It was a big night for the future of the Bowling Green hockey team on Friday, as the Falcons beat the University of Windsor 9-2 in exhibition play. Five of the team’s newcomers had points, and it was a night where the team showed how far they have come from a year ago.
“I enjoyed the competitive flair of our team tonight,” BG coach Scott Paluch said. “I think we proved for three periods that we’re a quicker team than last year.”
The Falcons came out and were attacking the puck right off of the opening face-off. Just 3:17 into the first period, Bryan Dobek’s high slapper in front found the back of the net with the assists going to Dana Hanson and D’Arcy McConvey to give BG a 1-0 lead. A breakdown on the defensive end led to a Windsor goal by Alex White just a minute later to even up the game at 1-1.The Falcons continued to pile up the shots and Steve Brudzewski put one right between Windsor goalie Jay Ewasiuk’s legs to give the Falcons a 2-1 lead, which they would never give up. Mark Wires would add a power play goal with 3:08 left in the period to give BG a 3-1 lead at the first intermission.
In the second period, the Falcons picked up the offense even more and added five goals to only one for Windsor. Newcomer James Unger got a goal to go along with two assists he had in the first. Wires added another goal to his total of two goals on the night and Brett Pilkington picked up one of his three assists. The Falcons took a 8-2 lead to the intermission.
Ryan Barnett was the star of the period getting two goals and two assists to finish the night with four points.
“We worked hard in the off-season and it was good to see it pay off tonight,” Barnett said.
Ryan Minnabariet added the last goal of the period and had an assist in the period to finish with two points.Also getting points in the period were Don Morrison, Rich Meloche, Kevin Bieksa and Chris Pedota.
Both teams changed up the goalies in the period, as BG put in Bob Frazee in place of Jordan Sigalet and Windsor put in Scott Murray to replace Ewasiuk.
In the final period, BG continued to dominate and put shots on net.Dobek added his second goal of the night off assists from McConvey and Bieksa to put the final tally on the board.Bobby Pruchnik came in with 11 minutes left to finish the game in net for the Falcons.
In the end, 13 different Falcons had scored points on the night.Getting goals were Dobek, Barnett, Minnabariet, Wires, Brudzewski and Unger. The assisters were McConvey, Hanson, Barnett, Minnabariet, Pilkington, Meloche, Unger, Mike Falk, Bieksa and Pedota.
Sigalet played well in the net and had some big stops early in the game, including a breakaway save. His backups didn’t allow a goal and were also solid in the plays they saw.
“Jordan came up with some big saves for us when the outcome was in question still and all our goalkeeping was solid tonight for the most part,” Paluch said.
Bowling Green ended the game with 47 shots on net and finished 2-for-7 on the power play, along with getting a shorthanded goal. Six players were scratches for the game and with the success of the newcomers, the team knows that they will be fighting for playing time.
“I think you can see with the freshmen coming in, we’re all going to be fighting for spots on the ice every week,” Barnett said. “It definitely has made us older players pick up our play and become more competitive in practice along with our play on the ice.”
The Falcons will begin their season next weekend with Friday and Saturday night games at Northern Michigan. This will also mark their first Central Collegiate Hockey Association games this season.
