In the waning days of the fall season, the Bulls closed out their final road trip by posting a 2-1 victory over Northern Illinois University Tuesday night that leaves them unbeaten in their last three games.
Senior defenseman Kevin Pitra scored the winning goal, his first goal of the season, from nine yards out on a rebound from a free kick by sophomore forward Mike Peplinski.
"We've had some great play from Pitra and Peplinski," said Bulls Head Coach John Astudillo. "They're coming around with a lot of good stuff."
With the victory, the Bulls improve their conference record to 2-3-1 (7-6-2 overall) and take a solid fourth seed in the upcoming MAC postseason tournament behind Kentucky, Akron and Marshall universities. In contrast, Northern Illinois's conference record falls to 1-5-0 (4-11-1 overall); they will be seeded last in the tournament.
The Bulls are tied for fourth with archrival Western Michigan University, the team they scratched and clawed, as well as punched and karate-chopped, against in last Sunday's 1-1 tie.
In Tuesday's contest, Pitra's winning goal came less than two minutes after the Huskies evened the game with Peter Agrimson's unassisted goal on a free kick near the penalty area.
Peplinski opened scoring in the second half with his second goal of the season from eight yards out of the box, assisted by Jeff Martinko and junior Dan Wielechowski.
Northern Illinois out-shot Buffalo, 25-17, uncharacteristic for the Bulls who have only been out-shot four times this season.
When asked whether or not his defense was having difficulties Astudillo answered, "We're playing a little tighter, but I don't think so. . We're playing against teams which are much more attack oriented; we can't sit back against them. Our counters leave us open a bit more."
In goal, making certain the Bulls kept the lead was Brian Wozniak, who stopped nine shots to earn his sixth win of the season. His counterpart, Nate Terry, had four saves and allowed two goals.
Buffalo will close out its regular season at home with St. Francis University (Pa.) on Friday, Nov. 2. The Bulls will then have six days off before the start of the MAC postseason tournament, beginning Nov. 9 at Akron, where they will play the winner of the Bowling Green vs. Western Michigan match.
When asked which team his squad would rather play, Astudillo answered: "It really doesn't matter. There are matters with both teams that we'd like to settle."
