The BGSU hockey team (14-6-5, 11-4-3) drew the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (5-18-2, 1-13) in South Bend on Friday, winning the shootout 1-0.

The Falcons started sluggish on offense, with a lack of flow and struggles with puck handling. ND defenseman Henry Nelson scored early.

But as they would with each of the Irish goals that night, the Falcons answered. In the second period, forward Quinn Emerson scored on an assist from senior forward Brett Pfoh. 

Notre Dame scored again in the second. Early in the third, however, freshman defenseman Ty Higgins scored the first goal of his NCAA career to bring the score to 2-2. He had missed the early part of the season due to injury.

“We definitely would’ve liked to have him up until Christmas,” head coach Dennis Williams said. “He was brought in here to produce offense, which is what we saw tonight.”

Less than a minute later, ND answered with a goal from forward Sutter Muzzatti. Four minutes later, on an assist from Emerson, freshman forward Noah Morneau tied it up at 3-3.

This was Morneau’s first game back from injury, and he immediately made an impact with the game-tying score. The goal from Higgins also put the Falcons in a position to take the Irish to overtime. 

Despite struggles early in the game, there was a through line of improvement with regard to coordination and offensive focus. Morneau’s goal came on a power play, after the Falcons went 0-2 on power plays previously.

“He missed a couple of games, so it’s good to have him back and see that impact,” Higgins said.

After a scoreless overtime period, BG won the shootout 1-0, on a goal by Morneau.

The Falcons host the Irish at the Slater Family Ice Arena on Saturday at 6:07 p.m. Coverage can be found at bgfalconmedia.com and on WBGU 88.1 FM.