That’s what the Northern Michigan University squad did Sunday afternoon in Bowling Green, Ohio.

After getting handed a 5-0 blowout loss in Game 2 Saturday by No. 13 Bowling Green State, the Wildcats bounced back in the deciding third game of their WCHA first-round series, thumping the Falcons 5-1 behind two goals from Mikey Colella and 39 saves by freshman goalie Rico DiMatteo.

NMU now travels to Minnesota State-Mankato for a 3:07 p.m. EDT puck drop Friday. If Northern wins, it’ll play either Bemidji State or Lake Superior State in Mankato for the playoff championship on Saturday.

The Falcons tried to pressure DiMatteo early, but the freshman stood tall. With 14:27 left in the opening period, DiMatteo got some offensive support as Connor Marritt sent a cross-ice pass to Vincent de Mey in the slot and he backhanded it past BG goalie Eric Dop to put the Wildcats up 1-0. De Mey almost padded Northern’s advantage to 2-0 a couple minutes later while on a power play, but his one-timer was denied by Dop.

Rico DiMatteo

Meanwhile, DiMatteo continued to look sharp. He denied Will Cullen with a little more than eight minutes remaining and did the same thing to Cameron Wright with just over four minutes left. Once again, DiMatteo also got help on the other end. With 2:04 left, a nice tic-tac-toe offensive rush put NMU up 2-0. Joe Nardi raced up the right boards, sent a pass to Andre Ghantous in the slot and he passed it over to Colella, who beat Dop to the blocker side.

DiMatteo continued to befuddle BG in the second period. He stuffed Alex Barber and Evan Dougherty to help kill off a Hank Sorensen penalty, and with about six minutes left he made a sprawling save to keep a rebound out of the net. The Falcons’ Brandon Kruse tapped the puck into the net, but the refs had already blown their whistles.

NMU helped out their netminder again late in the period. At the 17:04 mark and with the Wildcats on the power play, Nardi brought the puck into the slot, paused and then snapped a wrister over Dop’s glove to put Northern up 3-0. The Falcons answered back, though. After a de Mey interference call, BG’s Sam Craggs snuck a shot under DiMatteo’s arm to cut the deficit to 3-1 going into the third period.

Unlike the previous two periods, it was the Wildcats who came out strong as they tried to get that three-goal advantage back. Eventually, they did and it came on the power play as Colella got a pass in the slot that was originally blocked by a BG skate, but he collected it and snapped it past Dop to make it 4-1 NMU at the 6:02 mark.

The Falcons had some good scoring chances as the period wore on and they pulled Dop with 3:07 left for the extra skater, but to no avail as Northern’s Ben Newhouse scored an empty netter to seal the deal.

While Sunday’s game was worth remembering, Saturday’s game was one for the Wildcats to forget. BG put pressure on the NMU defense and DiMatteo early and the Falcons got on the board with 8:13 remaining as Wright got a cross-ice pass from Max Johnson and shot it into the open net.

With 36 seconds left in the period, things started to get worse for the Wildcats. With Alex Frye in the penalty box for slashing, BG’s Ethan Scardina tapped in a rebound during a wild scrum in front of the NMU net. After a lengthy review, the goal counted and Wildcats defenseman Mike Van Unen was given a five-minute major for facemasking and a game misconduct.

Luckily for the Wildcats, they killed off the lengthy Falcons power play and DiMatteo made several nice saves to keep the deficit at two, including robbing Wright after he weaved around two NMU defenders. Northern got its best scoring chance with under six minutes remaining as Ghantous broke free on a rush and almost beat Dop five-hole. The Wildcats also got a power play a minute later, but despite putting three shots on net in the first 22 seconds, they couldn’t cash in.

The Falcons then put the game away in the third. Dougherty beat DiMatteo on a wraparound goal with 16:55 left, and less than two minutes later he scored again to make it 4-0 BG. DiMatteo was then pulled for backup goalie John Hawthorne, but things didn’t improve as Alex Barber scored three minutes after the goalie change to put the finishing touches on the 5-0 win.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.