Oct. 28, 2011
Bowling Green, Ohio – Notre Dame got strong special teams play and a pair of freshmen scored their first collegiate goals to lead Notre Dame to a 3-1 win over Bowling Green in front of a crowd of 1,896 at the BGSU Ice Arena on Friday night.
The Irish got power-play goals from Anders Lee and freshman defenseman Robbie Russo – the first of his career – and freshman Garrett Peterson notched the game winner with his first career goal in the victory. T.J. Tynan had a pair of assists for Notre Dame. Bryce Williamson scored the lone Bowling Green goal of the night.
Notre Dame was 2-for-5 on the power play and killed off all four Falcon power plays, including a 29-second 5-on-3 in the opening period.
The Irish out shot Bowling Green, 25-18, in the game with Mike Johnson stopping 17 shots for his third win of the season. Andrew Hammond had 21 saves for the Falcons.
The win was the second in a row for Notre Dame and improves the Irish to 4-2-0 overall and 2-1-0-0 in the CCHA. The Falcons are now 4-2-1 on the season and 1-2-0-0 in conference play.
“It was a hard-fought game. A tough, gritty game,” said Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson.
“They (Bowling Green) are a young team that plays with energy and enthusiasm and that’s tough to play against. That’s kind of where we were at last year with so many young kids. They played us tough. I expected it. It wasn’t a surprise.”
Notre Dame got the lone goal of the first period as Lee opened the night by scoring on the power play at 13:45.
The Irish cycled the puck deep in the left corner of the Bowling Green zone. T.J. Tynan came out of the corner and fed Billy Maday in the left circle. Maday made a move towards the goal before feathering a pass between a pair of Falcon defenseman to Lee who was parked on the right post. The sophomore redirected the pass behind Hammond for his ninth goal of the year.
The score would remain 1-0 into the second period before the Notre Dame freshmen got involved in the action with Peterson scoring his first career goal at 3:03. With the play in the Irish zone along the right boards, center Patrick Gaul poked the puck loose to freshman Peter Schneider who broke out on a two-on-one with Peterson. He fed Peterson inside the Bowling Green blue line and the freshman, playing on his off wing, unleashed a wrist shot from the left face-off dot that beat Hammond over his glove hand for a 2-0 lead. The goal and assist were firsts for both Peterson and Schneider on the season.
The Falcons would cut the lead to 2-1 at 12:38 of the middle period when Williamson took a feed from Ryan Carpenter inside the Notre Dame blue line and ripped a shot past Mike Johnson that went in off the left post for his third goal of the season.
In the third period, the Irish would get their second power-play goal of the night off the stick of Russo. Notre Dame was on a 5-on-3 for 1:22 and had the puck deep in the Bowling Green zone. Tynan worked it free and slid a pass to the top of the left circle to Russo who drilled a shot past Hammond at 14:11 for the 3-1 advantage.
The Falcons would get Hammond off for a sixth attacker in the final minute of play but Johnson and the defense held them off the scoreboard for the final score of 3-1.
Notre Dame and Bowling Green will meet in the second game of the series on Saturday night at the BGSU Ice Arena at 7:05 p.m.
** IRISH NOTES **
* With a power play goal for Lee and two assists for Tynan, the dynamic duo extended their point streaks to six for this season while Tynan now has a seven-game streak dating back to last year’s Frozen Four. Lee has nine goals and three assists for 12 points on the year while Tynan has two goals and 11 assists for 13 points.
* With an assist on Garrett Peterson’s second-period goal, senior center Patrick Gaul has a goal and two assists for the season, doubling his career numbers.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#5/#5 Notre Dame (4-2-0/2-1-0-0) 1 1 1 - 3Bowling Green (4-2-1/1-2-0-0) 0 1 0 - 2
Scoring First Period: ND: Anders Lee 9 (Billy Maday, T.J. Tynan), PPG, 13:45.
Penalties: ND: 3 for 6 minutes; BGSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Garrett Peterson 1 (Peter Schneider, Patrick Gaul), 3:03; BGSU: Bryce Williamson 3 (Ryan Carpenter), 12:38.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; BGSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Robbie Russo 1 (Tynan,), PPG, 14:11.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; BGSU: 4 for 8 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 7 - 7 - 11 - 25Bowling Green 5 - 5 - 8 - 18
Goaltender Saves:ND: Mike Johnson (59:55) 5 - 4 - 8 - 17BGSU: Andrew Hammond (58:40) 6 - 6 - 9 - 21
Power Plays:ND: 2 for 5BGSU: 0 for 4
Attendance: 1,896