Bryan Marshall and Jason Krischuk each had a goal and an assist Saturday night to lead UNO to a 4-2 victory and two-game sweep of Bowling Green in the opening round of the CCHA Playoffs in front of 6,016 fans at the Qwest Center.
UNO (20-12-6) advances to the second round of the CCHA Playoffs next weekend. The Mavs will travel to Marquette, Mich., to face Northern Michigan in a best-of-three series starting Friday. Bowling Green ended its season at 13-23-2.
After a scoreless first period, UNO got on the board with two goals in the second period by Marshall and Krischuk. Marshall buried a rebound while the Mavs were on the power play at the 8:50 mark. Krischuk then gave UNO a 2-0 lead four minutes later when he scored on a slap shot from the right point.
Bowling Green cut the lead in half at 4:34 of the third period when John Mazzei scored on a back hand shot from the crease. UNO regained a two-goal advantage when Scott Parse took a nifty cross ice pass from Marshall and nailed a one-timer from the left circle for his 20th goal of the season with 11:26 remaining in the game. The goal was a milestone for Parse. It was his 145th career point, making him the all-time leading scorer in Nebraska-Omaha history, passing former Maverick David Brisson.
The Falcons made it interesting in the closing minutes, getting an extra-attacker goal from Mike Falk with 10 seconds remaining, but Adam Bartholomay iced the game when he scored an empty netter with three ticks remaining on the clock.
UNO outshot the Falcons, 46-31, in the contest. Maverick goaltender Jerad Kaufmann had 29 saves while BGSU netminder Jon Horrell had 42 stops.
