The Bowling Green Falcons clinched at least 3rd place in the CCHA
tonight as they beat the Lake Superior State Lakers 3-2 in a heart
pounding game.
 
  BG started things off a few minutes into the game as Mike Hall fed a
sweet pass across the crease to Jason Clark who pounded the puck into the
net for a 1-0 lead.  But the Lakers came right back about 2 minutes later
as Galarneau(sp) scored on BG goalie Bob Petrie with 2 seconds left on a
power play.  Petrie had made the initial save and then stopped the
rebound but the Lakers kept pounding away until they put it home, ending
the 1st period at 1-1.
 
  The second period was scoreless but pretty exciting.  Both teams had
quality scoring chances but Petrie and LSSU goalie Grahame both came up
big to keep the game deadlocked at 1-1.
 
  The Falcons came out flying and scored their second goal about 1:30
into the final stanza.  Dave Faulkner made a tremendous effort in the
Laker zone to control the puck with a man all over him to score his 6th
goal of the season and send the BG crowd into a frenzy with a 2-1 score.
Then the Lakers shut us up(yet again!) about a minute later when Wayne
Strachan tied the game 2-2.  The way both teams were playing implied that
we could look forward to overtime but Jason Clark put that right out of
our minds when he took another pass through the crease and put the
Falcons up for good with his second tally of the night.  LSSU called a
timeout and pulled Grahame with about 1:25 left in favor of the extra
attacker.  But the Falcons held on (with great fan support!) to deny the
Lakers a chance to tie the game again and came out with the 3-2 victory.
 
  With the win, BG remained 1 point ahead of MSU (who defeated OSU in OT)
for second place.  BG can clinch second place tomorrow night with: 1. A
victory over Ferris State    2. If BG loses, a MSU loss or tie can also
clinch.
 
  The Falcons must come out strong against Ferris and make an impressive
victory to stay high in the RPI to help their quest for an NCAA berth.
BG cannot let down against the Bulldogs.
 
  Now I have a couple of questions for those out there who know the rules
pretty well (Mike or Keith?): 1. In the BG game tonight, the water bottle
that was hooked onto the top of the LSSU net was knocked off and left
dangling by it's string in front of the net (about a foot down). I'm
curious to know what would happen if BG would have deflected the puck off
of the bottle into the goal, or what would happen if the puck deflected
off of the bottle on it's way into the goal?  2.  BG defenseman Kelly
Perrault took a slapshot from on his side of the red line which Grahame
saved and held onto.  Referee Shell whistled the play and brought the
face off back down the ice in the BG end.  Why is this?  Was it an
offside shot?
 
  Alex's 3 stars:
 
1.Jason Clark(BG)
2.Bob Petrie(BG)
3.Grahame(LSSU)
 
Holzinger for Hobey Baker!!!