Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
NOTRE DAME
Falcons Fall To Top-Ranked Notre Dame
December 12, 2008 | Ice Hockey
Dec. 12, 2008
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BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - The frustrations for the Bowling Green State University hockey team when it comes to having success against Notre Dame continued Friday night at the BGSU Ice Arena, but only after a strong performance by the Falcons against the #1 team in the country.
Notre Dame earned a hard-fought 3-1 decision over the Falcons before a season-best crowd of 3,113, but a late second period goal got BG within one goal going into the final stanza.
Notre Dame, who is now unbeaten (11-0-2) in its last 13 games, scored at the 3:25 mark of the first period (Teddy Ruth goal) and at the 8:51 mark of the second period (Ben Ryan tally) before the Falcons got on the board with just 25 seconds left in the second period.
Senior defenseman Kevin Schmidt knocked home his second of the season just five seconds after a Falcon power-play had expired. Senior Brandon Svendsen and junior Josh Boyd earned the assists on the scoring play and the Falcons had some momentum coming out of the locker room for the final 20 minutes,
Notre Dame had a slim 17-16 edge in shots in the first two periods, but the Fighting Irish defense would be the difference in the final period.
With the Falcons looking for the equalizing goal, they would manage just one shot on goal in the first 13 minutes of the third period. But, that one shot, a slap shot by junior Tomas Petruska from the right circle that hit the crossbar, coming close to getting the Falcons even.
BG killed off 48 seconds of a 5-on-3 with about nine minutes left in the contest and the rest of the 5-on-4 advantage for Notre Dame. Then with 1:42 left in the third period, the Falcons called time out to set up their strategy for the final minutes and pulled senior goaltender Jimmy Spratt to get the extra attacker.
But, after Notre Dame goalie Jordan Pearce made a save, the puck bounced to a spot between the circles in front of Pearce where Notre Dame senior Christian Hanson sent the puck to the other end of the ice and it found the empty net just 11 seconds after the BG time out.
Both teams came up empty on five power-play opportunities with the Fighting Irish holding a 26-20 edge in shots, including a 9-4 advantage in the third period.
Bowling Green is now 5-9-3 on the season and 4-6-1-0 in Central Collegiate Hockey Association play. Notre Dame improved to 13-3-2 overall and 9-2-2-2 in league play.
The win extends Notre Dame unbeaten streak to 15 (14-0-1) games against the Falcons. Bowling Green will look to break that streak Saturday night in South Bend when the two teams tangle in a 7:06 contest that will air live on the NHL Network in Canada and on Comcast Network in Michigan.
Friday night's contest was the sixth consecutive game in the series in which the Falcons have only scored one goal and the ninth time in the last 12 meetings.
"We did a much better job in the special teams area, which was the main reason why we had a chance with a minute and a half to go," head coach Scott Paluch said. "Jimmy (Spratt) did a nice job and their goalie played well. We just didn't finish off enough plays.
"I thought we did a nice job of using a couple of Jimmy's saves to get some momentum back. I thought we were able to create some chances down low. All in all, I liked the way our guys competed all the way through the game. I thought we had a physical edge to our game and clearly did not lose the physical matchup with this team. With all that said, it is frustrating not to capitalize against these guys."
