Feb. 4, 2012
Notre Dame, Ind. – Freshmen center Ryan Carpenter scored twice in the third period to wipe out a 2-1 Notre Dame lead and give Bowling Green to a 3-2 win over the Irish on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 5,022 at the Compton Family Ice Arena.
The Irish built their 2-1 lead on power play goals by defensemen Robbie Russo and Stephen Johns. Camden Wojtala had Bowling Green’s third goal of the night.
The loss hurt Notre Dame’s bid to move up in the CCHA standings as the Irish fell to 16-11-3 on the season and 11-8-3-0 in the CCHA, good for 36 points. With six games left in the regular season, Notre Dame is tied for fourth place in the conference with Miami and Ohio State and trail third-place Michigan (38) by two points in the standings. The Irish are now five points behind first-place Ferris State.
The win improves Bowling Green to 9-16-5 on the year and 4-14-4-3 in the CCHA.
“It was very frustrating, but we had plenty of chances to score goals and we didn’t,” said Irish coach Jeff Jackson following the game.
“We lacked the ability to finish tonight. It’s happened to us a lot this year. We have the guys who have the ability to finish but we just aren’t putting the puck in.”
The Irish dominated play early in the opening period and had out shot the Falcons, 7-1, when they finally broke through on goaltender Andrew Hammond with a power play goal at 10:28 from Russo off a face off in the Bowling Green zone.
Center T.J. Tynan won the draw in the right circle back to Anders Lee at the top of the circle. Lee quickly moved it to the left point to Russo who drilled a shot that beat Hammond over his glove and into the upper right corner for the fourth goal of his rookie season. With assists on the play, Tynan and Lee extended their point streaks to four and five games respectively.
Bowling Green tied the game at 17:07 on Wojtala’s seventh goal of the season. Left wing Adam Berkle, who had two assists in the game, took a hit at center ice but made the lead pass to Bryce Williamson for a two-on-one chance with Wojtala. The sophomore center snapped a shot from the slot that beat Irish goaltender Steven Summerhays through the five hole to even the score at 1-1.
The Irish finished the first period with a 13-8 shot advantage.
“I thought we were playing really well early in the game and then the whole game changed when we made a bad decision on a step up in the neutral zone and they tied the game and then we took a bad penalty on the same shift and that’s when the whole game changed,” said Jackson.
Notre Dame would take a 2-1 lead in the second period on a power-play goal by Johns. Aside from that goal, neither team mustered much offense as the Irish had a 5-4 advantage on the shot clock.
With Marc Rodriguez off for holding, right wing David Gerths chipped the puck up the left boards to defenseman Shayne Taker who moved it across to Johns on the right point. The sophomore defenseman fired a shot on goal that beat Hammond through his pads for his fourth goal of the season. The Irish were two-for-eight on the power play in the game.
“It was a great pass from Shayne Taker,” said Johns.
“The goalie came out and his feet where open and I shot it through his legs. I think he got a little of the puck and I got a fortunate bounce and it found the back of the net.”
The Irish took the 2-1 lead into the third period and were 12-1-1 this season when leading after two periods. The Falcons would change that.
Carpenter got his first of goal of the third period at 5:17 when he combined with defenseman Jake Sloat on a two-on-one. Sloat went wide down the right side and found Carpenter alone in front and the freshman fired it into a wide open net for his seventh goal of the season to tie things at 2-2.
Bowling Green dominated the attack in the third as the Falcons would out shoot the Irish, 12-4, in the final period.
With time running down in the third, the Falcons took the lead at 18:22 when Carpenter scored off a scramble in the slot, wristing a shot past Summerhays to give Bowling Green the 3-2 advantage. The goal was his eighth of the season.
Notre Dame was not done though as the Irish pulled Summerhays for a sixth attacker but couldn’t get the attack organized until the final seconds when a pass from behind the net found Riley Sheahan in front. The junior let go a shot with 0.2 seconds left that appeared labeled for the upper corner but Hammond came up with the glove save to seal the win for Bowling Green.
The Falcons out shot the Irish, 24-22, in the game. Hammond finished with 20 saves while Summerhays made 21.
Notre Dame returns to action on Feb. 10-11 with a home-and-home series versus first-place Ferris State. Friday’s game is at the Compton Family Ice Arena while Saturday’s contest will be played in Big Rapids, Mich.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - FBowling Green (9-16-5/4-14-4-3) 1 0 2 - 3#6/#8 Notre Dame (16-11-3/11-8-3-0) 1 1 0 - 2
Scoring First Period: ND: Robbie Russo 4 (Anders Lee, T.J. Tynan), PPG, 10:28; BGSU: Camden Wojtala 7 (Bryce Williamson, Adam Berkle), 17:07.
Penalties: BGSU: 5 for 10 minutes; ND: 4 for 8 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Stephen Johns 4 (Shayne Taker, David Gerths), PPG, 2:50.
Penalties: BGSU: 5 for 18 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Third Period: BGSU: Ryan Carpenter 7 (Jake Sloat, Connor Kucera), 5:17; BGSU: Carpenter 8 (Berkle, Dan DeSalvo), 18:22.
Penalties: BGSU: 0 for 0 minutes; ND: 0 for 0 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Bowling Green 8 - 4 - 12 - 24Notre Dame 13 - 5 - 4 - 22
Goaltender Saves:BGSU: Andrew Hammond (60:00) 12 - 4 - 4 - 20ND: Steven Summerhays (58:54) 7 - 4 - 10 - 21
Power Plays:BGSU: 0 for 4ND: 2 for 8
Attendance: 5,022 (sellout)