Scott Greenham extends the Nanooks shutout record to 10 games in his career, as his performance along with the scoring of Beck, Yaremchuk, and Taranto led the Nanooks to a dominating win. That also marks two back-to-back Friday night shutouts for the senior goaltender who has really stepped up his play after struggling early on.
Throughout this game tonight, the Nanooks' took control and maintained the pace and flow of play, and imposing their will in the offensive zone. Bowling Green showed quite a bit of resilience, and bounced back, but the power play goal late in the 2nd really took the flight out of the Falcons.
The Nanooks came out of the gate and really hit the ice hard. Creating chances by driving the net hard and playing a great game of "keep away" from the Falcons. They were getting not just a lot of shots, but also generating a lot of chances, and BG's Andrew Hammond stayed busy tonight. Finucci, Youngmun, Yaremchuk, Beck, Kunyk, Taranto, Gehon, and Meyers ALL had very good scoring chances in the 1st period alone but it was Colton Beck that found the net first during the first period on a play created by Andy Taranto driving to the net, and getting a quality shot on goal blocked by Hammond's pad, but the rebound came right to a trailing Colton Beck who buried his 6th of the year. Hell, the Nanooks outshot the Falcons 21-5 in the 1st period alone, that should tell you everything you need to know about the Nanooks possession control.
BG made some pretty good adjustments though coming into the 2nd, but they weren't able to get anything past the Great Wall of Greenham. Conversely though, the Falcons tightened up their back checking and resisted the Nanooks entry into the zone by playing higher and up on the blue line. That stifled the Nanook offense throughout the period, but a late penalty to Marcus Perrier gave the Nanooks a prime chance towards the end of the period to increase the lead, and they didn't waste it. Michael Quinn stopped the Falcon's clearing attempt at the left point, laid it over to Enders who pinched down to the high slot and let one go with traffic in front. The puck found Yaremchuk's stick who directed it in for the 2nd goal of the night.
The 3rd period was very different. A lot of tight checking, and lane control by both teams forced play away from the nets in both ends, limiting offensive chances. After generating 21 shots in the first period, the Nanooks were held to just 12 throughout the rest of the game. As the final period wore on, Bowling Green got notably more aggressive, and really lost themselves a chance to get back in the game with a lot of late penalties. They were all good calls, but just bad decisions on the part of the players resulted in coach Bergeron pulling Hammond after Greenham gloved a shot by Sullivan to create a 5 on 5 situation. Needless to say (and believe me, it's kind of weird saying this) the Nanooks were able to get it down and get the power play empty-net goal as Granberg took the outlet pass from Gens, then got it to Taranto waiting on the blue line, who just took his time and made sure his shot counted.
Overall, a great win by the Nanooks who really demonstrated what they are capable of doing. Bowling Green is no slouch either, they put up quite a bit of resistance but the Nanooks truly dominated this game on both sides of the ice. If the Nanooks can keep this up, we could be looking at an early glimpse of onward success as the season goes on.
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