Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Notre Dame
Falcons Make It a Sweep Of Notre Dame, Win 6-2
January 29, 2005 | Ice Hockey
Jan. 29, 2005
South Bend, Ind. -
Bowling Green completed a weekend sweep of Notre Dame with a 6-2 victory in South Bend, Indiana, on Saturday night. Four different Falcons scored goals and 11 different Falcons tallied at least one point for BGSU's 12th victory of the season, the most wins for BGSU since 2001 (16 wins) with 10 games left in the regular season.
"It's hard to win on the road in our league and it's always hard to win two in a row, so we feel real good to bounce back from our Northern Michigan weekend," said BGSU Coach Scott Paluch. "We did a lot of those good road things - we were getting the puck deep when we had to, getting in the safe areas - learning to play with the lead is part of a growth process and I thought we did a good job with it."
Sophomore James Unger put the Falcons on the board at 13:30 of the first period, his seventh of the year. Michael Hodgson earned an assist. Just 40 seconds later, junior Mike Falk netted his first of two goals on the night for a 2-0 BGSU lead. Alex Foster and Brett Pilkington picked up assists. BGSU took its 2-0 lead into the first intermission despite being outshot 15-6 in the opening period.
The Falcons opened its lead up to 5-0 by the midway point in the second period. Falk scored his second goal of the game at 2:20 of the second period on a backhander. The goal came while BGSU had an extra attacker thanks to a delayed penalty. Jonathan Matsumoto and Foster assisted. Senior Ryan Minnabarriet increased the lead to 4-0 with his third power-play goal of the weekend at 9:17. BGSU had a 5-on-3 power play. Just 10 seconds later, freshman Derek Whitmore scored his team-leading 10th goal of the season on a 5-on-4 Falcons power play, making it a 5-0 game.
Notre Dame's Matt Amado broke up Jordan Sigalet's shutout bid when he scored with just 46 seconds remaining in the second period, his third goal of the season. BGSU held a 14-8 shot advantage in the second period.
Just two goals were scored in the third period. BGSU freshman Ben Geelan fired a laser of a one-timer at 6:33 for his fifth goal of the season and a 6-1 Falcon lead. Notre Dame's Mark Van Guilder scored a power-play goal at 15:09 for the final goal of the night.
"It's as good a weekend, back to back games, that any guy has had in a long time," Paluch said about Minnabarriet.
Notre Dame held a 34-26 shot advantage for the game and was held to 1-for-3 on the power play. BGSU was 2-for-3 with the extra man advantage.
The Falcons improve to 12-9-3 overall and 9-7-2 in the CCHA, moving to within two points of fourth-place Nebraska-Omaha.
BGSU continues its five-game road swing with two games next weekend at Ferris State (Feb. 4-5). Friday's game starts at 7:05 p.m. while Saturday's contest is a matinee affair beginning at 5:35 p.m.).
BGSU Notes Following Saturday's Game...
The weekend series sweep of Notre Dame was the first for BGSU over the Irish since March 10-11, 1995 (7-2 and 5-4). The last time BGSU won two-straight vs. the Irish was Feb. 10 and Feb. 24 of 1996.
JR Mike Falk extended his career-long point streak to seven games with his two goals on Saturday. The Davisburg, Mich., native now has 4-4--8 during that stretch with nine of his season's 10 points coming in his last eight games.
JR Mike Falk became the 11th Falcon this season to reach the double-digit point total with SR Steve Brudzewski and FR John Mazzei each with nine points. Falk has 6-4--10.
FR Derek Whitmore's team-leading 10th goal improved his shooting percentage to a team-best .222 pct. He has 10 goals on 45 shots taken.
SR Jordan Sigalet lowered his goals-against-average to 2.58 for the season and improved his save percentage to .925. Sigalet now has 12 games this season where he has held his opponent to two goals or less and eight where he has held the opponent to one goal. He has one shutout vs. Union College.
SR Ryan Minnabarriet ended the weekend with a career-high five points (3g, 2a) for a two-game series. His three goals all came on the power play, finishing with a .750 shooting percentage on just four shot attempts. He had the game-winner vs. Notre Dame on Jan. 28 en route to recording his second career two-goal game. The senior forward has 5-3--8 in his last eight games and is currently riding his second three-game point streak of the year. He was plus-1 in the two games.
FR Alex Foster had four assists in two games vs. Notre Dame. He was plus-1 and had a team-high eight shots in the two games. Foster has a freshman-high 16 assists this season and is tied for second overall on the team with 20 points.
JR Brett Pilkington finished with five assists in the two wins vs. Notre Dame. He now has a team and career-high 18 assists to go along with his team-high and career-high 21 points. Pilkington had 21 points (10 g, 11a) in 36 games last season.
