COLUMBUS — In a game that nearly mirrored Thursday night’s game, the Falcons dropped a 6 -1 decision to the Buckeyes at a packed Value City Arena in Columbus.
The Buckeyes once again dominated the shot total and put over a hundred shots on net for the weekend.
Friday night’s game got off to a fast start in favor the Buckeyes. To begin the first period, both teams played even and it seemed as though the Falcons were ready to play and hang tough with the No. 7 ranked Buckeyes. It ended though when the Buckeyes began to start putting more shots on net and were able to beat BG goaltender Tyler Masters at the 7:33 mark with a goal by Daymen Bencharski.
Just two minutes later Ohio State’s Ryan Kesler put a backhanded shot into the net and the Buckeyes had an early 2-0 lead.
At the end of the period, Ohio State had 18 shots on net compared to six for Bowling Green.
The second period got off to a good start for the Falcons as Kesler was called for tripping on a 4-on-4 situation. With 42 seconds remaining on their 4-on-3 power play the Falcons got their only goal of the night from Alex Rogosheske beating Dave Caruso for his second goal of the season with assists to Mark Wires and Kevin Bieksa to make it 2-1.
However, Erik Eaton got called for tripping at the 6:28 mark which setup a Buckeye power play goal by Scott May to push it to a two goal lead again.
Although he gave up six goals on the night, Tyler Masters came up with a lot of big saves on the evening for the Falcons including a big stop made on a breakaway by Ohio State’s R. J. Umberger in the second period.
His saves really kept the Falcons in it when the Buckeyes won a lot of face-offs in the zone which in turn generated into a lot of good scoring chances around the midway point of the second period.
“I thought Masters really allowed them to stay in the game when it was close,” said Ohio State head coach John Markel.
Going into the final period, Ohio State knew it was important to play a strong final period and not allow the Falcons to control the third period like they had the previous night.
“We definitely went into the locker room after the second period and made sure we would come out and have a strong third period compared to last night,” said Buckeye goaltender Dave Caruso.
The period began with the Falcons getting a golden opportunity to get back into it only down 3-1 as they had a 5-on-3 power play.
Ohio State was able to kill off the power play though and hit J. B. Bittner at the 1:53 mark to push the lead to 4-1.
Kesler added his second goal of the night just seven minutes later to push the Buckeye lead to 5-1.
Then to finish off the scoring Umberger scored on the power play with just six minutes left bringing it to 6-1 in favor of the Buckeyes.
The final shots on net ended up being 53 for Ohio State and 26 for the Falcons. It was a weekend in which head coach Scott Paulch said, Ohio State was able to control a lot of the down low play and really use their depth up front on his team.
“Ohio State really came out and established their down low pressure again and I thought we handled their second wave of attack better [Friday], but their strength and ability to create plays down low was the big difference this weekend,” Paulch said. “Their depth in the forwards and freshness was very evident in wearing us down all weekend.”
Tonight the Falcons will travel to Joe Louis Arena in Detroit to face the Wayne State Warriors in a non-league contest with a 7:35 face-off.
Wayne State comes in on a four game win streak and has beaten tough opponents such as, Ferris State and Princeton this season. Last season these two teams battled to a tie at the BGSU Ice Arena and the following night the Falcons were able to win at Wayne State 4-1.
The Falcons now at 5-15-2 overall and 3-12-2 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association will look to get back in the win column after being swept this past weekend in Columbus.
