Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
0-1-0 (0-0-0BigTen)
Bowling Green
1-1-0 (0-0-0WCHA)
Spartans Drop Opener at Bowling Green
10/13/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Michigan State hockey team dropped its season opener on the road at Bowling Green on Friday night, 4-1. Bowling Green used three goals in a 1:41 span of the first period to put the Spartans in an early hole from which they weren't able to recover.
"We knew BG was going to come out hard and they're an aggressive team," said MSU head coach Danton Cole. "We knew it would take us a little while to get our game legs going. After that, I thought our guys competed a lot better, moved the puck and got up to game speed. There was some good and we'll hope to build on that tomorrow."
After both teams had a chance on the power play, Bowling Green (1-1) converted on its next opportunity at the 8:14 mark, starting the string of three consecutive goals in a 1:41 span to take a 3-0 lead.
Stephen Baylis got the first goal, jamming in a rebound off his own shot from the right side while on the man-advantage.
Frederic Letourneau made it 2-0 with a shot from the slot at the 9:43 mark, and 12 seconds later Cameron Wright knocked the puck in to up the Falcon lead to 3-0.
Taro Hirose got the Spartans on the scoreboard with a power-play goal 3:58 into the second period.
Cody Milan collected the puck off a chip from Mitchell Lewandowski just inside the BGSU blue line and fed a cross-ice pass to Hirose, who was all alone on the left side. Hirose walked in and beat BGSU goaltender Eric Dop upstairs.
The Spartans extinguished a pair of BGSU power plays during the middle stanza and sustained a good amount of pressure on the Falcons in their own end, ending the period with a 12-8 advantage in shots on goal.
"I thought we steadied the ship and got back to doing some of the things that we talked about and created some chances," said Cole.
MSU continued to push back in the third, but a major penalty gave BGSU 5 minutes of power-play time midway through the period and the Falcons pushed the lead to 4-1 with deflected shot off the stick of Connor Ford.
The teams finished with 28 shots apiece. MSU went 1-for-4 on the power play, while BGSU was 2-for-7.
John Lethemon took over in goal for Ed Minney after the third Bowling Green goal and made 17 saves.
The Spartans and Falcons will complete the home-and-home series on Saturday at Munn Ice Arena at 7:05 p.m.
