BIG RAPIDS, Mich. – Bowling Green’s Cameron Wright couldn’t have picked a better time to snap his almost two-month scoring drought.
The freshman scored on a pair of power plays in the third period, helping the No. 19 Falcons complete a 6-3 comeback win Saturday at Ferris State.
Wright began the season on a point-collecting tear – even leading BG’s freshman class with 15 points – but he hadn’t scored since Nov. 11. His game-winner against the Bulldogs ended that streak and ensured his Falcons (11-6-6, 8-2-5 WCHA) remain in the hunt with Minnesota State and Northern Michigan for the conference title.
“It’s been awhile since I’ve scored, so that’s a bit of a relief, but it’s also huge for that big third period we had and to get those three points we needed because we didn’t want to walk away without getting all those three points,” Wright said.
The Newmarket, Ont. native said he relied on his teammates to maintain a positive attitude during the scoring drought.
“It’s tough. It’s definitely a lot on my teammates to keep boosting me up and keep telling me that it’s going to come,” Wright continued. “Personally, I just knew that I had that hot start, so I knew it was going to come back.
“I got to find the net eventually, so I needed to keep shooting and keep shooting for the net.”
Early goals from Tyler Spezia and Connor Ford gave the Falcons a 2-0 lead in the first, but Ferris responded with goals from Jacob Hetz and Marshall Moise to knot the score heading into the intermission.
Corey Mackin’s power-play goal at 19:37 of the second gave the Bulldogs a 3-2 advantage entering the final period.
However, Sam Craggs quickly tied the score at 2:43 of the third following a confident pep talk from the Falcons’ coaching staff.
And then Wright scored back-to-back goals within four minutes of each other. His first came at 4:26 when he ripped in a shot from Stephen Baylis and Alec Rauhauser during a 4-on-3 at 4:26.
His second was on a 5-on-3 at 8:05. Connor McDonald and Mitch McLain assisted.
“Coming out of the dressing room, we knew we were going to win the game,” Wright said. “We were playing too well, and they had some lucky goals that they probably didn’t deserve, so we knew we were going to get the bounces and get the power play.
“As a team, we just kept taking advantage of it and going from there.”
The power-play scores were a boon for the Falcons, whose success rate on the power play hovered around 8 percent earlier in the season. Now they’re just above 19 percent, which is third in the conference. They’ve scored four goals with a man-advantage in their last three games.
“We knew our power play needed to be better,” BG coach Chris Bergeron said. “Our first segment (of the winter) on our power play was not good at all. It was hovering around single digits most of the eight-game segment.
“So it’s been better to start (the new year), for sure. We know there’s going to be opportunities, and if we want to be the team we say we want to be, our power play is going to have to play better.”
Lukas Craggs pushed in one final goal at 9:41 to extend BG’s winning streak to three games, all of which have come in the state of Michigan since last week.
Eric Dop stopped 23 shots for BG, while Justin Kapelmaster had 38 saves for Ferris, which hosts BG for another WCHA match-up Sunday in Big Rapids.
