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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Notre Dame
#9 Notre Dame Outlasts #21 Falcon Hockey, 4-1, In Front 3,911 At The BGSU Ice Arena
January 26, 2008 | Ice Hockey
Jan. 26, 2008
Final Stats |
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Two late third period goals and a 21-save effort by Irish goaltender Jordan Pearce, helped the #9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish to a, 4-1, victory over the Bowling Green State University hockey team in game two of their home-and-home league set. The Saturday night Central Collegiate Hockey Association contest was held in front of 3,911 fans at the BGSU Ice Arena.
With the victory, the Irish improved to 20-9-1 on the season and 13-6-1 in the CCHA, dropping the Falcons to 12-12-0 and 9-9-0, respectively.
ND was led on the night by forward Ben Ryan who tallied a game-high three points on two goals and assist, while forward Justin White added two more points on a pair of helpers. Ryan had a hand in both Irish tallies in the game's first 40 minutes as ND took a 1-0 lead after one stanza and 2-0 after two.
BG would cut into the lead late in the game on a short-handed breakaway goal by freshman forward Dan Sexton at the 11:58 mark of the third period. However, two more ND goals in the game's final four minutes would be too much for BG to overcome. Ryan ended his night with a power-play tally at the 16:31 mark, while Kevin Deeth netted an empty-net goal with just 1:19 remaining to put the Irish ahead by three goals and secure their second sweep of BG this season.
"Notre Dame is a very good team at winning these types of games," said BG coach Scott Paluch. "They're very good with the lead. They played extremely well down the stretch. It was a disappointing finish for us. We didn't take advantage of a pretty good opportunity. We didn't take advantage of a real good effort. We killed some penalties, got a great short-handed goal. We had a lot in our favor, but the emotion of the game got the better of us. We didn't handle it well. We got undisciplined at a real key part of the game."
Missed opportunities plagued the Falcons throughout the contest. They saw numerous chances to tie the game or get the game within one go by the wayside due to a shot missing wide or from a great play by Pearce in the Irish net.
One of BG's best chances early on came in the early stages of the second period when senior forward Ben Geelan missed an open net wide from the slot after a great play allowed him to get open for the scoring chance. At the end of the second then, freshman forward David Solway also had a great scoring opportunity as he fired a shot wide with the clock winding down on a 1-on-1 breakaway with Pearce.
Despite the missed chances though, BG kept the game within reach as they didn't allow the same onslaught from the Irish that they saw the previous evening in the series' opening tilt. ND had a 16-2 shot advantage in the game's first 20 minutes on Friday en route to a 3-0 lead going into the first intermission. Saturday however, would be a much different story as the Falcon defense held the Irish to just six first period shots as it took a power-play goal to get them on the board at the 4:33 mark for the opening period's lone tally.
That goal on the Irish power play came from Ryan, who picked up his seventh of the season on a rebound chance in front. Justin White and Kyle Lawson added the assists as ND led 1-0 after the first period, holding a slight 6-5 edge in shots.
With BG struggling to find their target at the other end, the Irish would add to their lead in the second with just 3:59 remaining the period. Defenseman Ian Cole picked up his third-tally of the season when his wrister from the left-wing circle beat BG goaltender Jimmy Spratt on the stick side.
Still despite a 2-0 lead, the Irish held just a 18-13 edge in shots heading into the game's final 20 minutes as the Falcons just wouldn't let them get comfortable. When Falcon defenseman Tim Maxwell was called for slashing at the 10:57 mark of the third period, things looked as though they just weren't meant to be as senior tri-captain Derek Whitmore had just missed another great breakaway chance with 12 minutes remaining. But when Spratt made a nice pass to freshman defenseman Andrew Krelove around the left-side boards, the short-handed Falcons found themselves on another breakaway towards the Irish zone. Krelove found a wide-open Sexton in the neutral zone, who caught the puck on his stick in stride and skated in on Pearce in the Irish net. After putting on a nice deke-move, Sexton found the net through Pearce's five-hole for his sixth-goal of the season.
The goal was Sexton's third short-handed tally of the season as he is now just two off of the national-lead held by Colorado College's Chad Rau, who has five. Krelove and Spratt both picked up the helpers on the play.
Sexton's goal gave the Falcons some new momentum, but once again missed opportunities came back to bite them. A hooking call on James Perkin with 3:42 left put the Irish on their fourth power play of the third period and allowed for Ryan to knock home his power-play tally just 13 seconds in to give ND a 3-1 lead. Deeth then fired the puck in from the Irish end at the 18:41 mark to give the game its' final score.
Spratt would finish his night between the pipes with 22 saves on 25 Irish shots, while his counterpart Pearce, made 21 stops on 22 Falcon shots.
BG finished 0-for-6 on the power play for the evening, while ND finished 2-for-8.
The Falcons will return to the ice next Friday and Saturday nights when they head down to Columbus to do battle with Ohio State. Both face-offs are scheduled for 7:05 p.m. as all the action can be heard on WBGU 88.1 FM with Danny Nieves bringing you all the play-by-play.
