Down 1-0 at the start of the period, the Wildcats rattled off four unanswered goals and held on in the third period to get a 4-3 win over No. 13 Bowling Green State in Game 1 of their first-round WCHA playoff series.

NMU goalie Rico DiMatteo made 30 saves in his first playoff start.

It was the Falcons who started off well as they put pressure on DiMatteo early, but the freshman stood tall. However, he couldn’t keep BG at bay for long as Taylor Schneider collected a rebound off a Tim Theo

charidis shot and snapped it into the open net. Northern’s scoring chances were limited in the period and BG maintained its 1-0 advantage.

It looked like the Wildcats were going to be burned by some penalties in the first couple of minutes, but they killed off the Falcons’ 5-on-3 power play. After keeping BG from capitalizing on their big opportunity, NMU took advantage of its big chance.

Alex Frye

With the Wildcats on the power play, defenseman Mike Van Unen took the puck from the slot toward the left circle before sending a cross-ice pass over to Alex Frye, who then one-timed it past BG goalie Eric Dop to tie it 1-1.

Northern wasn’t done, though. Less than a minute later, forward Mikey Colella collected a loose puck and beat Dop top shelf to give the Wildcats a 2-1 lead.

Later with the Falcons in the box for an interference penalty, NMU forward A.J. Vanderbeck sent a shot on net from the point that was saved by Dop, but the rebound went right to Griffin Loughran, who tapped it in to make it 3-1 ‘Cats at the 13:26 mark.

The Wildcats then capped off their scoring surge with 2:55 remaining when Brandon Schultz shot a rebound past a sliding Dop.

But BG wouldn’t go away. Less than two minutes into the third, Schneider scored on a rebound from the slot. With 10:33 left, Schneider struck again, tapping in a rebound to complete his hat trick and pull BG within 4-3.

Mikey Colella

Alex Barber almost tied it up shortly after that, but his shot rang off the pipe and crossbar and then out. The Falcons pulled Dop for the extra attacker with 1:58 remaining, but despite a flurry of shots on net, they couldn’t find the equalizer.

Game 2 of the best-of-three series is 7 p.m. today back in Ohio.

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

Griffin Loughran

Brandon Schultz

A.J. Vanderbeck

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