Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Notre Dame
Falcons Rebound from Three-Goal Deficit to Tie Notre Dame, 4-4
November 06, 2004 | Ice Hockey
Nov. 6, 2004
South Bend, Ind. - Bowling Green scored four unanswered goals to rebound from a three-goal deficit at Notre Dame and tie the Irish, 4-4. BGSU scored four goals over the final two periods before Notre Dame's Wes O'Neill scored game-tying goal with just three seconds remaining in regulation.
"We didn't particularly start very well," said BGSU Coach Scott Paluch. "Even though the shots were going against us in the first part of the game, I think we found ourselves in the second period. To overcome that goal deficit and get a point is really big for our team.
"I thought our bench and lockerroom were outstanding. I don't think we ever thought at 3-0 the game was over. We've seen enough over the last couple of years that our team is going to keep going. We just felt good."
Cory McLean gave Notre Dame the lead at 3:07 of the first period and defenseman Wes O'Neill increased the lead to 2-0 with another power-play goal at 9:27 of the first period. ND held a slim 8-6 lead in shots in the opening period but had the momentum throughout the opening 20 minutes.
The Irish outshot BGSU by a 29-5 count in the second period, but that's when the Falcons came on. Evan Rankin scored at 4:11 of the second period to build the Notre Dame lead to 3-0. But the Falcons began the comeback with James Unger's first goal of the year, a power-play tally at 5:50, to make it 3-1. Then freshman Ben Geelan cut the deficit to one goal, 3-2, with a goal at 10:45 of the second period.
The score stayed 3-2 until freshman John Mazzei scored his first career goal at 8:17 of the third period to knot the game, 3-3. Just over three minutes later freshman Derek Whitmore tallied a power-play goal (11:32) to give the visiting Falcons a 4-3 lead. Unger and Mazzei assisted on the go-ahead goal.
"It's good to come back," said Unger. "It felt pretty good for our team to come back. We went into the lockerroom and we knew that if we played how we could we'd have a chance to win the game."
Notre Dame held a 54-23 shot advantage for the game, but goalie Jordan Sigalet rebounded from a tough start to keep the visitors in it. He finished with a season-high 50 saves. Sigalet set a school record last season in South Bend with 56 saves in a 5-3 victory. Irish goalie Morgan Cey stopped 19 of 23 shots faced.
Mazzei and Unger each finished with a goal and an assist apiece. Whitmore is now tied with Jonathan Matsumoto for the team lead with three goals while Mazzei now has a team-high four assists.
Both teams finished with two power-play goals, Notre Dame's coming early and BGSU's coming late. The tie improves BGSU's record to 4-1-1 overall and 2-1-1 in the CCHA. Notre Dame drops to 1-5-3 overall and 0-4-2 in league play.
The Falcons travel West next weekend for a two-game series at Nebraska-Omaha in the Qwest Center (Nov. 12-13). Both games are schedule for 8:05 p.m. (EST) face-offs.
Broadcast Note: Friday night's game in Omaha will be broadcasted on 107.7 FM (The FOX) while Saturday's contest will be broadcasted on 88.1 FM (WBGU) as normal.
