Bowling Green Takes Charge Against UAH, 5-1

Saturday, January 22, 2000
by Dan Nied

Dominance. That's all it was.

After Bowling Green struggled Friday to beat Division I newcomer Alabama-Huntsville, the Falcons' mindset was to make sure Saturday's game took a different tone.

It did, as the Falcons appeared to take Friday's battle personally.

"We wanted to make sure they knew that they couldn't come in and play with a CCHA team," Falcon captain Doug Schueller said after his team's 5-1 win Saturday night. "I think we played a real solid game throughout."

With three goals in the first period the Falcons showed that they have some offensive punch. By limiting UAH to seven shots in the first two periods, the Falcons showed they have the defensive ability to shut teams down.

"I thought we could have easily has five or six goals in the first period alone," Falcon coach Buddy Powers said.

"We got the three ingredients tonight," Powers said. "We got balanced scoring, good team defense and good goaltending."

Going into the game goaltending was the question. Backup Shawn Timm got the call, and let in only one goal on 19 shots in just his third start this season.

"We thought it was a good time to get him some action," Powers said of Timm. "With these next 12 CCHA games coming up, this was a good time to get him in there. He did a good job.

With Mark Lalonde, Kevin Ridgeway and Darren Curry, three of their top defenseman, out with injuries from Friday's game the Chargers had a hard time breaking the Falcons' offensive pressure. UAH could muster a mere three shots in the first period, with no real scoring chance.

Stay-at-home defenseman B.J. Adams got the ball rolling for the Falcons when he scored a power-play goal with just under nine minutes left in the first stanza.

Less Than a minute later, Charger goalie Steve Briere left a rebound to the right of the goal, BG forward Ryan Fultz was there to poke it past the lunging goalie and give Bowing Green all the offensive fire they would need.

Center Greg Day closed out the first period scoring when he skated from his own defensive zone to the left of the net and paced a shot perfectly above Briere's left shoulder. It was Day's third point of the night, as he assisted on the first two goals.

BG notched their fourth and fifth goals on power plays early in the second period when defenseman Mark Barlow capitalized on a five-and-three and star of late Curtis Valentine continued his offensive breakout.

The second period turned ugly with UAH building a revolving door in the penalty box. They took 13 penalties, limiting them to very few offensive chances.

the Chargers pulled Briere 13 seconds into the second period because of injury, but Bowling Green kept the pressure on backup Mark Byrne, peppering him with 30 shots over the last two periods. the Falcons had 53 shots on the night.

The lone offensive highlight for UAH came when Ryan McCormack poked the puck through Timm's five-hole to break the shutout.


Dan Nied is a CCHA game reporter for U.S. College Hockey Online.

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