Bowling Green State University
Colgate
Falcons Continue Streak, Upend Colgate 4-0
January 03, 2006 | Ice Hockey
Jan. 3, 2006
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Behind their most impressive defensive effort of the season, the BGSU hockey team upset the #14 Colgate Raiders 4-0 Tuesday night inside the BGSU Ice Arena. The win improves the Falcons to 8-11-1 and increases their win streak to four games, the most since the 2000-01 season, when they won five straight.
"Obviously this was a real solid game for our team," said head coach Scott Paluch. "This is the best game we have had from start to finish all season long, and it was against a real good hockey team. They have won a lot of hockey games for a reason, and I thought our team did a fantastic job right away in the first period."
Freshman Brandon Svendsen spotted the Falcons an early lead picking up a power-play goal at the 14:32 mark. His goal extended his point streak to a career-high six games. Sophomores Jonathan Matsumoto and Michael Hodgson picked up assists on the man advantage.
Though the Svendsen goal was the lone tally of the first period the Falcons came to play in the opening 20 minutes, out-shooting the Raiders 18-7.
The second period was more of the same for the Brown and Orange after senior Brett Pilkington recorded his fourth goal of the season. Hodgson passed the puck up to Pilkington, who slide it over to junior James Unger. Unger stopped at the blueline and Pilkington drove right to the net. Unger led Pilkington beautifully and allowed the senior forward to roof the puck past CU's Mark Dekanich for a 2-0 BGSU advantage.
With the way the Falcons were playing collectively as a group the Alex Foster goal at the 10:42 mark of the second seemed to seal the deal for BGSU. Foster intercepted a clearing pass between the circles and fired a wrister towards the top part of the cage, just over the glove hand of Dekanich.
BGSU put one more goal on the board late in the third period off the stick of senior Ryan Barnett. Hodgson picked up his third point of the night after dumping the puck behind the net to Jon Erickson, who found Barnett all alone in front of the Raider net. Barnett went five-hole for the Falcons final goal of the contest.
BGSU has13 goals in the last two games and 12 different Falcons have scored those goals.
For the night BGSU was 1-for-7 on the power play, but held Colgate scoreless with the man advantage, going 0-for-5 on the night. As a side note, the Falcons had 10 on the power play, but limited the Raiders to only three shots in their five attempts.
Lost in all the scoring of late is senior Jon Horrell. Twelve hours after being named CCHA Goaltender of the Week, the senior net-minder is well on his way to earning more awards this week after recording his first shutout as a Falcons (he also recorded one while at Findlay). For the night he stopped 22-of-22 Raider shots, earning the first star of the night.
"He played the game just the way he had too," said Paluch about Horrell's play. "I thought our team did their job of limiting the quality chances against us, and Jon was there when we needed him. He is on a terrific streak right now and is really playing well.
Up next for the Falcons is a home-and-home series with the Buckeyes of Ohio State this Fri.-Sat (Jan. 6-7). OSU will host on Friday, with the Falcons playing host the following night. Both games are slated to begin at 7:05, with Saturday night's action being aired live on Fox Sports Detroit.
Notes On The Four Game Win Streak:
• Senior Jon Horrell is 4-0-0 with a 1.79 gaa and a .948 save percentage. He has stopped 127-of-134 shots faced the last four games.
• Eight Falcons are averaging at least one point a game in that span. They are lead by Alex Foster (1-6-7), Jonathan Matsumoto (4-2-6), Brandon Svendsen (3-2-5), John Mazzei (1-4-5), Mike Falk (1-3-4), Brett Pilkington (1-3-4), James Unger (1-3-4) and Michael Hodgson (0-4-4).
• As a team, BGSU is averaging 5.5 goals a game, while surrendering only 2.0 goals per game in that span.
• The BGSU power play has converted on 7-of-20 (.350) chances in that span, while the penalty kill has stopped 14-of-17 (.834) opposing chances.
• They are dominating the opening two periods of the contests out-scoring the opposition 6-1 in the first period and 11-4 in the second. They also hold a 5-3 advantage in the third.
