The Bowling Green hockey team entered the Joyce Center at Notre Dame Saturday night riding a two-game winning streak, but fell short to the Irish by a score of 6-3. It was a game that saw the Falcons get their highest shot total on net for the season; however, the Notre Dame power play proved to be the difference.
It was an evenly-played first period to begin the game as both teams scored once and had even scoring chances. Notre Dame drew first blood as Yan Stastny beat Falcon goaltender Jordan Sigalet at the 4:54 mark. Later in the period, Bowling Green got on the scoreboard after Ryan Barnett scored at 17:02 mark with assists from Alex Rogosheske and Jon Sitko. The period came to a close with the game tied at one and Notre Dame having 15 shots on goal to 10 for the Falcons.
The second period was the real turning point of the game as the Irish slipped three goals past Jordan Sigalet. Notre Dame struck first in the period with a power play goal by Rob Globke, which made it a 2-1 Irish lead. Bowling Green answered back with 7:54 to go in the period with Brian Escobedo getting his first goal of the season from Alex Rogosheske. A Falcon penalty set up an Irish power play goal by Cory McLean only a minute and half later, which put the Irish ahead again at 3-2. Then the final goal of the period came at the 16:13 mark as once again the Irish capitalized on the power play with a goal from Brett Lebda. The period came to a close with the Irish ahead 4 to 2 and the Falcons having 16 shots on goal to 23 for the Irish.
As the final period began, the Falcons looked to have some new life as Brett Pilkington ripped a hard slap shot past Irish goaltender Morgan Cey, bringing it to a 4-3 Irish advantage. The Irish answered right back, though, with a goal by Evan Nielsen making it another 2 goal cushion.
The Falcons out-shot the Irish in the period, but they just couldn’t take advantage of their scoring chances.
“We gave ourselves chances down the stretch, but just couldn’t capitalize,” said Falcon coach Scott Paluch.
Notre Dame added their fourth power play goal of the game with 4 minutes left, as Cory McLean got his second of the game. The game ended with the Irish getting a 6 to 3 win, which moved them to (7-6-2 overall, 6-6-0 CCHA) and dropped the Falcons to (3-10-1 overall, 1-9-1 CCHA).
Coach Paluch commented on how his team played during the evening.
“The first 10 minutes of the game, I felt we got off to slow start,” said Paluch. “I thought we were a good 5 on 5 hockey team for the majority of the evening.”
The Falcons fell last night, as well, as Notre Dame won its second straight, 5-2. There will be plenty more about the second game of the series in tomorrow’s edition of The BG News.
