Jan. 15, 2013
Bowling Green, Ohio – Notre Dame’s five-game road trip came to an end where it started – at Bowling Green, but the results weren’t like the first game back on Dec. 15 when the Irish took a 4-1 win.
Instead, Notre Dame closed out the trip, dropping a 4-2 decision on Tuesday night in front of 2,696 at the BGSU Ice Arena for a 2-3-0 mark since that Dec. 15 game.
Ryan Peltoma, Dan DeSalvo, Ryan Carpenter and Bryce Williamson scored for the Falcons and goaltender Andrew Hammond stopped 20-of-22 Notre Dame shots in the victory. The win was the first for Bowling Green at home against the Irish since Nov. 6, 2010, snapping a four-game Irish win streak at BGSU Ice Arena.
Bryan Rust and T.J. Tynan scored in the loss for Notre Dame as the Irish drop their second straight game in CCHA play after winning a school-record nine straight CCHA contests. Mike Johnson, making his first start since Dec. 1 versus Lake Superior finished with 27 saves on the night.
The loss drops the #4/#5 Irish to 15-7-0 on the season and 11-3-0-0 in the CCHA. Notre Dame remains in first in the conference, one point ahead of second-place Miami. More importantly, the Irish lose one of their games in hand versus the RedHawks who have now played two more games than Notre Dame. Bowling Green is now 5-1-2 in its last six games and is now 7-10-5 overall and 4-7-3-1 in conference play.
“Bowling Green played really well, but I expected that after seeing the way they have played the last few weeks,” said Irish head coach Jeff Jackson.
“The are going one direction and we are going the other direction. We are dinged up a little bit with a couple of injuries having really disrupted our top two lines. And the schedule hasn’t helped much, playing six games in 11 days.”
Notre Dame scored the lone goal of the first period on a pretty passing play by Rust and Tynan at 16:44. The Irish came through center ice with Rust carrying the puck. At the Bowling Green blue line, he dropped a pass for Tynan and went to the net. Tynan fired the puck towards the goal and Rust got his stick on it to deflect it past Andrew Hammond in the Bowling Green goal for his sixth of the season. Stephen Johns also picked up an assist on the play.
The Irish had an earlier chance in the first period when Bowling Green defenseman Connor Kucera received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for checking Tynan from behind at 6:25 of the period. The Irish had five shots during the five-minute major but did not score.
Bowling Green took control in the middle stanza, scoring twice in a 1:20 span to take a 2-1 lead.
The Falcons got the equalizer at 13:03 as Peltoma scored his first of the season, taking a cross-rink pass from Ryan Carpenter, before hammering a one-timer from the left point inside the left post and over Johnson’s blocker to make it 1-1.
Just 1:20 later at 14:23, Bowling Green took the lead with DeSalvo redirecting a centering feed from Ben Murphy in the low slot. The goal was DeSalvo’s second of the season and gave Bowling Green the 2-1 advantage. The Falcons out shot Notre Dame by a 13-7 margin in the second period.
The Bowling Green lead would go to 3-1 at 12:19 of the third period when Carpenter scored what proved to be the game winner, beating Johnson with a wrist shot from the bottom of the left wing circle. Carpenter’s shot looked like it was stopped, but it broke through Johnson’s pads and trickled inside the right post for his eighth goal of the season.
The Irish weren’t done though as Tynan breathed life into Notre Dame’s hopes when he scored on the power play at 17:01 whipping a one timer from the left circle under Hammond’s right arm for his sixth goal of the season to make it 3-2. The goal gave Tynan two points on the night and was his sixth of the season. Sam Calabrese and Robbie Russo assisted on the goal.
Any Irish comeback hopes were quickly dashed as Williamson scored just 35 seconds later at 17:36 for the Falcons when his shot from the right circle beat Johnson through his pads, to make it 4-2. The goal was Williamson’s seventh of the season.
On the night, Bowling Green out shot Notre Dame by a 31-22 margin. The Irish were 1-for-5 on the power play while the Falcons were 0-for-6.
The Irish will now return home to play four straight home games, the first games at the Compton Family Ice Arena since Dec. 9, a span of 41 days. Notre Dame will open the homestand at 7:35 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 18 when they play host to the Alaska Nanooks. The two teams also will meet on Saturday night in a 7:05 p.m. contest.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#3/#3 Notre Dame (15-7-0/11-3-0-0) 1 0 2 - 4Bowling Green (7-10-5/4-7-3-1) 0 2 0 - 1
Scoring First Period: ND: Bryan Rust 6 (T.J. Tynan, Stephen Johns), 16:44.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; BGSU: 3 for 17 minutes.
Second Period: BGSU: Ryan Peltoma 1 (Ryan Carpenter, Rusty Hafner), 13:03; BGSU: Dan DeSalvo 2 (Ben Murphy, Adam Berkle), 14:23.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; BGSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Third Period: BGSU: Carpenter 8 (Mark Cooper, Bobby Shea), 12:19; ND: T.J. Tynan 6 (Robbie Russo, Sam Calabrese), PPG, 17:01; BGSU: Bryce Williamson 7 (unassisted), 17:36.
Penalties: ND: 3 for 6 minutes; BGSU: 3 for 6 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 9 - 7 - 6 - 22Bowling Green 8 - 13 - 10 - 31
Goaltender Saves:ND: Mike Johnson (57:56) 8 - 7 - 6 - 18BGSU: Andrew Hammond (60:00) 8 - 11 - 7 - 28
Power Plays:ND: 1 for 5BGSU: 0 for 6
Attendance: 2,692