Falcons Put On A Show; Win By Shootout After 4-4 Tie

Saturday, November 28

South Bend, Ind.

7:05 PM

Bowling Green State University

Notre Dame

November 28, 2009 | Ice Hockey

By: by Ryan Gasser, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

Unofficial box score
Box score (PDF)
Dennis Williams post game audio

NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- Following a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to Notre Dame with 2.4 seconds remaining on Friday night, the Falcons looked to bounce back as the Irish played host to the Thanksgiving weekend finale at the Joyce Center. It took extra time again as the Irish and Falcons needed to go to overtime for the second straight night and then a little more to decide a winner. After a 4-4 tie could not be settled in 65 minutes of play, Bowling Green took the game to a shootout where they accumulated their second shootout win of the year, 1-0.

Both Notre Dame and Bowling Green found many of their players skating towards their respective penalty boxes early as a combined ten penalties between the two teams were called resulting in 20 penalty minutes, and seven total power plays. Notre Dame twice took advantage of their three chances with an extra man on the ice as the Falcons special teams continued to struggle killing opponents' power play chances.

The Falcons defense started the game off well allowing after Brian Moore was whistled for a crosschecking penalty at 6:13 in the first period, the Irish put together an offensive charge that resulted in the first of two opening frame power-play goals. UND junior Calle Riddewall scored at 7:53 after receiving a pass across the middle of the ice from Billy Maday for an open right side of the net to shoot for. Ridderwall easily put it past Falcon goaltender Nick Eno to take an early 1-0 lead.

The Sweden native, would strike again less than three minutes later when on another Notre Dame power play Maday again set him up with a pass to the top of the right circle. Ridderwall reared back and put a power shot past Eno once again for his second score of the game.

The Falcons had four power play chances of their own but could not get the puck past UND goaltender Brad Phillips on any of the four opportunities. Of Bowling Green's six shots on goal, four stemmed from their own power plays. Notre Dame put eleven shots on Eno, six while one man up. After one period, the Irish took a 2-0 lead into the locker room from their pair of power-play goals.

The second period, the Falcons came out re-energized and put on an offensive show early. Bowling Green's first two shots would be good for goals as the Falcons scored two goals in less than sixty seconds in the seventeenth minute.

Led by Jordan Samuels-Thomas, the BG offense stormed down the ice into the Irish zone. Coming off a pass from the Falcon blue line, Samuels-Thomas took a quick wrist shot from the near-side faceoff circle, beating UND goalminder Brad Phillips stick-side for his eighth goal of the season. Andrew Krelove was given the lone assist after tossing the puck up the ice to Samuels-Thomas, setting up the goal.

Fifty-six seconds later, Tomas Petruska took a shot from the top of the far-side circle that Phillips saved. The rebound trickled around in front of the net and traffic flooded the crease in front of Phillips. Freshman defenseman Ian Ruel poked his stick out at the puck and from out of the pile the puck found the back of the net for the Falcons' second goal. Being awarded assists on the goal were seniors Petruska and Brian Moore. With that assist, Moore collects the first point of his career.

Notre Dame was not done scoring and broke the two-all tie when Ridderwall completed the hat trick when he collected a Billy Maday shot off the pads of Eno. After Eno made the initials save, Ridderwall beat Eno to the puck in front of the net and quickly flipped it over the left shoulder of the Falcons goalie. Ridderwall picked up his third goal of the game while Maday was awarded his third assist.

The Bowling Green special teams unit shifted into a new gear when after back-to-back Falcon penalties, BG found itself defending another 5-on-3 Irish charge. Senior Tommy Dee made two key blocks with his lower body to stave off the Notre Dame power play unit, helping kill the two-man Irish advantage. Bowling Green killed the remaining 5-on-4 power play before retiring to the locker room trailing 3-2 into the second intermission.

Dee was not satisfied with simply a strong defensive presence when he too put himself into the scoring column. Phillips would relinquish a third Falcon goal at 3:38 of the third period to Dee when the senior assistant captain put a hard shot from inside the far corner nearly fifteen feet out beating Phillips top-shelf, glove side. Samuels-Thomas and Davis Solway were credited with assists.

The Falcons silenced the Irish crowd for a fourth time when another Falcon freshman lit the red light. Goal number four was scored by Marc Rodriguez at 9:53 of the third period on a one-timer from the left post beating Phillips to take the first lead of the day for the Falcons. On the single assist was team captain Kyle Page. The Falcon goal prompted a change in net for the Irish. Phillips would exit in favor of Friday night's winning goaltender, Mike Johnson.

The lead would not last long when the Irish went on a power play against the Falcons and put home their third power-play goal to regain the lead. Following a Robert Shea tripping penalty, UND captain Ryan Thang took advantage of the one-man advantage by taking a shot and beating Eno to his right to tie the game at four goals per team.

Both defenses played strong all the way to the end of regulation. In the last minute of play, both teams exchanged 3-on-2 offensive charges in an effort to end the game in regulation. The Falcons took a forward charge first when senior Kai Kantola cause a turnover with a poke check and led himself into the Irish zone. The Irish defense knocked Kantola off his route and ended the threat as he winded for a shot on net. Notre Dame likewise would cause a Falcon turnover but BG's defense knocked the Irish attacker to the floor before a shot could be recorded. With that, the third period ended and overtime would ensue.

The overtime period featured the Falcon offense taking a lead role in the action. In the first three minutes of the extra frame BG took four shots, two blocked and two on goal, before the Irish would receive a great break. With 1:55 remaining in the overtime, Solway was sent to the penalty box for a tripping call that put Notre Dame on the power play for the duration of the overtime period. The Bowling Green penalty kill stepped it up a notch and had contributions from Andrew Krelove who made three great blocks in the middle of the BG zone. Page stopped a sure shot on goal with a block with his stick before it could reach Eno in net.

With 11.4 seconds left, Ridderwall put a shot on goal that Eno stopped with his pillow. With the puck out of sight, the officials blew the play on the ice dead yet the rock squirted out and both sets of players continued play with it getting rough on the deck. Once the dust settled, four players would be assessed penalties from both sides. For the Falcons, James Perkin and Kai Kantola were sent to the box for grasping of the facemask penalties, as were Notre Dame's Ridderwall and Kevin Deeth.

With 1.5 seconds on the clock, BG and UND took a faceoff in the far circle in the BG zone. Ben Ryan of Notre Dame won the faceoff and before the buzzer sounded Kyle Lawson took a shot that missed wide right ending the overtime period and sending the game into a shootout.

Due to the penalties administered to Solway, Perkin and Kantola all three players were ineligible to participate in the shootout as were Ridderwall and Deeth for UND. Taking shots for the Falcons were Samuels-Thomas, Rodriguez and Page with Eno in net. For the Irish, Maday, Ryan and Thang were scheduled to take shots with Johnson remaining between the pipes.

Bowling Green shot first as the visiting team and Samuels-Thomas put the Falcons on top 1-0 in the shoot out after faking both left and right on Johnson before going five-hole on the junior goalie. Mayday took Notre Dame's first shot and attempted to go low on Eno but was denied. Rodriguez was the next Falcon to hit center ice.

Steaming toward the Irish cage, Rodriguez went left on Johnson and sent a backhand on goal, but Johnson put his pad out and blocked it away for the save. Ryan took the next Irish shot and replicated Rodriguez's move going left on Eno. Eno stuck his pad out and denied Ryan to maintain the 1-0 lead.
Page was the last Falcon shooter and went stick-side on Johnson, but was denied.

The last hope for the Irish was Thang. With the crowd of 2,544 roaring, Thang started left then shifted his weight right and took his shot that sailed high and wide of the Falcon net, sealing the shootout win for the Falcons, 1-0.

The Falcons earned their second shootout win in as many opportunities dating back to Oct. 30 when BG also won 1-0 against the Mavericks of Nebraska Omaha. Samuels-Thomas also scored the game-decided goal in that game as well.

Notre Dame's Ridderwalle was the star of the game completing the hat trick and Billy Mayday had a hand in all four goals by UND.

For the Falcons, Samuels-Thomas earned the third star of the game honor with his fourth career multiple-point game after notching a goal and an assist on top of the game-deciding shootout goal in Saturday's shootout win. Bowling Green was outshot by the Irish 37-25 but for the second night in a row the Falcons put more shots on net in the third period, 12-9. The Falcons went 0-for-5 on the power play for the third straight game and only had one power play chance for the remainder of the game after having four in the first period alone. Notre Dame scored three of their four goals on the power play and finished 3-for-7 on the evening.

Eno finished with 33 saves on 37 shots on goal, including ten power-play stops. Brad Phillips played the first 50:12 in net and allowed four goals on 17 shots faced before being lifted in favor of Mike Johnson. Johnson played the remaining 14:41 and did not allow a goal on the eight shots that he faced before the shootout.

Bowling Green will take home two points towards the conference standings after the shootout win against Notre Dame. Their record now stands at 2-10-2 overall and 2-6-2-2 in conference play. No. 13/14 Notre Dame loses its first shootout since Oct. 31 against Ohio State after winning their last two over Northern Michigan and then-No. 6 Michigan State. Their record is now 7-5-4 overall and 4-2-4-2 against CCHA opponents.

The Falcons will bring the action back to the BGSU Ice Arena for a series against the Lake Superior State Lakers on Dec. 4-5. Friday night will feature a 7:05 p.m. drop of the puck for their first home game in Bowling Green since Nov. 14 against Alaska.