It was a long night for the Bowling Green Falcons at the Value City Arena in Columbus last night. The Ohio State Buckeyes came in as the No. 7 team in the national polls and on an eight game win streak and defeated the Falcons 6-3. It was a game in which Ohio State dominated the first two periods.
The first period of the game was dominated by the Buckeyes. They had 19 shots on goal compared to two for the Falcons. Just two minutes in, team captain Scott Titus got his first goal of the year for the Buckeyes ripping one past Jordan Sigalet to make it 1-0.
Just eight minutes later at the 10:58 mark, the Buckeyes scored again with Rob Pelley getting his fourth goal on the year. The period ended with the Falcons trailing 2-0. It was a period that Falcon assistant coach Kevin Patrick described as one where Ohio State won all the battles.
“The first period they won all the battles and all the races along the walls and in all three zones, said Patrick.”
In the second period the Falcons put up a fight, but still came out short on the scoring column. The Falcons had eight shots on the net compared to 16 for the Buckeyes in the period. Again Ohio State struck fast as Paul Caponigri got his seventh on the year at the 3:45 mark. Bowling Green answered back though just three minutes later on a goal by Kevin Bieksa from Mike Falk and Ryan Barnett to make it 3-1.
Doug Andress scored his third on the year for the Buckeyes a short time after that to push it back to a three goal cushion. Then Doug Andress scored his second of the night at the 15:35 mark ending the period with the Buckeyes on top 5-1.
Bowling Green started to win the battles and races which coach Patrick had described in the final period. Just two minutes into the period Mark Wires got his eighth of the year from Mike Falk. The Falcons looked to have some momentum going, but failed to capitalize on it.
With just thirteen seconds remaining the Falcons got their first power play goal on the night by Roger Leonard from Mark Wires. The Buckeyes added an empty netter to make the final 6-3. Patrick commented on how the Falcons showed some toughness and didn’t quite in the final period.
“That final period we started to win the battles more and got our second wave going which created scoring chances for us,” said Patrick. “We need to get into bodies and create turnovers, then get our second wave going better for us to win tomorrow night.”
The Falcons will go into tonight’s game riding some confidence from their strong third period, but know it won’t be easy against this Buckeye team. Ohio State is now (11-1) at home this year.
