Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Notre Dame
Falcons, Irish Skate To 1-1 Tie
February 18, 2006 | Ice Hockey
Feb. 18, 2006
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - After allowing seven goals on Friday night, the Bowling Green State University hockey team, behind stellar defensive play, combined with an outstanding effort from Jimmy Spratt, allowed the Falcons to skate to a 1-1 tie with Notre Dame Saturday night inside the BGSU Ice Arena. The tie was only the second this season for BGSU.
"We were disappointed we didn't get a win today, but it was a real good bounce back effort and a step in the right direction in what we were able to do defensively," said head coach Scott Paluch. "We didn't give up nearly the amount of chances we gave up last night and we were still able to generate some real good offensive chances."
Both goaltenders were the stars of the night. BGSU's Jimmy Spratt earned first star by stopping 31-of-32 Irish shots, while junior David Brown turned-away 34-of-35 Falcon shots on the night.
BGSU (13-19-2, 8-16-2 CCHA) opened the scoring at the 8:31 mark of the first after receiving their second power-play opportunity on the night. Freshman Brandon Svendsen found Jonathan Matsumoto open just outside of the left circle for a one-timer. At the same time fellow sophomore Alex Foster crashed toward the net and got a piece of the puck, lifting it over Brown's right shoulder. The goal was Foster's 10th of the year.
That would be all the scoring for the next 36 minutes until Notre Dame skated in on Spratt at the 11:43 mark of the third. The 3-on-2 odd-man rush would give Josh Sciba his 17th goal of the year and tie the score at one apiece.
On the night BGSU went 1-for-4 on the power play, while UND was held scoreless on five attempts.
But as stated before, the Falcon star of the night was Spratt. In his last two starts (Alaska Fairbanks and Notre Dame) the freshman has stopped 67-of-70 (.957) shot attempts. Despite the 0-1-1 record he owns a 1.45 goals-against average. He is also part of a penalty kill unit that is 10-for-10 in Spratt's last two starts.
"I thought Jimmy [Spratt] did a great job of making himself pretty darn big in there," said Paluch. "Every time there was a shot he seemed to be taking up a lot of net. His catching glove was very good tonight and he kept a lot of pucks close to him. There were no holes in there. That's two weekends in a row where he has been very good."
The Falcons close out the regular season next weekend by hosting Miami on Thursday (Feb. 23, 7:05 p.m.) before playing in the final regular season game at the Goggin Ice Arena on Saturday (Feb. 25, 7:35 p.m.). The Thursday contest will also be senior night for seven Falcons.
