Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Notre Dame
Notre Dame Gets The Best of BGSU, 7-4
February 17, 2006 | Ice Hockey
Feb. 17, 2006
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Four second period goals by Notre Dame, including two on the power-play, doomed the Falcons Friday night inside the BGSU Ice Arena for a final tally of 7-4. The Irish finished the night 3-for-7 on the power play, while BGSU, was just 1-for-7 with the man-advantage.
"I thought there was a lot of energy to the game, but the bottom line is we just gave up too many chances," said head coach Scott Paluch. "After pressure situations we always seemed to give up goals. We have to be able to bounce back, we can't let 4-3 become 5-3, and that's what happened tonight."
Just two seconds into the contest the Falcons would pick up a cross checking penalty, followed by a roughing the goalie call 1:39 later and in the two minutes following the later call, Notre Dame had a 2-0 advantage with goals from Wes O'Neil and Mark Van Guilder.
BGSU ( 13-19-1, 8-16-1) would answer back. At the 18:22 mark of the first, junior James Unger intercepted a pass behind the Irish goal, skated out-front and snuck the puck past Jordan Pierce for the Falcons first goal of the night.
Then the Falcons picked up a power-play opportunity at the 18:32 mark and Mike Nesdill made the Irish pay with just three seconds remaining in the opening stanza. The sophomore received a cross-ice pass from Don Morrison and fired a shot from the point through several UND defenders for his second goal of the season.
Notre Dame (12-16-3, 10-12-3) would once again reclaim the lead following Van Guilder's second goal of the game, just 3:34 into the second, but once again BGSU would answer.
With three players from each team fighting for the puck just a few feet in front of Pearce, the puck bounced directly onto the stick of Jeremy Bronson, who turned and fired the puck off the back of the twine for a 3-3 score. The goal was the first of his career in 72 games.
UND would claim the next three goals, all coming in the second period. Van Guilder's completed hat trick, along with Josh Sciba and Matt Awada gave the Irish a 6-3 lead.
A goal by sophomore Alex Foster with just 19 seconds remaining in the second got the Brown and Orange to within 6-4, but they could get no closer. Nesdill, along with Jonathan Matsumoto, assisted on the goal.
As mentioned before, Notre Dame finished the night 3-for-7 on the power play, while Bowling Green was just 1-for-7. Both teams had nine penalties for 18 minutes, with no penalties being called in the third period.
Senior Jon Horrell had 26 saves, while Pearce turned away 34 saves for his fourth win of the season.
These same two teams will do it again tomorrow night inside the BGSU Ice Arena. Opening face-off is set for 7:05 p.m.
