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The Bowling Green Falcons took an early 2-0 lead and held a 3-2 advantage after two periods, but they could generate no third period offense as two late goals by the Lake Superior State Lakers doomed the Falcons to a 5-3 loss on Friday night at the BGSU Ice Arena in Bowling Green, Oho.
| (Click link for box score) | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | OT | Final |
| Lake Superior State | 0 | 2 | 3 | - | 5 |
| Bowling Green | 1 | 2 | 0 | - | 3 |
The first period belonged almost entirely to Bowling Green. Much of the action took place on the Lakers' side of the rink,as the Falcons aggressively peppered LSSU goaltender Kevin Murdock with 12 shots. The problem for Bowling Green was their inability to capitalize on the number of opportunities that were presented. They were only able to get off one shot during their only power play opportunity of the period, and had several near-misses. The Falcons did manage to send one shot home when Ryan Carpenter scored with 7:43 left in the period. It was his second goal of the season, and Mark Cooper and Marcus Perrier contributed assists.
In the second period, the score was still 1-0 when concurrent roughing penalties by Brent Tate and Zach Loesch forced two minutes of 4-on-4 play. With 34 seconds left in the penalties, Adam Berkle took a pass from Perrier, faked out Murdock and snuck in a shot for a 2-0 BGSU lead.
The Falcons' elation did not last very long. Just 24 seconds later, the Lakers' Zach Sternberg sent the puck past Falcon goalie Tommy Burke after a pass from Colin Campbell. The goal cut the Falcons' lead back to one, and BGSU really was not the same after that. That goal appeared to energize Lake Superior State, and they tied the game at 2 just three minutes later when Sternberg fed a pass to Bryce Schmitt, who converted with 7:23 left in the second period.
Bowling Green took the lead back when Sean Walker passed to Mark Cooper and created a 2-on-1 advantage on LSSU's end. Carpenter took a pass from Cooper and sent a low shot past Murdock's stick with 5:14 remaining in the period. The Falcons were able to hold off the Lakers defensively, but the offense was finding it increasingly difficult to create shots. BGSU had two power play opportunities in the final 10 minutes of the period and managed just one shot on goal between the two. In a harbinger of things to come, BGSU trailed 12-9 in shots on goal during the second after leading 12-4 in shots during the first.
BGSU was given another power play opportunity four minutes into the third period, but the golden opportunity to increase their lead quickly turned sour. The Lakers scored a short-handed goal with 15 seconds left in the Falcons' power play when Kevin Czuczman took a pass from Matt Johnson and sent a shot high past Burke. The goal tied the game at three. Although the Falcons were able to keep the game tied, Lake Superior State controlled the puck for most of the period. They had 12 of the first 13 shots on goal in the final 20 minutes, and their aggressiveness ultimately paid off when BGSU gave them a man advantage with 3:28 remaining in regulation.
The Falcons were penalized for too many men on the ice, and LSSU scored a power-play goal with 1:04 left in the penalty and 2:32 left on the game clock. The Alex Globke goal completed the Laker comeback and put pressure squarely on BGSU. The Falcons went empty net for the final minute, and with less than 40 seconds left, BGSU had a fantastic chance to tie. Bryce Williamson got the puck with a wide open net, but his shot went high. Immediately after, Johnson passed to Colin Campbell, who broke away for an empty-net goal with 28 seconds left.
The 5-3 loss drops BGSU to 9-7-3 in WCHA play and 12-10-5 overall. Lake Superior State improves their mark to 8-9 in the WCHA and 12-12-1 overall. The teams will play again on Saturday night in Bowling Green.