Friday, December 16
Fairbanks, Alaska
11:07 PM
Bowling Green State University
8-10-2, 7-6-1-0WCHA
2
at
3
Alaska
5-11-2,4-8-2-2WCHA
1
2
3
F
Bowling Green
0
1
1
2
Alaska Fairbanks
1
2
0
3
Nanooks Edge the Falcons in 3-2 Final Friday Night
December 17, 2016 | Ice Hockey
Box Score
Friedman Goal Call 1-1
Craggs Goal Call 3-2
FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Bowling Green hockey team (8-11-2, 7-7-1 WCHA) dropped a narrow Friday night final of 3-2 against the University of Alaska Fairbanks (6-11-2, 5-8-2 WCHA), despite a power play goal from Mark Friedman, as well as a goal with the extra skater by Lukas Craggs late in the game.
"I think we were flat tonight, outside of the first five to six minutes of the game," Bowling Green hockey head coach Chris Bergeron said. "Alaska's first goal came on a weird bounce, which gave them bunch of momentum. I thought we had a great start, but we all know how momentum works, and that goal caused them to get a bunch and we got rattled, which doesn't usually happen to us after one goal."
With that tricky bounce of the puck, the Nanooks were first to get on the board 6:12 into the game, although junior goaltender Chris Nell made some big saves throughout the remainder of the first period to keep it a one-goal game through the first 20:00 of action.
It was then early on in the second period when junior Mark Friedman capitalized on the power play from straight out in front of the net. The Toronto, Ontario native took a quick shot at the point that hit the right post and ricocheted into the back of the net.
The score came 4:12 into the second period to tie up the game at 1-1 and marked Friedman's fifth goal of the season and fourth career power play goal. On the first Falcons goal of the night, sophomore Stephen Baylis tallied his sixth assist of the season, while freshman Alec Rauhauser earned his team-leading 12th assist on the year.
Just 44 seconds later, the Nanooks were able to quickly regain its lead by a 2-1 mark with a flurry down low at the net. Alaska was then able to strike again in the second period 11:08 in with a wraparound to the netminder's blocker side to make it 3-1.
"In the second, Alaska was much better than we were and we got into a hole," said Coach Bergeron. "We couldn't get a goal to get the momentum back, especially when we needed one at the end of the second."
The Falcons pulled the goalie with just under 3:00 to go in regulation, and Bowling Green was able to outshoot Alaska by an 8-6 margin in the third period with its efforts in the final minutes. In the waning seconds of regulation, it was freshman Lukas Craggs who narrowed the score for the Falcons with his fifth goal of the season. The Elmhurst, Ill. native made the score 3-2 while the Falcons had the extra skater out and just 6.6 seconds remaining on the clock. Although Bowling Green called its timeout and kept the extra skater out, time expired before the Falcons were able to net a game-tying goal.
With their efforts on the initial Bowling Green scoring play, Friedman and Rauhauser each mark the second-most points on the team with 14 on year, trailing junior Mitch McLain's team-leading 21 thus far in the season. Additionally, Baylis earned his second multi-point night of the season when he assisted on Craggs' extra-attacker goal, while McLain marked the first assist for his 21st point in 20 games played this year.
On the night, the Nanooks were able to outshoot the Falcons by a 28-23 margin, making it the third consecutive game that Bowling Green has been outshot by its opponents. Due to Friedman's power play goal, the Falcons went 1/5 on the power play, in addition to being killing all four of its in-game penalties on the night, making it the sixth time this season that the Falcons have kept its opponents scoreless on the power play.
"Tomorrow we will evaluate our process and look at what Alaska did that we struggled with and make the appropriate changes," added Coach Bergeron. "Tomorrow is our next opportunity to play and its huge game for us. We want to give ourselves the best chance possible to win."
The Bowling Green hockey team will complete the series in the last frontier tomorrow evening with a 7:07 p.m. Alaska Time, 11:07 p.m. Eastern Time puck drop.
Â
Team Stats
BGSU
UAF
Shots
23
28
PPG
1
0
SHG
0
0
Penalties
13
12
Penalty Mins
59
46
Faceoffs Won
37
28
Game Leaders
Skaters
+/-
0
Goals
0
Sh
2
A
2
+/-
+1
Goals
1
Sh
2
A
0
+/-
0
Goals
1
Sh
2
A
0
+/-
0
Goals
0
Sh
4
A
1
Players Mentioned
F
/ Ice HockeyF
/ Ice HockeyD
/ Ice HockeyF
/ Ice Hockey
G
/ Ice Hockey
D
/ Ice HockeyBG Hockey : Kevin Piel w/Dennis Williams
Friday, April 25
BG HKY Postgame 3/15/25
Sunday, March 16
BG Hky Postgame 03.08
Sunday, March 09
BG Hky Postgame 3.7
Saturday, March 08