Ice Cold: #11 Falcons drop third straight game in 5-2 loss to Wildcats

Bowling Green, OH – The #11 Falcons’ offensive cold streak continued Friday night against Northern Michigan in a 5-2 loss to the Wildcats. The loss marks three straight for Bowling Green.

Nolan Kent stopped 38 of 40 shots for Northern Michigan, while Eric Dop had 18 saves on 22 attempts for Bowling Green.

First Period

The Wildcats opened the game’s scoring at 5:15 of the first period. Darien Craighead finished off a three-on-two passing play to give Northern Michigan a 1-0 lead.

Bowling Green scored a power-play goal at 18:26 to draw the game back to a tie. Brandon Kruse found Alex Barber right outside the crease who re-directed the pass five-hole past Kent. The goal was Barber’s sixth of the season and was also assisted by Max Johnson.

Bowling Green had 10 shots in the opening period while Northern Michigan had nine chances.

Second Period

Northern Michigan re-took the lead at 3:29 of the second period. Hank Sorensen scored on a slap shot from the blue line to make the score 2-1.

The Falcons once again tied the game at 10:52 of the second period. Alec Rauhauser made a series of moves at the blue line to create space before passing to Connor Ford. The junior forward managed a shot on net that rebounded to Evan Dougherty, who finished the play for his fourth goal of the season.

The Wildcats again took the lead with a power-play marker at 16:11 by Philip Beaulieu to push their lead to 3-2.

Bowling Green had 13 shots in the second period while Northern Michigan had four attempts.

Third Period

The Falcons pulled Eric Dop for an extra attacker with three minutes to play in the game. But, Griffin Loughran’s empty-net goal sealed the 5-2 win for Northern Michigan.

Bowling Green had 10 shots in the final period while Northern Michigan had 17 chances.

Northern Michigan doubled its lead at 16:35 of the final period. Griffin Laughran finished a pass by Joe Nardi to give the Wildcats the 4-2 lead.

With the loss, Bowling Green falls to 12-8-1, 7-5-1-1. Northern Michigan improves to 10-7-2, 8-5-0-0. The teams will conclude their weekend series Saturday at 7:07 PM.