Two goals apiece in the second and third period and a 36 save effort by Pat Inglis allowed Lake Superior to complete the sweep of Bowling Green, winning 5-2 Saturday night.
The win was Lake Superior’s second weekend sweep of the season and first in CCHA play, improving them to 8-7-3 (5-6-1-0 CCHA), while Bowling Green dropped to 2-12-2 (2-8-2-2).
For Inglis, the win was even bigger, as the senior netminder had struggled this season, posting an .871 save percentage and 4.88 GAA.
“I’ve been working hard in practice, and it was good to finally get in there and I’m glad we got the win,” Inglis said.
Inglis actually only got the start due to a minor hip injury to starting goalie Brian Mahoney-Wilson, who had stopped 20 shots in a 2-1 victory the night before.
For the second straight night, Lake Superior jumped out to the early lead, this time just 2:21 into the first period.
A seemingly weak shot from the top of the right circle by Pat Aubry was poorly handled by Bowling Green goalie Nick Eno, who allowed a big rebound off his right pad that bounced right to John Scrymgeour, who scored his second goal of the season.
James Perkin tied the game for Bowling Green at the 16:26 mark of the first period when he was able to beat Lake Superior center Zac MacVoy one-on-one, putting the puck between MacVoy’s legs near the blue line, finding space to wire a slap shot into the top half of the net.
Both Eno and Inglis played well in the first period, stopping 12 and 10 shots respectively.
Inglis had to make several big stops earlier then his counterpart in the opposite net, as he denied David Solway twice in the first half of the period. His first big stop came just under six minutes into the contest when he made a sliding pad save to derail a Bowling Green two-on-one. About three minutes later, Inglis came up big again, stopping a one-timer from just below the circles.
“If you’re going to win in this league, your goalie has to good,” Lake Superior coach Jim Roque said. “Teams like us, Bowling Green, Western, Ferris if we are going to win in opposing teams’ buildings, our goalies have to play good.”
After Inglis’ two big saves, Eno was tested on the other end, first making two pad saves during a Lakers’ power play and then denying Dan Barczuk on a breakaway with two seconds remaining.
Despite his strong play in the first period, Eno couldn’t hold off the Lakers in the second period, as he surrendered two goals in a span of 28 seconds.
Lake Superior retook the lead with 10:56 remaining in the second period when Eno couldn’t handle the initial shot from MacVoy and Barczuk was able to lift the puck over the goalie’s left pad.
Less then 30 seconds later, Lake Superior struck again, as Eno struggled to hold another rebound and Rick Schofield shoveled the puck home.
Schofield’s goal was his sixth of the season and chased Eno for Bowling Green backup goaltender Andrew Hammond.
“It’s a team game and to say it’s the goalie’s fault on all those goals is wrong,” Bowling Green coach Dennis Williams said. “We just tried to spark something, and I’ve said this all year long, we’re confident in both our goalies.”
Following the quick two-goal strike, neither team could find the back of the net again until Nick McParland scored his first collegiate goal about five minutes into the third period.
With Lake Superior on the power play, McParland collected a loose puck off of Hammond’s pad and scored from the top of the crease.
“That power-play goal in the third was a big goal,” Roque said.
Following McParland’s power-play tally, Bowling Green came close to answering on the man advantage, but weren’t able to put the puck past the scrambling Lake Superior defense and Inglis.
Bowling Green eventually added their second goal when Tommy Dee beat Inglis five-hole from David Solway and Jordan Samuels-Thomas.
However, those positive feelings on the Bowling Green bench disappeared quickly, as Lake Superior responded with a goal 58 seconds later by Dillin Stonehouse, who one-timed a pass from Schofield past Hammond.
Following Lake Superior’s quick bounce-back goal they were able to hold off the Falcons the rest of the way for the win.
Next weekend Lake Superior will host rival Northern Michigan, while Bowling Green will play a home-and-home series with Michigan State.
