Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Notre Dame
Falcons Return to Road With 4-3 Setback at Notre Dame
March 01, 2002 | Ice Hockey
March 1, 2002
South Bend, Ind. -
Bowling Green began its final regular-season series of the year on Friday night at South Bend, Ind. The result was a 4-3 loss to the Irish at Joyce Center Field House, despite 46 saves by goalie Tyler Masters.
Notre Dame struck first when Paul Harris scored his second goal of the season at 6:09 of the first period. The Irish lead didn't last long, though, when senior Ryan Wetterberg netted his seventh goal of the season off of a 2-on-1 breakout with captain Greg Day. Day picked up the loose puck near the blue line and fed a streaking Wetterberg, who went top-shelf past ND goalie Morgan Cey at 7:00 in the first period, knotting the game at 1-1. D'Arcy McConvey was also credited with an assist.
Wetterberg had a hand in BGSU's second goal later in the first period. The forward's shot from the left circle was rebounded by McConvey above the crease. His first shot was stopped by Cey, but he took his own rebound and shot past Cey for a 2-1 Falcon lead at 14:27 in the first period. Defenseman Kevin Bieksa also earned an assist on the goal.
ND would score the final two goals of the period to regain the lead, first from Jon Maruk at 15:27 and then by Jake Wiegand at 18:04, for a 3-2 Irish lead at the first intermission. Notre Dame outshot the Falcons 23-10 in the first 20 minutes.
"One of the keys for us was to play in their end of the rink," said BGSU coach Buddy Powers. "They did a good job of getting the puck deep, cycling the puck and jumping their defense into the play. Our defense and forwards couldn't control them."
FR Ryan Minnabarriet went feet-first into the corner boards midway through the first period after getting tripped up by an Irish defenseman. He was assisted off the ice and did not return to the game.
Notre Dame picked up where it left off in the second period, getting a goal by Kyle Dolder at 6:37 to extend its lead to 4-2.
Despite scoring just one goal in the second period, Notre Dame held a 20-9 shot advantage. Thanks to Tyler Masters' goal-saving, BG trailed just 4-2 entering the third period. Masters had 40 saves on 44 shots in the first 40 minutes of the game.
"He had a great game," Powers said of Masters.
In the third, BG failed to get a shot off on its first power play of the evening from 1:03 to 3:03. But, McConvey cut the Falcon deficit to just one two minutes later when his backhander went off the shoulder of Cey and drifted into the back of the net at 5:07. Day and Scott Hewson assisted on the goal.
"I felt the key was to play in their end of the rink and when we did we generated opportunities," said Powers. "You talk about a game that didn't have very good defense, we had 31 shots on goal and they had 50, so neither team had very good defense."
BG (9-22-6, 7-17-3 CCHA) held a 12-6 shot advantage in the final period, but only generated the one goal.
"I thought we had some chances but their goaltender kept some pucks out of the net in the third period," said Powers. "I think we saw the same Notre Dame team that we did in our rink." ND split a series earlier this season at the BGSU Ice Arena, Dec. 7-8.
Notre Dame (13-15-5, 11-12-4 CCHA) outshot BG 50-31 with both teams finishing 0-for-2 on the power play.
In other action in the CCHA on Friday night, Miami knocked off Ohio State, 3-1, to take a three-point lead on the Falcons for 10th place with one league game remaining for BG. That means Bowling Green can finish no better than 11th place will travel to Michigan State in the first round of the CCHA Tournament next weekend (March 8-10). The Spartans lost to Ferris State, 3-2, while Michigan defeated Western Michigan, 4-2, to take a one-game lead on MSU for first place. With just one conference game remaining for both teams, the Wolverines hold the tiebreaker advantage on Michigan State.
