KALAMAZOO-- Western Michigan University's hockey team battled Bowling Green to a 1-1 tie before falling in a shootout in front of 3,258 fans at Lawson Arena Friday night.
WMU earned a point for the tie, which makes the Broncos 14-6-8 overall and 8-5-8-5 in the CCHA. WMU got its lone goal from Chase Balisy, who tallied his 11th goal of the season. Jerry Kuhn (7-1-5) made 14 saves in net for the Broncos. With the tie, WMU extend it's unbeaten streak to 12 games and ties the longest unbeaten streak in program history at the Division I level.
Ryan Viselli scored for the Falcons, who improved to 3-15-3-1 in the CCHA and 8-18-3 overall. Andrew Hammond made 31 saves to keep the Bronco offense at bay.
Hammond stopped all three Bronco shooters in the shootout, while Marc Rodriguez scored for the Falcons.
Hard work by Balisy tied the game at 1-1 in the third period. Balisy outworked a Falcon defender on the left-wing boards, brought the puck to the top of the left circle and deked around another Falcon defender. Balisy then made a one-on-one move to beat Hammond by faking the backhand, moving the puck to his forehand and sliding the puck past the goaltender's pad at the 2:18 mark. Mike Levendusky picked up an assist on the goal.
Bowling Green got on the board first at the 45-second mark of the second period. The Falcons were able to capitalize on a two-man advantage when Michael Fink centered the puck to Viselli for his first goal of the season and a 1-0 Falcon lead. James McIntosh also picked up an assist on the tally. On the night, the Falcons were 1-of-3 on the power play.
WMU had several chances in overtime, with Hammond stopping point-blank opportunities by Max Campbell and Derek Roehl. The Broncos outshot the Falcons 4-2 in the extra stanza and 32-15 overall.
WMU outshot the Falcons 13-2 in the first period, but were unable to push across a goal and the teams went to the first intermission scoreless. The Broncos were 0-of-1 on the power play in the period. WMU was unable to capitalize on any of its power play chances, going 0-of-4 and mustering just two shots on the man-advantage.
The two teams will meet again Saturday night for the series finale, with face-off set for 7:35 p.m. at Lawson Arena.
