It may be safe to say that the power play is the key to the Bowling Green hockey team’s amount of success on the ice early in this season.
Thus, after six straight failures on the man advantage through 50 minutes of play Saturday night against Findlay, there was no doubt that Brett Pilkington’s power-play goal at 9:29 of the third period sparked his team. That’s what those kinds of goals do.
“We were fortunate to capitalize on that power play,” Coach Scott Paluch said. “That gave us a little bit of momentum there. … We started to get more pucks to the net [on later power plays]. I think we’ve been a perimeter power play in the last three games, and we haven’t gotten enough pucks to the net. We were able to crash the net, and get the puck there, and Pilkington was able to get to the net and put a rebound home. We were able to create that by creating some traffic.”
In a very apparent trend, the power play has been the story thus far this season for the Falcons. Through seven games, BG is 7-31 on the power play. Against Niagara in the season opener in Dayton, BG was 2-4 with the extra man, and won 4-1. But, against Miami the next night, they were only 1-6 in a 2-1 loss.
Against Western Michigan two weekends ago, BG held a 5-3 lead with 10 minutes to go, and despite losing, they finished the game 3-6 on the power play. In the next night’s loss, they were 0-2 in a 3-2 loss.
In a sweep last weekend at the hands of Ferris State, where the Bulldogs outscored BG 15-2, the Falcons finished 0-6. Thus, Pilkington’s goal, ending two and one-half periods of frustration with a Findlay player in the penalty box, shifted the momentum to the home side, along with the support of the crowd.
The Oilers, who brought quite a contingent from 20 miles south, had controlled the action and kept the Falcons’ powerful power-play unit at bay with the help of a raucous supporting cast from the stands.
“One of our goals is to give the fans, the community and the students a team that works hard and feed off the energy we can get in this building,” Paluch said. “It’s a loud, fun building to play in, and I we want to make sure we are giving that effort that the fans deserve.”
Defenseman Kevin Bieksa agreed that the power play goal turned the game around.
“We got lots of shots on net [on our power play],” Bieksa said.
“Their goalie played really well, but that brings the team up when you score goals, especially on the power play. Now, everyone has an extra step, everyone’s going harder. The other team’s on their heels, and it definitely changed the momentum of the game.”
