Dec. 7, 2001
Bowling Green, Ohio – Special teams are so important in the game of hockey. Kill the opponents’ power play chances while taking advantage of your own. That’s the name of the game.
Notre Dame proved that on Friday night at Bowling Green as the Fighting Irish scored a pair of first- period power play goals and killed seven straight Falcon power plays on the way to a 6-3 win at the BGSU Ice Arena.
Defenseman Tom Galvin paced the Irish with a pair of goals and forwards Michael Chin (one goal, two assists) and Yan Stastny (3 assists) had career-best three-point games as Notre Dame won its third in a row to improve to 5-6-4 overall and 5-3-3 in CCHA play.
Bowling Green falls to 4-9-4 overall and 3-8-2 in league play.
The Irish wasted little time getting on the board. David Inman cashed in at 3:27 as he ripped a shot from the left faceoff dot past Tyler Masters for his team-high eighth goal of the year.
Notre Dame’s lead would grow to 2-0 on Galvin’s hustle. Inman got a shot on goal that missed the net and went into the right wing corner. Galvin got to the puck at the goal line and moved toward the front wristing a shot that slipped between Masters’ pads for his second goal of the year at 5:15.
“They left me all alone on the first goal,” said Galvin. “I looked up and they had backed up so I just took it to the net and stuffed it. “It squeezed through the five-hole.”
The Irish lead went to 3-0 as they got their second power play goal of the night at 12:03 with Aaron Gill and Dunlop combining on a nice passing play. Dunlop had the puck in the right wing corner and found Gill on the doorstep. The sophomore center steered it past Masters for his fifth goal of the season.
“I thought we got off to a great start early,” said head coach Dave Poulin. “We have a lot of respect for (Tyler) Masters – he stops a lot of shots – we just wanted to get off to a fast start.”
While the Notre Dame offense was flying in the first period, the Irish spent most of the second period killing penalties including a pair of five-on-threes for Bowling Green.
After killing seven straight penalties in the game and 23 straight going back to Nov. 17, the Irish surrendered a goal while shorthanded. Bowling Green’s Kevin Bieksa scored on a rebound after Morgan Cey made the first stop on a shot by Grady Moore. For Bieksa, a defenseman playing left wing, the goal was his second of the year and came at 17:44. The power play goal was the first for the Falcons in their last 24 chances.
The goal snapped Cey’s shutout streak at 111:24 after blanking Lake Superior (7-0) last week and keeping Western Michigan off the scoreboard over the final 13:40 on Nov. 17.
Bowling Green would cut the lead to 3-2 with its second power play goal of the night to open the third period. D’Arcy McConvey fired home the rebound of a Moore point shot at 1:27 of the third, just four seconds into a hooking call to Irish defenseman Derek Smith.
Galvin had the answer though as the Irish scored three straight goals to take a 6-2 lead. The sophomore defenseman came late on an Irish rush and rifled a wrist shot from the top of the left wing circle over Masters’ glove at 2:36 and Notre Dame never looked back.
“They had it deep in our zone and we broke out,” said Galvin. “Yan (Stastny) carried it down the left side and took the defenseman with him. Chin went hard to the net and took his man with him. I got off a good shot that hit the post and went in.”
Poulin said, “I liked our poise when they made it 3-2. I thought that’s when we really played our best.”
Chin, who extended his point-scoring streak to eight games (5-6-11) got his sixth goal of the season at 6:49 off a Stastny set up and Brad Wanchulak teamed with Chin and Stastny for his third goal of the season at 12:12.
Bowling Green got a late goal by Roger Leonard at 17:08 for the final of 6-3. For the game, Notre Dame outshot Bowling Green, 32-31. Cey made 28 saves for the Irish while Masters made 26 stops for the Falcons.
After starting the season at 0-4-2 overall, Notre Dame is now 5-2-2 in its last nine games. The last time that Notre Dame won three in a row was Jan. 21-28, 2000 when the Irish swept Western Michigan at home and then won at Alaska Fairbanks.
“This is really a big series for us,” said Poulin. “All the series in the league this week are big. We can’t let down. We’re starting to play with confidence. We have to come out and play hard again tomorrow night.”
Notre Dame closes out the weekend series at Bowling Green on Saturday. Faceoff is set for 7:05 p.m.
Game Summary: 1 2 3 F
Notre Dame (5-6-4/5-3-3) 3 0 3 6
Bowling Green (4-9-4/3-8-2) 0 1 2 3
Scoring
First Period: ND: David Inman 8 (Michael Chin, Connor Dunlop), PPG, 3:27, ND: Tom Galvin 2 (Inman, Rob Globke), 5:15, ND: Aaron Gill 5 (Dunlop, Brett Lebda), PPG, 12:03.
ND: 3 for 6 minutes, BGSU: 4 for 8 minutes.
Second Period: BGSU: Kevin Bieksa 2 (Grady Moore, Brian Escobedo), PPG, 17:44.
Penalties: ND: 9 for 34 minutes, BGSU: 5 for 26 minutes.
Third Period: BGSU: D’Arch McConvey 2 (Moore, Greg Day), PPG, 1:27, ND: Galvin 3 (Yan Stastny), 2:36, ND: Chin 6 (Stastny), 6:49, ND: Brad Wanchulak 3 (Chin, Stastny), 12:12, BGSU: Roger Leonard 3 (Colen Pappas, McConvey), 17:08
Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes, BGSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Shots On Goal:
Notre Dame 9 – 11 – 12 – 32
Bowling Green 8 – 13 – 10 – 31
Goaltender Saves:
ND – Morgan Cey (60:00) 8 – 12 – 8 – 28
BGSU – Tyler Masters (60:00) 6 – 11 – 9 – 26
Power Plays:
ND: 2 for 6
BGSU: 2 for 9
Attendance: 2,506