#4 Irish Fall To #16 Falcons, 5-2

Cam Morrison, Jake Pivonka score for the Irish

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The fourth-ranked Notre Dame hockey team could not recover from a trio of second-period goals from 16th-ranked Bowling Green on Friday evening, falling 5-2 at the Compton Family Ice Arena (5,271).

Cam Morrison and Jake Pivonka scored for the Irish, both on power-play chances, while Nick Leivermann, Mike O’Leary, Spencer Stasney and Alex Steeves added assists.

How It Happened

After Bowling Green took an early lead on a breakaway goal by Casey Linkenheld a little more than three minutes into the game, the Irish evened things on their first power-play opportunity. Senior forward Cam Morrison netted the equalizer at the 10:23 mark, redirecting sophomore defenseman Nick Leivermann’s blue-line shot 58 seconds into the power play. Senior center Mike O’Leary also assisted on the play.

The Falcons regained the lead at 7:32 of the second period when Alex Barber converted on a power-play goal to make it 2-1. They tacked on two more goals in the final five minutes of the period to take a 4-1 lead into the third.

Bowling Green converted on its second power-play goal of the evening when Freddy Letourneau scored at the 5:53 mark of the third period to stake a 5-1 lead. Late in the period, Jake Pivonka gave the Irish their second power-play goal, slotting Spencer Stasney’s feed past Eric Dop’s blocker with 3:31 remaining.

Senior goaltender Cale Morris allowed four goals and recorded 17 saves in two periods, while freshman Ryan Bischel allowed one goal to nine saves in the third. Dop registered 27 saves with two goals allowed for the Falcons.

Up Next

Notre Dame hits the road to play the second game of its weekend series against Bowling Green at 7 p.m. ET Saturday at the Slater Family Ice Arena. 

Notes

  • Cam Morrison’s first-period goal was his first since netting a goal in each of the first two games of the season against Air Force (Oct. 11-13).
  • Mike O’Leary recorded an assist on Cam Morrison’s first-period goal, giving him a three-game point streak (1-2-3).
  • Notre Dame is now 60-39-8 in the all-time series against Bowling Green. 

—ND—