BOWLING GREEN — The Bowling Green State University hockey team opened its season with a 3-1 exhibition win over Wilfrid Laurier at the Slater Family Ice Arena on Sunday.
And while no one complains about victories, this one came against a team that the previous night had been stomped 8-2 at Western Michigan.
But BG coaches and players alike said they were happy with the win, no matter what the margin was.
IN PICTURES: Bowling Green 3, Wilfrid Laurier 1
“Hockey is a weird animal,” said senior Mitch McLain, who scored two of his team’s three goals. “You can get blown out one night, and the next night it’s a close checking game. ...
“We just wanted to take care of business on our end. You can’t worry about what happened before. We just were excited to play our game and we got the win — and that’s all that matters.”
The contest was just what the doctor ordered for coach Chris Bergeron as it provided a number of opportunities to evaluate his team in a variety of different situations.
“We got some real practice in a lot of situations, both power-play and penalty kill, and face-offs included,” Bergeron said. “That’s what the exhibition game is for.”
Bowling Green controlled the first period and scored the lone goal thanks to Casey Linkenheld, who tipped in Connor McDonald’s slap shot from the right point with 5:40 on the clock.
BG took a 2-0 lead when McLain tipped in Adam Smith’s shot from the point for a power-play goal with 9:02 to go in the second period, but the Golden Hawks got that goal back when Danny Hanlon scored with 2:24 remaining.
That gave the Falcons a chance to revisit and deal with a nightmare from last season: holding on to a close lead at home.
“Having the lead at home in the third period is so big in college hockey — you don’t want to surrender [that lead],” McLain said. “When it became 2-1, we kept playing. We didn’t let it get to 2-2 and then really start squeezing [our sticks].”
The only goal of the third period came when McLain notched an empty-netter with just 42 second left in the contest.
Ryan Bednard started in goal for the Falcons and stopped all 13 shots he faced. Freshman Eric Dop entered with 4:02 to play and finished with five saves.
“I thought Ryan looked really good,” Bergeron said. “I’m not speaking badly about Dop — I just thought he was tested less.
“And I liked the way Ryan was with puck. When he’s right, he’s assertive with the puck and makes good, solid plays with it.”
Wilfrid Laurier goalie Colin Furlong had 27 saves.
When asked if he was concerned by the close outcome, Bergeron said, “It’s definitely no worry. My first couple of years here, we had some blowouts in the exhibition games, and obviously those teams didn’t do well in the regular season.
“I take nothing more away from the game than the fact that our training camp is over and our kids got to play against someone else.”
The Falcons return to action when they host the U.S National Development Team in an exhibition contest Friday at the Slater Family Ice Arena, with faceoff at 7:37 p.m.
NOTES: BG sophomore defenseman Alec Rauhauser was not in uniform because of undisclosed disciplinary reasons. Rauhauser is expected to play Friday. ... Wilfrid Laurier is coached by former Toledo Storm player and coach Greg Puhalski.
Contact John Wagner at jwagner@theblade.com, 419-724-6481, or on Twitter @jwagnerblade.
First Published October 1, 2017, 7:52 p.m.
