by Ryan Gasser, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant
Leading the way for the Falcons with two first-period goals in the contest was sophomore forward Wade Finegan. Six Falcons would net goals and 12 would record at least one point versus the Golden Hawks. Of the ten freshmen on the 2009-10 Falcon team, four of them recorded a point in the debut dawning brown and orange. On the defensive side, both junior Nick Eno and freshman Andrew Hammond would mind the net, making 14 and eight saves, respectively.
The excitement began with the first drop of the puck, which BGSU would win off the stick of assistant captain David Solway. Immediately, new netminder, Nick Eno would be put to the test with two consecutive shots from Wilfrid-Laurier’s Craig Voakes, both of which he would make saves on. The first shot on net from the Falcons would be off the stick of sophomore Brian Potacco, a save from senior goaltender Jeff MacDougald.
The Falcon faithful would make the BGSU Ice Arena roar mid-way through the first period when Finegan would strike first by netting his first of two goals over the right should of MacDougald to give the Falcons a quick 1-0 lead.
The Golden Hawks would not allow the advantage to stand long as WLU returning lead scorer, Craig Voakes would make good on his third shot of the period, this time over the left shoulder of Eno, tying the game at one goal apiece after nine minutes of play.
Bowling Green would get their first opportunity on the power play shortly after Voakes game-tying goal. After a slashing penalty put the Hawks one man down, Bowling Green would crash the net and put four shots in the air. Perkin would miss wide and have another blocked, senior Tomas Petruska would also miss the post wide and freshman Jordan Samuels-Thomas would put the only shot on net against MacDougald only to have it find his glove.
The defensive special teams would soon be put to the test with Wilfrid-Laurier’s first power play attempt after a Tommy Dee (Sr., F) hooking call that sent him to the penalty box. For one minute-twenty seven seconds, the Golden Hawks would control the zone outside of the BGSU net and come away with nothing to show for it. Eno was tested by four consecutive WLU shots within five feet of the cage in that time span. He would stop them all, once again bringing an astounding roar throughout the arena and keep the score tied at one.
Following another successful penalty kill toward the end of the first period, Bowling Green would regain the lead when the man who started all the scoring would strike again. Finegan would net his second red-lighter with 3:51 remaining in the first period to put the Falcons up by a goal, 2-1.
The second period would feature two quick offensive flashes from the Falcons. The first would be via a breakaway strike from James Perkin. who While Josh Boyd and WLU defenseman Kyle Van De Baspoort sat in the penalty box, Perkin would crash the net after receiving a pass from BG freshman Reed Rushing and flick the third Falcon goal of the night past MacDougald. This would be the first of three BGSU scores in the second period and make the score 3-1, Falcon advantage.
Less than one minute later, the Brown and Orange would make the sirens blare again when David Solway would send one through MacDougald’s wickets from the helper courtesy of freshman Nathan Pageau. The score then stood at 4-1 after only 69 seconds of second period play.
With a three goal lead and half of the game in the books, Eno would be done between the posts and in relief would enter freshman goaltender Andrew Hammond. Hammond was not intimidated by receiving his first collegiate playing time as it took only 30-seconds to record his first save in competitive play as he deflected a Mitchell Good wrister with his right blocker.
To cap off the second period, BGSU forward Tomas Petruska would take advantage of a Wilfrid-Laurier hooking penalty and record the first power play goal of 2009-10 for the Falcons. He had hit the post left of MacDougald earlier in the frame but would not miss with a shot while having a one-man advantage when he blasted a shot past the Golden Hawk goaltender with 1:52 remaining before intermission.
Petruska’s goal would set the Falcons up with a confortable 5-1 lead.
Further along in the second period, Hammond would get his number-one called again when facing a five-on-three WLU power play. After crashing the net, the Hawk’s Jordan Bonneville would circle the net and hit the right pillow of Hammond on a wrap-around shot. On the rebound, Clinton Pettigrew would attempt to flick the puck past the freshman, but the netminder was one step ahead of him and threw his glove in the way of the Golden Hawk’s shot.With help from Ryan Peltoma, Tommy Dee and the rest of the special teams defensive unit, Bowling Green would go on to kill the set of penalties and return to even strength to close out the period.
Before the period would conclude, Laurier’s Mike Gauthier would put a hit on David Solway that would scare all in attendance. Gauthier would receive an unneccesary roughness penalty and a game misconduct, leading him to a game disqualification. Solway would skate off the ice with the aid of his teammates and remain inactive for the duration of the contest for precautionary reasons.
Hammond would carry his success over into the early half of the third period when he would immediate face a three-on-one breakaway from the Hawks. Attempting to go to Hammond’s left, the freshman would again adjust and deflect yet another Wilfrid-Laurier shot attempt from the back of the net. Following the latest killed power play, the Falcons would turn up the volume on the offensive side and score twice more before game’s end.
Beginning the third and final frame, the Hawks would fall two men down after Bradley Jackson would serve Gauthier’s unneccesary roughness penalty and a tripping violation by WLU’s Chad Kennedy. Pouncing on the two-man advantage, senior captin Kyle Page would get into the offensive fray. After being having his first slap shot denied by the pipe, he would receive a pass from Petruska and succeed in beating new netminder Tyler Small to increase the lead to 6-1 with 16:43 to play. Freshman Samuels-Thomas would also be credited with an assist on the power play goal as well.
Tommy Dee would tack on the last of the Falcons seven goals after stealing the puck from a Golden Hawk forward and taking it the length of the ice before wrapping it around the pad of Small for the night’s only short-handed goal.
The Golden Hawks would add two more goals before the afternoon was over. The latter of the two third-period goals would be on a Wilfrid-Laurier power play in which the Falcons were two men down and Jean-Michel Rizk went top-shelf over Hammond’s left shoulder. That would end the scoring in regulation as the Falcons would claim victory by a final score of 7-3.
Following the three periods of regulation, officials took advantage of the time the exhibition match gave by allowing both teams to participate in a shootout. Though the shootout would not affect the outcome of the game, each team would send three shooters to face the opposing team’s top goal in a best-of-three shootout.
The Falcons would send Kai Kantola to center-ice first to begin the contest. He would be halted short of the net by MacDougald, who would return for the shootout. Eno would also take to the posts and like his counterpart would deny his opposition with a low glove save to his left. Freshman Nathan Pageau would take a hard slap shot near the circles, but it would tail wide right. Golden Hawks Ryan Bellows went hard to the net and slapped one right into the chest of Eno, to keep the shootout scoreless. On the last set of shots between BGSU and WLU, Wade Finegan would be sent out onto the ice to complete the unofficial hat trick. With a nifty toe drag to his left, Finegan would lift the puck over the shoulder of MacDougald to put the Falcons up 1-0 in the shootout. That is all BGSU would need to complete the shut out as Eno would make a glove save to his left to end the shutout and give the Falcons another set of bragging rights with the shootout victory.
On the night, only two Falcons would have on-ice rating that were worse than even with ten player having positive ratings. Leading the Falcons in points would be the trio of Kyle Page (1g, 1a), Tomas Petruska (1g, 1a) and Wade Finegan (2g). The Falcons had more shots on goal than their opponent, tallying 30 to the Golden Hawks’ 25. Bowling Green would finish 2-8 on power plays with their two goals coming off of 13 attempted shots. Defensively, BGSU killed 10 of the Hawks 11 power play chances. Nick Eno would be a rock in net stopping 14 of 15 shots in nearly 30 minutes of play, while fellow goalie Andrew Hammond stopped eight of ten that came his way.
Despite its exhibition status, Finegan (2-0--2), Page (1-1--1) and Eno (14 saves) were named as the match’s three stars of the game.
The Falcons will officially begin their regular season on Oct. 9 when the team leaves for Mankato, Minn. to take on the Minnestota State Mavericks. The drop of the puck is set for 7:37 p.m. EST on Friday (Oct. 9) and 7:07 EST on Saturday, Oct. 10.
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