Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Notre Dame
Falcons Drop Second Straight One Goal Loss To #2 Notre Dame
February 03, 2007 | Ice Hockey
Feb. 3, 2007
Final Stats | Quotes
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University hockey team surrendered two unanswered goals, en route to their second consecutive one goal loss to the number two ranked Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. Kai Kantola recorded his fourth goal of the year while Jimmy Spratt made 19 saves in the 2-1 loss.
"It's a disappointing feeling not to get any points this weekend," said BGSU head coach Scott Paluch. "Both nights were very hard fought. Tonight was a different kind of hockey game there wasn't as much flow as there was last night. It was a really tight game."
On the Falcons second power-play attempt of the night Derek Whitmore skated around the ND cage and found Jonathan Matsumoto along the right circle. The junior faked a shot and fed the puck to Sophomore Kevin Schmidt who wristed a shot in on ND's David Brown. Kantola, who was parked in front of the opposing cage deflected the Schmidt shot into the back of the net for a 1-0 Falcons lead at the 7:19 mark of the first period.
The Falcons remained with the advantage in large part with a tremendous save by Spratt late in the first period. Notre Dame had their power play come to a close, but seconds later Jason Paige was left all-alone with only Spratt separating him from the BG cage. Spratt moved to his left and was able to deny the Notre dame scoring chance with three minutes remaining in the first.
It would not be the last time Spratt wowed the crowd.
Notre Dame recorded a 4-on-4 goal and a power-play goal in the second period to take a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes of action.
Once again the Falcons called on Spratt to keep the game a one-goal deficit. With the Irish on a power play, they moved the puck side-to-side before feeding the puck between the circles to Garrett Regan. Regan, faked left and had half the BG net to shoot at until Spratt threw up his glove hand and stole the show. In fact, the entire Notre Dame crowd, including Regan started celebrating before Spratt showed the puck to the crowd.
"It was just lucky," said Spratt. "They were on the power play and they were passing it and I was down so I just threw up my glove and he shot it right into my glove."
The falcons pulled Spratt with 1:51 remaining but could not solve Brown as they dropped their second consecutive one goal loss to the #2 team in the land.
Up next for the Orange and Brown is a Friday (Feb. 9) contest with the Michigan Wolverines. It is the only contest for the Falcons this week. Opening face-off is set for 7:05 inside the BGSU Ice Arena.
