Mavs sweep Falcons, Del Grosso breaks UNO defensemen scoring record
Mavs clip falcons in first round of CCHA playoffs
Michelle Bishop
Issue date: 3/9/10 Section: Sports
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Nine different Mavericks scored goals this weekend as sixth-seeded UNO beat No. 11 seed Bowling Green on back-to-back nights by identical 6-1 scores to sweep the series.
No. 20 UNO, now 20-14-6, advances to face third-seed and No. 13 Ferris State for a best of three, second-round series beginning Friday in Big Rapids, Mich. The winner advances to Detroit for the conference semifinals.
On Friday night, UNO buried the Falcons with four second period goals to cruise to a 6-1 win. Terry Broadhurst, Joey Martin, Dan Swanson, Alex Hudson, Mark Bernier and John Kemp all netted goals to help the Mavs take the opening game of the series in front of 4,779 at Qwest Center Omaha.
Bowling Green opened the scoring 5:45 into the game when Tomas Petruska flipped a backhander that floated into the net just over goalie Jeremie Dupont's shoulder.
The Mavs answered just two minutes later on the power play when Broadhurst jammed home a rebound goal. Swanson put UNO up 2-1 after creating a turnover in the Falcon end and sending a wrister past goalie Andrew Hammond.
"The defenseman sent a pass that I was just able to knock down," said Swanson. "There was a lot of room in front of me, and I was just able to skate in and get a shot off, and it went in."
Hudson and Bernier each added goals less than three minutes into the second period to put UNO up 4-1 and end Hammond's night.
The Mavs didn't take long to welcome goalie Nick Eno as both Martin and Kemp added power play goals before the period was over.
"The playoffs are a new season for everybody, and we knew this was a fresh start for [Bowling Green]," said Bernier. "We knew they were going to come out and bring it, so we knew we had to bring it even better. We started a little slow in the first, but we played a good game overall."
Dupont steered aside all 13 third period shots to finish with 25 saves. Hammond picked up the loss after facing 14 shots.
"It's tough when there's elimination, and to put a team away for the season is always hard," head coach Dean Blais said. "Jeremie made some nice saves, otherwise that's a closer game than 6-1."
Saturday night, senior Eddie DelGrosso broke the school record for career points by a defenseman after a two assist and one goal performance.
Del Grosso, now the all-time leading defenseman scorer, improved his career point total with UNO to 109 and moved past former Maverick and current Minnesota Wild defenseman Greg Zanon into first on UNO's all-time list. Zanon tallied 107 points from 1999 through 2003.
Just like the previous night, UNO scored four second-period goals to help clinch UNO's final CCHA home playoff series.
After a scoreless first, Kemp started the scoring by slapping home a shot from the slot to beat Eno at 7:28 of the second.
The Mavs lit the lamp three more times during the period as Jordan Willert, Hudson and Jeric Agosta all scored in a span of 3:37 to help smother any hope of Bowling Green extending the series to a deciding game three.
The Falcons got on the board when Brennan Vargas poked home a goal at 6:06 of the third off a scramble in front of the net.
Halfway through the period Bowling Green appeared to have narrowed the gap to two goals, but a video review showed the puck had been kicked in.
Del Grosso and Bernier each added goals later during the third to secure the win in front of 6,417 at Qwest Center Omaha.
Dupont made 16 saves to pick up his seventh win of the season.
UNO is now 7-0 all-time against Bowling Green in the playoffs and improved to 16-3-2 this season at home, the best home finish at the Qwest Center.
"You always want to win at home, in front of the fans who support you and come in every night, that's really big," said DelGrosso. "You want to give them a good show. So to have a good home record is huge, and it really sets you up for success."
UNO had plenty of success at home but struggled away from the Qwest Center. The Mavs went 4-11-3 on the road, including two December losses at Ferris State, where the Bulldogs swept UNO 2-0 and 3-1.
"You have the potential to have the negative snowball on the road. I thought we did a good job in the second half of the year at continuing the positive, and playing well at home, but stopping the negative on the road, " said associate head coach Mike Hastings. "It was really important finishing the way we did, going to Notre Dame winning a game there, winning in a Miami building that not many people have taken points out of. I think that's contributed to some of our confidence. That's a growing process so now we're done playing at home, now we have to go on the road and grow some more this next week."
The Mavs have yet to win a second-round game since the CCHA adopted its current playoff format in 2005-06. UNO, now tied for 16th in the PairWise national power rankings, need wins this weekend to have a shot at an at-large NCAA tournament bid. If Ferris wins the series, UNO's season will likely end.
"We're playing hard right now, we're a team that has a lot of confidence," said Agosta, who's team is 10-3-1 since mid-January. "We believe in each other, and that's been the main thing all year. It doesn't matter who we play, we're just going to play hard and play our best hockey."
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