Bowling Green State University
Notre Dame
Falcons Give 14th Largest Crowd in School History Something to Cheer About
January 28, 2005 | Ice Hockey
Jan. 28, 2005
Bowling Green, Ohio - It was a special night for Bowling Green Falcon fans, young and old, on Friday night as BGSU downed Notre Dame, 4-1, in front of the 14th largest crowd ever at the BGSU Ice Arena. The 4,956 in attendance was just shy of the 5,000-seat capacity and was the largest crowd at BGSU since Nov. 16, 1996, when 5,016 crammed in to see the Falcons play Michigan.
"I thought the crowd had a lot to do with the hockey game," said BGSU Coach Scott Paluch. "Our team responded early to the atmosphere, scored some quick goals. We didn't have to wait long to get the crowd into it. We got the game right where we needed it. They (fans) were great for us."
A sign that things were going to go the Falcons' way came on the first goal of the game at 8:33 of the first period when senior defenseman Taylor Christie scored his first career goal in is 108th collegiate game. Steve Brudzewski and Brett Pilkington assisted on the four-on-four goal.
Senior Ryan Minnabarriet followed that with his first of two goals on the night at 11:42 of the first period with assists to Pilkington and Alex Foster. Then just over one minute later Brudzewski netted his sixth goal of the year at 12:46 with assist to James Unger and John Mazzei for a 3-0 Falcon lead just halfway through the first period. After the goal, Notre Dame called timeout and replaced goaltender David Brown with Morgan Cey.
Notre Dame held the Falcons scoreless in the second period while the Irish got a power-play goal from Michael Bartlett at 10:23 to cut its deficit to 3-1.
But, Minnabarriet didn't let get any closer when he scored his second power-play goal of the night at 5:27 of the third period with assists to Foster and Mike Falk.
Senior Jordan Sigalet stopped 29 of 30 shots faced while Cey finished with 19 saves on 20 shots faced. Notre Dame held a 30-28 shot advantage. BGSU was 2-for-11 on the power play while ND was 1-for-10.
"The crowd was right behind us. We got them rolling early," Sigalet said about the crowd. "Having Blake and Emerson back here, guys were really fired up for that and you could tell it out there on the ice tonight. Hopefully we can get another two points on the road tomorrow."
Prior to the game, NHL All-Star and former Falcon Rob Blake, along with BGSU's all-time leading scorer Nelson Emerson, signed autographs for nearly one-and-one-half hours for at least 1,000 fans. It was Rob Blake Bobblehead Night and the first 700 fans in the building got a doll.
BGSU improves to 11-9-3 overall and 8-7-3 in the CCHA. Notre Dame fell to 5-17-5 overall and 3-12-4 in the league. The 11 wins for the Falcons match their entire season total from a year ago in 38 games.
The two teams meet up in South Bend, Ind., at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday night for the series finale.
