Bowling Green (14-6-6, 11-4-3) and Notre Dame (5-18-3, 1-13-0) met at the Slater Family Ice Arena for the second game of their weekend series after the two teams skated to a 3-3 draw on Friday night at NDU’s Compton Family Ice Arena.
On Saturday, the two teams would once again skate to a draw, this time with a 2-2 scoreline, but while it was BGSU claiming the shootout victory on Friday, the Fighting Irish would claim it on Saturday after eight rounds.
Goaltending for both teams would play a huge role in the game as both Notre Dame’s Nicholas Kempf and Bowling Green’s Jacob Steinman would play well throughout the game and into the shootout.
Jacob Steinman would save 25 of the 27 shots he faced during regulation and overtime play to finish the game with a .926 save percentage. The freshman netminder would then turn away NDU’s first seven attempts in the shootout before finally being bested by senior defenseman Axel Kumlin in the eighth round of the shootout.
Nicholas Kempf would have an even more impressive game as the netminder would face a total of 50 shots from the Falcons, as 14 different BG players had at least two shots on goal, with freshman forwards Noah Morneau and Dominik Rymon leading the way with five apiece. BGSU’s performance marked the most shots a CCHA team has taken during a game so far this season.
Kempf would save 48 of the 50 shots he faced to finish the game with a .960 save percentage and would then turn away all eight of Bowling Green’s attempts in the shootout to give the Fighting Irish the shootout victory in a game that will be recorded as a 2-2 draw.
Kempf’s 48-save performance marks a career high for the sophomore netminder, but this is not the first time the Morton Grove, Illinois native won an eight-round shootout, as he helped Notre Dame claim a shootout victory over Penn State after eight rounds last season on Jan. 3 in an outdoor game at Wrigley Field.
“Kudos to both goalies, they did well,” said BGSU head coach Dennis Williams after the game.
“It’s not from a lack of trying, our guys try to score,” added Williams later in the press conference. “We went to the right areas, went to the hard areas, and credit, he (Kempf) played well tonight, just like our goalies this weekend played well, both of ‘em.”
BGSU will return to CCHA play next weekend as they host St. Thomas (17-8-3, 14-4-2) at the Slater Family Ice Arena on Feb. 6 and 7.
