By Mills Armbruster

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The Cool Cats returned home for the first time since early October this weekend.

UK (8-6) played host to Bowling Green State University (10-3) on Friday and Saturday night.

Saturday’s game began slowly for the Cats. Bowling Green scored the first goal of the night and the only one for either team in the first period just under four minutes into the contest.

Bowling Green later capitalized on a power play to score with 11:41 left in the second period followed with another score inside of 20 seconds remaining in the period, pushing the score to 3-0.

“It was a lack of concentration,” UK head coach Rob Docherty said. “You’ve got to get over it quickly. They got a lucky one off the post and then went right by us for an easy goal.”

UK answered a minute later with its first goal of the night from sophomore forward Tony Woodward, closing the deficit to 3-1.

“After I scored the first goal, we took it to them for the rest of the game,” Woodward said. “We out-shot them and out-blocked them. I definitely feel like we outplayed them.”

The third period added to the score as both teams recorded a goal, a score of 4-2 that would not change again. Junior forward Michael Getz recorded the score for UK.

“When bad things happen to you in any sport you’re the one who has to change it,” Docherty said. “We started changing the game with some goals but our concentration just wasn’t there the whole game.”

Missed opportunities proved important for the Cool Cats. Though UK had more than 30 shots on target, while only two made it into the net.

“We did what we had to do,” Woodward said. “They capitalized off our turnovers while we could not off of theirs. We just couldn’t put the puck in the net.”

Major penalties and time in the penalty box became the trend early in the game as three players ended up in the box throughout the course of the night.

“They came down the road ready to play hockey,” Docherty said. “We became frustrated early and couldn’t capitalize on key plays. It led to even more frustration.”

With key competition to come, Docherty has plans for the team to improve.

“We have to score some goals,” Docherty said. “We need to work on finishing our plays and concentration.”

Despite a 6-2 loss, Friday night’s game was one filled with emotion for UK and its fans. The program retired the No. 14 jersey worn by former teammate Taylor Vit, who passed away following a car accident last month. A moment of silence was observed in Vit’s honor.

“We played with a lot of emotion throughout the weekend,” Woodward said. “It just didn’t go our way. We played a good team.”