UAH 4, BGSU 3, OT

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Somewhere under there, Frank Misuraca cries for everyone to get off of him because he can't breathe. (Credit: Todd Pavlack)

Somewhere under there, Frank Misuraca cries for everyone to get off of him because he can’t breathe. (Credit: Todd Pavlack)

Oh, you want to see the man of the hour? Okay.

(Credit: Todd Pavlack)

Wow.  What a game.  That would be an exhilarating game even if it wasn’t that first win all of our young men have been working and working and working to get.  But to have all of the frustration of this season to be decided on a last-second overtime goal?  COME ON.

So how did we get here?  I mean, it was tied at three after regulation time expired.  So there was some fun, yeah?

Yeah.

Sean Walker started off the scoring in the first for the Falcons, flinging a puck through traffic that I’m not sure Carmine Guerriero ever saw.  But after a few minutes, it was a Charger power play and …

… tic-tac-GOAL for Cody Marooney, his first collegiate marker.

The Chargers couldn’t pull ahead even with 1:06 of 5×3 late in the first when Brett Mohler (hooking) and Connor Kucera (boarding) took minor penalties.  Guerriero was still sharp after not a lot of pressure, and he stopped a couple of chances to end the frame.

Unfortunately for partisans in blue and white, the Falcons struck early in the 2nd, with Brent Tate slipping the defense to find a Cam Wojtala pass in the slot for a goal.

A couple of penalties on Marooney left the Chargers scrambling to cover Falcons, but the Chargers were crashing the point pretty hard.  BG countered by taking the puck wide to the boards while looking for cross-ice passes to the bottoms of the circle.  But they took their eyes off the puck for a second, and …

… it’s Matt Salhany time!

Who cares that the Falcons scored 52 seconds later?  Okay, we should all care, but the key thing is that the home side didn’t go up 3-1 late in the 2nd.  Instead, the margin was just one, and the boys knew that they had a very good chance at winning this one.

I will let these two tweets stand to vent my frustration with a broadcaster that was … sub-par but has a career that should have him be better.

Sorry, you mess with my alma mater and I’m gonna say something about it.  Back to hockey!

There were a lot of times where I could’ve tweeted this:

We're calling him CG35, and we're hope that he's okay with that. (Credit: Todd Pavlack)

We’re calling him CG35, and we’re hope that he’s okay with that. (Credit: Todd Pavlack)

Then at the 12:30 mark of the third, Jack Prince had the puck just outside of the slot.

After that point, the boys were flying all over the ice.  There was a puck that ended up in the net before being taken back out and flipped in the air, but no amount of Prince arguments got the referees to change their mind, even with a review.  Presumably Jack tried a Cockney accent while he was at it.

A late tripping penalty on Brent Fletcher led to a BG power play with just 2:49.  Did the boys quit?  Hell no they didn’t.  Have you seen these guys quit?  Every WCHA coach praises their intensity.  Intensity is what made the PK happen.  The boys were again pressuring the D and looking for breakaways, and Joakim Broberg was tripped up.  4×4 for :31, and the penalty carried into overtime.

Overtime is a bit of a haze for me, but that’s mainly because it was just wide-open, end-to-end hockey, great goaltending at both ends, solid back-checking, strong passes through neutral ice, and good shots.  In other words:

But nothing, nothing, nothing replaces what Frank Misuraca did.

Oh, wait, yeah, this:

That “charge the hashes” stuff was pure Tim Thomas.  Steve Koshey helped out just enough to make sure that the puck was fluttering and rolling past BG sticks.  That the puck didn’t go in told you that this just might be the night.

MisuROCKET.

Good night, everybody.