Dec. 15, 2012
Bowling Green, Ohio – After a week of final exams and just a couple of practices it took the Notre Dame hockey team a little time to shake the rust off but when they did on Saturday night, the Irish rolled to a 4-1 win over Bowling Green at the BGSU Ice Arena.
Notre Dame fell behind 1-0 in the game, but ran off four unanswered goals on the way to the road win. T.J. Tynan, Bryan Rust, Mike Voran and Shayne Taker scored for the Irish to wipe out an early second-period power-play goal by the Falcons’ Ryan Carpenter. Notre Dame scored a pair of power-play goals in the game, the fourth time in the last five games that the Irish have scored a pair of man-advantage games.
The win was the sixth straight for the third-ranked Irish and the eighth consecutive CCHA win as they improved to 14-4-0 at the halfway point of the season and 10-1-0-0 in the conference, good for 30 points and sole possession of first place heading into the holidays. Bowling Green is now 3-10-4 overall and 2-7-3-1 in the CCHA.
“I was okay with the way we played tonight,” said Irish head coach Jeff Jackson.
“I thought it would be a little challenging tonight. We only had two practices this week (due to final exams). We had to shake off a little rust early on. BG plays hard and puts a lot of pressure on you. You have to play smart. When you make a mistake, they capitalize on the opportunity.”
After a scoreless first period, Bowling Green got on the scoreboard first, capitalizing on a power-play chance at 1:49 of the second period.
With Jeff Costello off for hooking, Carpenter gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead when he deflected a shot past Summerhays for his fifth goal of the season. Left wing Dajon Mingo threw a centering pass from the top of the left circle at the Irish goal and Carpenter, skating in front deflected the shot over Summerhays’ glove. The power-play goal was the seventh of the season for Bowling Green and just the third power-play goal surrendered by Notre Dame (38-of-41) since Nov. 4.
With a little help from the boards at the BGSU Ice Arena, the Irish were able to tie the game at 3:44. Voran dumped the puck down the right wing boards behind the Bowling Green net. As Hammond went out to play the puck, it took a crazy bounce off the backboards to Mario Lucia. The freshmen left wing quickly slid it in front of the net where Tynan was all alone and fired it home before Hammond could get back in the cage to make it 1-1. The goal was Tynan’s fifth of the season.
“That was a fluky goal that really changed the momentum of the game,” said Jackson.
“We’ve had that happen to us. You give up a strange goal and everything changes. It was a momentum changer tonight.”
Notre Dame made it 2-1 on their first power-play chance, scoring their seventh power-play goal in the last five games at 11:52 on a tremendous passing play. Defenseman Shayne Taker moved the puck from the left point to the right side of the net on the goal line to Costello. The junior from Milwaukee, Wis., moved the puck back to Rust at the bottom of the left circle and where he one-timed a shot past Hammond for his fifth goal of the season to put the Irish in front.
The Irish improved its lead to 3-1 at 13:18 of the third period when Voran scored his fourth of the season off a great pass from Tynan. Lucia picked up his second assist of the night when he moved the puck from the left circle to Tynan behind the Bowling Green net. In one motion, Tynan backhanded the puck in front to Voran coming down the slot. The junior right wing one-timed a wrist shot form the top of the crease over Hammond’s shoulder and under the cross bar to give Notre Dame a two-goal lead.
Notre Dame closed out the scoring at 15:14 with its second power-play goal of the night. Taker got the goal, his first of the season and first in 45 games as he took a pass from Costello (two assists) and roofed a shot from the left circle under the bar to make it 4-1. Anders Lee also assisted on the goal, Taker’s first since Nov. 18, 2011, a goal he scored in the Dedication game against Boston College a year ago at the Compton Family Ice Arena.
On the night, the Irish out shot the Falcons by a 32-19 margin. Summerhays finished with 18 saves in picking up his 12th win of the season. Hammond finished the game with 28 saves.
Notre Dame now breaks for Christmas break and will have 24 days off before returning to action on Tues., Jan. 8 when they travel to the University of Minnesota for a non-conference game against the Golden Gophers. Face off at Mariucci Arena is set for 7:07 p.m. (CT).
** IRISH NOTES **
** Sophomore defenseman Robbie Russo saw his career-best and team high eight-game scoring streak snapped on Saturday night. Russo had two goals and nine assists for 11 points in his streak.
** After missing the first nine games due to a broken leg, freshman left wing Mario Lucia has scored 10 points (5g, 5a) in his nine games back in the lineup.
** The line of Mario Lucia, T.J. Tynan and Mike Voran combined for six points in the win. Voran and Tynan had a goal and an assist each while Lucia chipped in with two assists.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#3/#3 Notre Dame (14-4-0/10-1-0-0) 0 2 2 - 4Bowling Green (3-10-4/2-7-3-0) 0 1 0 - 1
Scoring First Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; BGSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: BGSU: Ryan Carpenter 5 (Dajon Mingo, Mike Sullivan), PPG, 1:49; ND: T.J. Tynan 5 (Mario Lucia, Mike Voran), 3:44; ND: Bryan Rust 5 (Jeff Costello, Shayne Taker), PPG, 11:52.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; BGSU: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Mike Voran 4 (Tynan, Lucia), 13:18; ND: Shayne Taker 1 (Costello, Anders Lee), PPG, 15:14.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; BGSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 10 - 13 - 9 - 32Bowling Green 5 - 8 - 6 - 19
Goaltender Saves:ND: Steven Summerhays (60:00) 5 - 7 - 6 - 18BGSU: Andrew Hammond (59:52) 10 - 11 - 7 - 28
Power Plays:ND: 2 for 3BGSU: 1 for 2
Attendance: 2,390