Ten different players tallied points for Michigan as the Wolverines defeated the Bowling Green Falcons, 6-4, at the BGSU Ice Arena Friday night.
With the win, the Wolverines have stretched their unbeaten streak on the road to 12 games, dating back to last season.
“I thought we had great individual efforts tonight,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson. “[John] Shouneyia, [Jed] Ortmeyer, and [Dale] Roemensky were strong.”
Eric Werner, Dwight Helminen and Mark Mink played well for Michigan (6-1-0, 3-0-0 CCHA), racking up seven points total.
“Mink had one of his best games of the year,” said Berenson.
BG coach Scott Paluch thought his team played with plenty of resolve.
“We had a good effort tonight,” said Paluch. “The guys really played hard. Michigan was extremely quick in the transition game. They had terrific scoring chances tonight, that was the difference.”
Despite the 10-goal game total, each coach thought his respective goalie played well.
“We got goalkeeping from [Al] Montoya that we needed to have,” said Berenson.
“Tyler [Masters] made a couple of great saves that kept us in the game early,” added Paluch.
After serving a first-period boarding penalty, BG junior winger Mark Wires opened the scoring at 3:17 as he raced up the right side of the ice and slid the puck past the freshman Montoya for his fifth goal of the season. Alex Rogosheske and Tyler Knight were credited with the assists.
The Wolverines tied the game at the 8:32 mark of the first on a power-play goal in front of the net by sophomore defenseman Brandon Rogers. Rogers beat Masters over the shoulder for his first goal of the season. David Moss and Danny Richmond picked up the assists.
Dwight Helminen gave Michigan a 2-1 lead early in the second on a shorthanded feed from Mark Mink. It was Helminen’s first shorthanded goal of the season.
Eric Werner increased Michigan’s lead to 3-1 just over four minutes later on a slick pass from Helminen.
On a high-sticking penalty to Werner just seconds after his goal, the Falcons (2-8-0, 0-7-0) closed the gap to 3-2 with Steve Brudzewski’s bullet with 10 seconds left in the power play. For Brudzewski, it was his fourth goal of the season. Chris Pedota picked up his first career point on the assist.
Michigan opened up a 5-2 advantage late in the period on a pair of goals by Mark Mink and Eric Nystrom just 31 seconds apart to give Michigan a comfortable lead.
Brett Pilkington picked up the Falcons’ second power-play goal of the night at the 4:30 mark of the third to cut Michigan’s lead to 5-3. Pilkington picked up a pass in the slot from Knight and beat Montoya upstairs for his second goal of the year.
Michigan added its second power-play goal of the night on Michael Woodford’s first goal of the season at 10:10. Brandon Kaleniecki and Michael Richmond assisted on the play.
Kip Horner closed out the scoring for BG at the 19:53 mark of the final period for his first goal of the season to make the score 6-4.
Montoya stopped 20 shots while Masters stopped 27 shots. Both teams went 2-for-7 on the power play.
“We feel fortunate to get out of here with a victory,” said Berenson. “BG is a good team.”
The two teams face off again tomorrow night at the Ice Arena (7:05 p.m.).
