Michigan State University
Bowling Green
Hockey Upends Bowling Green, 1-0
1/16/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Jan. 16, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - It was a goaltending battle on Friday night (Jan. 16) in game one of the Michigan State-Bowling Green series at the BGSU Ice Arena. But, in the end, it was the Spartans that prevailed with a 1-0 win. With the win, MSU improved to 13-11-1 overall and 9-5-1 in the CCHA, while BGSU falls to 5-12-6 overall and 3-9-3 in conference action.
"I thought both goalies were great," said MSU head coach Rick Comley. "It was a 1-0 game that was really, really entertaining. There were enough quality shots both ways that probably could have been a 6-5 game. It looked like it was going to be tough to score. You figured if a goal went in, and I had visions of a 0-0 tie, that it was going to go in off somebody's skate and I think that's what happened.
"I liked everything about it. I thought we played with some passion. I thought we played with energy. We had very good upper-class leadership. They were involved. They were talking. They were doing everything that they need to do. Bowling Green went stride-for-stride with us. It was a good hockey game."
The Falcons held a slim 15-to-12 edge in shots after the first period. However, in the second period State turned it up and held a 13-to-9 edge in the middle stanza. The Spartans had several solid scoring chances in that period, including junior forward Kevin Estrada (Surrey, B.C.) who was stopped twice by Sigalet's glove hand.
Both teams had tremendous scoring opportunities in the third period. MSU junior forward Jim Slater (Lapeer, Mich.) had one of the Spartans' best opportunities when he tipped a back-hand shot just wide of the BG net.
"The big part of the hockey game for me was the first shifts of the third period; we had four hits," remarked Comley. "Slater's line came out, and we wanted to hit more and we wanted to cycle. We did that. We made Bowling Green really fight for their life. You can tell they can get up and down the ice. They want their defensemen to join the rush, but they had to stay deep in the zone and defend their net a lot."
Sophomore forward Colton Fretter (Harrow, Ont.) finally broke the 0-0 deadlock with his third goal of the season. Fretter took a feed from freshman forward Drew Miller (East Lansing, Mich.) and took the puck behind the net and put a wrap-around shot in to give MSU the lone goal of the contest.
"I knew there was a lot of traffic in front of the net," said Fretter on his game-winning goal. "I just tried to get it through."
 Freshman netminder Dominic Vicari picked up his fourth shutout of the season, earning a 1-0 win at BGSU.  | |
Dominic Vicari finished with 34 saves for his fourth shutout of the season. The four shutouts rank tied for sixth on MSU's single-season chart. BGSU netminder Jordan Sigalet recorded 39 stops.
"Both goalies had to be sharp," remarked Vicari. "Both teams had a lot of opportunities. It was fun and it felt great to be out there."
MSU and BGSU close out its two-game series tomorrow (Jan. 17) with a 7:05 p.m. face-off at BGSU Ice Arena.
