Falcons Falter in Rematch with Irish

Saturday, November 6

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:05 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Notre Dame

November 06, 2010 | Ice Hockey

The Falcons enjoyed an early 2-1 lead, but Notre Dame stormed back and took home a 6-3 victory.

By: by Ryan Gasser, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- Bowling Green Hockey enjoyed the company of a former Falcon with the appearance of Rob Blake and an early lead of the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, but the visitors stormed back controlling much of the second and third periods and marched on to a 6-3 win on Saturday night.

Box score (.html) | Box score (.pdf) | Updated statistics (.html)
Post game audio (.mp3) - Chris Bergeron | David Solway
Photo gallery -- Day 1 (courtesy of Todd Pavlack) | Day 2 (courtesy of Craig Bell)
Rob Blake / Mike Emrick video -- click here

Bowling Green enjoyed an early 2-1 lead through the first period of play despite only having three shots on goal in the frame. The Falcons made them count, notching two of those shots for scores off of the sticks of Bowling Green captain David Solway (Green Bay, Wisc.) and Ian Ruel (Ann Arbor, Mich.).

Notre Dame's David Gerth's provided the game's first goal just five minutes into the opening frame but Solway answered back with a score of his own to nod the game up at one heading toward the halfway point of the first period. Solway was the benefactor of a loose puck off of a rebound out in front of the net. Dug out of the halfboards by Marc Rodriguez (Aurora, Ill.), the sophomore connected with linemate Jordan Samuels-Thomas (South Windsor, Conn.) with a pass out in front of the Irish cage. Samuels-Thomas then threw a shot onto UND goaltender Steven Summerhays that bounced off the netminder's pillow and ripe for the picking for Solway's put back shot.

Later in the period, Ruel gave the Falcons a one-goal edge with a laser slap shot that found the back of the Irish cage, giving BGSU a 2-1 advantage. The tandem of Rodriguez and James McIntosh (Holland Landing, Ontario) cycled the puck around to Ruel at the top of the right point. Taking a moment to scan the ice, the setting was right for the sophomore defenseman to take the shot himself and with a one-time effort slapped home a laser past Summerhays for the second Falcon goal.

However UND answered back early and often with three goals in the second period, the first coming less than a minute into the start of the period. Ryan Guentzel, Sean Lorenz and T.J. Tynan all scored within the first seven minutes of the middle frame allowing the Irish to retake the lead, 4-2. All of those goals were at even-strength and one was a 4-on-4 effort.

McIntosh answered back with his second goal of the season cutting the lead to one, but that would be as close as the Brown and Orange got. Notre Dame tacked on two additional goals, both on the power play and left the BGSU Ice Arena 6-3 victors.

Andrew Hammond (Surrey, British Columbia) endured his second straight loss after two stellar performances in weeks two and three. He finished with 30 saves on the night on 36 chances.

Bowling Green's bugaboo all game was enduring 13 penalties and allowing Notre Dame ten power play chances for the second night in a row. The Falcons killed eight of those power plays, allowing both goals a man down in the third period. Last night, BGSU killed 9-of-10 UND power plays. Bowling Green only had two power play chances on the night, finishing 0-for-2.

The Falcons struggled getting shots on the Irish net, finishing with only 13 shots on goal. The Irish countered with 36.

Bowling Green (4-6-0, 1-5-0-0) exits the weekend with a split with the No. 11 Fighting Irish and will travel to Marquette, Mich. next week to play the Northern Michigan Wildcats on Nov. 12-13.

Blake and Mike "Doc" Emrick were both in attendance for Saturday night's game as Blake was honored prior to the first face off. Introduced by Emrick, a current NHL television/radio broadcaster and BGSU alum, Blake took part in a ceremonial puck drop before engaging the 2,563 fans in attendance. Both Blake and Emrick took part in a private media event prior to the game. To view the video or listen to the audio from the event, click here.