When it rains it pours, and that is exactly what happened Friday night at the BGSU Ice Arena.
The Falconshad their biggest goal output since Feb. 13, 1999, dominating the Miami RedHawks and winning 9-4.
Forth the eighth game this season the Falcons gave up the first goal of the game when Evan Cheverie scored on a delayed BGSU penalty. The senior put in a wrap-around goal 3:07 into the first period.
The Falcons countered with a power-play goal by leading scorer Greg Day 37 seconds later, and Bowling Green scored only 15 seconds later when freshman Steve Brudzewski found the puck in front of Miami goaltender David Burleigh who was out of position when Brudzewski backhanded it into the net, his first collegiate goal.
“It was huge to get that goal back,” BG head coach Buddy Powers said. “We won the draw and then made the play. What was bigger was going up 2-1 right after that.”
The two quick goals gave the Falcons a one-goal lead but the Redhawks bounced back. Miami’s Jason Deskins put away a Danny Stewart pass with a one-time shot at the 7:58 mark, but that was the last time they were in contention in this game.
The deluge started when Day got his second goal of the game as he slammed home a pass by new line mate Austin de Luis during a four-on-four situation with 11:56 left in the first period. With 5:25 still to go in the first BG third line center Ryan Wetterberg got his third goal of the season with his line mates Tyler Knight and Colen Pappas getting assists.
Unfortunately for Miami there were still two periods to play and it would only get worse. The Falcons got a power play goal 8:38 into the second when defenseman Marc Barlow banged a shot off the cross bar and forced Miami head coach Enrico Blasi to pull Burleigh for backup goaltender David Bowen. The change did not help.
“BG was the better team tonight,” Blasi said. “We know better that BG is a good team and if you don’t come out and play you get beat and that’s what happened tonight.”
The quiet Wetterberg finished a career evening, earning his second goal of the night 10:05
into the second; it was his highest total in one game in his four-year career at BG. His career goal total going into this season was five, and he’s netted four so far this year.
“I don’t think I have changed a thing,” Wetterberg said about his newfound knack for the net. “I’m just going on pretty much confidence right now and I am getting that by scoring goals. In practice this week we tried to just get it on net and bury it and that’s what we did tonight.”
BG defenseman Grady Moore finished off a career night of his own with a goal 9:08 left in the second period, which gave him three assists and one goal for a total four points.
“You never know when you are going to get points,” Moore said. “You just have to focus on defense and they will come. Tonight guys were just shooting the puck and making quick passes. It was just simple hockey.”
The Falcons finished the night 3-for-5 on the power play while the RedHawks went 1-for-8.
BG freshman Ryan Minnabarriett kept his team lead in goals with his fourth and fifth goals of the season in the second and third periods.
The loss is the RedHawks’ (5-3-1, 3-1-1) first in league play while the Falcons improve to 2-5-2 (2-4-1 CCHA). The teams meet again Saturday night in the BGSU Ice Arena.
