Tim & I posted the scores this morning, but 8 hours later, it still has
not appeared in my mail box. I guess EVERYTHING slows down over Thanksgiving.
 
Here are the hi-lites of the action from the Face-off's first evening:
 
MAINE 3 YALE 1
Hobey Baker candidate (?) Paul Kariya led the Black Bears to victory
with his 9th and 10th goals of the season. The final result was not
decided until Patrice Tardif scored and empty-netter at 19:26 of the
third. I assume that Yale played great defense and got spectacular
goaltending to hold Maine to only 3 goals.
 
BGSU 3 UAF 2
In what assistant coach Scott Paluch called a "huge" victory, the
Falcons came back from a two-goal deficit to win.
 
Senior winger Wade Klippenstein got the Nanooks on the board early when
he netted his team-leading 8th goal of the season. I think it was the
first UAF shot on net, so that means BG goalie Aaron Ellis has twice
let in the first shot he has faced. At Kent, he bounced back, played
well, and earned the win. Later in the first, UAF kicked the puck in
the net, but it took a while before referees Jeff Shell and Don Cline
of the CCHA disallowed the goal. Brian Fish stopped 11 in the period
for Fairbanks; Ellis saved 3. There were no power plays.
 
Just 1:15 into the second, Jason Eckel notched a power-play goal to put
UAF up 2-0. Later in the period would be the turning point of the game.
At about the 17:00 minute mark, the Nanooks found themselves on a
5-on-3 power play for a minute and a half. They failed to pad their
lead, however, and BG struck back. Brian Holzinger put his team on the
board at 18:51 with an assist to Jason Helbing. Ellis improved his
play, making 11 saves in the stanza, while Fish slacked off a bit and
only had 5.  BG was 0-3 and UAF was 1-4 with the man advantage.
 
Bowling Green carried the momentum into the third. Holzinger tied it up
early with his 10th goal of the season. Assists went to Chad Ackerman
and Helbing again. At 5:59, defenseman Todd Reirden slapped in the
game-winner from the point on the power play. Holzinger won the
face-off, fed it to Jason Clark at one point, who passed it to Reirden
at the other. The Nanooks called a timeout with 1:13 to go and pulled
Fish with 50 seconds left, but could not get the equalizer. Ellis
stopped 11 again, for a game total of 27. Fish only had 4, for a total
of 23.
 
For the game, BG was 1/4 on the PP; UAF was 1/5. BG was called for 5
penalties for 10 minutes and UAF 4 for 8, so there were no coincidentals.
 
Again, a big win for a young BG squad. It is the youngsters who are leading
the way, as 7 of the 8 points were earned by underclassmen (plus Ellis is
a freshman).