractured rib and it was first game action. I thought he gave us a real good lift. His speed was a factor on the ice.”
Wires finished the weekend with two power play goals and an assist in the two games to earn a spot on the All-Tournament team.
Miami broke the tie at 13:36 in the third period to give the Redhawks a 2-1 victory.
On the weekend the Falcons opponents were 0-for-10 on the power play while BG was 3-for-10 with the man advantage.
“Our power play and penalty kill was exceptional all weekend,” Paluch said. “We were creating some chances with a man down and generating a lot of momentum. Our entire special teams gave us a pretty good lift as a team.”
Not only did the special teams have a great weekend, but according to Paluch one line really stood out.
“I thought the entire line of Steve Brudzewski, Mark Wires and Ryan Minnabarriet was very strong throughout the whole weekend,” Paluch said. “They scored the big goal Saturday and on Friday to make it a two goal game to give us a 3-1 lead. They were solid. They were our most consistent line throughout the whole weekend.”
