Bowling Green junior Roger Leonard notched a pair of power-play goals Tuesday night as the Falcons picked up a 5-2 win against the Windsor Lancers in a season-opening exhibition.
“This was a good, close hockey game,” said BG head coach Scott Paluch, who made his head coaching debut. “We made the plays down the stretch. We had good movement tonight and every line contributed.”
“I thought the team played pretty well tonight,” said Leonard. “Windsor was a good test for us. A lot of guys got a lot of ice time tonight.”
Bowling Green opened the scoring a little over three minutes into the game after a shot by D’Arcy McConvey skipped past Lancer netminder John Dube.
The Falcons got on the board again at 8:04 as Leonard scored from just outside the crease.
BG peppered the Lancer goalie with 13 shots in the first period.
Windsor was only able to notch a pair of shots on senior goalie Tyler Masters, the first shot not coming until 17:12 of the first period.
The teams traded goals in the second period. The Falcons got on the board first at 14:03 as Mike Falk fed Leonard for his second goal of the night.
Windsor notched its first goal of the evening at the 19:24 mark as Kyle Trudell went in unassisted on sophomore netminder Jordan Sigalet, who replaced Masters at the halfway point of the game.
Windsor cut the lead to 3-2 early in the third as freshman Bryan White netted a shot on the doorstep to beat Sigalet.
“I thought we played very aggressively in the first two periods,” said Leonard. “We seemed to fall back a little bit in the third, but part of that is conditioning. We’ll get that as the season goes on.”
Steve Brudzewski gave the Falcons a 4-2 advantage at 14:55 in the third.
The Dearborn, Mich., native cleaned up a Ryan Minniabarriet shot in the crease to give the Falcons the two-goal lead.
Minniabarriet finished the scoring at 19:04 of the third with a power-play goal to make it 5-2. Kevin Bieksa added his second assist of the game on the play.
The Falcons outshot the Lancers 46-14 in the game. BGSU was 3 for 9 on the power play, while Windsor went 0 for 9.
Paluch was impressed with his team’s play in his career debut.
“It was exciting,” said the BG alumnus. “It’s great to be back at my alma mater. Being back at BG is a great experience.”
Leonard is happy with the new coaching staff, also.
“I like it,” he said. “The practices are more up-tempo. There’s always a game plan when you hit the ice. These guys get the job done.”
The Falcons will next play host to Niagara in the Lefty McFadden Invitational in Dayton, Ohio, on Oct. 5.
