Jan. 9, 2004
Bowling Green, Ohio – Heading into Friday night’s game at Bowling Green, both Notre Dame and the Falcons were looking to find some scoring.
After a pair of 1-0 shutouts, the Irish found that offense but so did Bowling Green as the Falcons rallied from three two-goal deficits to win in a 5-4 overtime decision at the Bowling Green Ice Arena Friday night.
Freshman right wing James Unger was in the right place at the right time as he crashed the goal as left wing Steve Brudzewski centered a pass from behind the net. The pass appeared to go off Unger for the game-winning goal with just 28 seconds left in the game.
Offensively, the Falcons were led by D’Arcy McConvey who had a goal and three assists while Unger added a goal and two assists in the game.
Aaron Gill and Josh Sciba each had a goal and an assist to lead the Irish.
The loss drops Notre Dame to 10-7-2 overall and 7-6-2 in CCHA play. The Falcons improve to 5-10-6 on the year and 3-7-3 in the conference.
“Of course we are very disappointed with the way we played tonight,” said head coach Dave Poulin following the game.
“This is the most undisciplined we’ve played all year. We were up two goals three times and couldn’t put them away. We took some bad penalties and kept letting them back in the game.
The Irish scored the lone goal of the first period as Brett Lebda went on an end-to-end rush and ripped a wrist shot from the bottom of the left wing circle to beat Bowling Green’s Jordan Sigalet at 6:58.
The goal was Lebda’s third of the season and the lone assist went to goaltender Morgan Cey who left the puck behind net for his first helper of the year and third of his career.
From there, Cey held the fort as the Falcons outshot the Irish 13-7 in the period.
The scoring fireworks started in the second period as the two teams traded six goals. Josh Sciba gave the Irish a 2-0 lead at 8:37 of the second stanza when he stuffed the rebound of an Aaron Gill shot past Sigalet for his third goal of the season.
Bowling Green snapped Cey’s shutout minutes string at 158:53 when McConvey collected the rebound of an Unger shot at the top of the crease and fired it over a sprawling Cey in goal.
Gill made it a two-goal lead for the Irish again at 11:02 of the middle period when he swatted a loose puck out of the air to the left of Sigalet for Notre Dame’s second power-play tally of the game and his sixth goal of the season.
Bowling Green would make it 3-2 at 13:26 when defenseman Kevin Bieksa scored on a perfect centering feed by Unger while the two teams were skating four aside. Notre Dame got the lead back to 4-2 at 18:23 of the second period when Jason Paige took a pass from Rob Globke from behind the net and rifled a wrist shot past Sigalet for his fourth goal of the season.
The Falcons had one more answer for that goal as they cut the lead to 4-3 with just 10 seconds left in the second as Steve Pilkington converted on a power play at 19:50 for his eighth goal of the season.
Bowling Green would get the lone goal of the third period as Brudzewski scored on a power-play rebound at 14:08. McConvey got off a wrist shot from the bottom of the left wing circle. Cey kicked the rebound to the right side and Brudzewski fired it into the wide-open net for his fifth of the season. That goal tied the game at 4-4 and sent it to overtime.
“BG always plays well against us; I told them that before the game. They played well and took advantage of our mistakes,” said Poulin.
On the night, the two teams were each 2-for-8 on the power play. Bowling Green outshot Notre Dame by a 34-32 margin. Cey finished with 29 saves while Sigalet had 28 for the Falcons. Both teams had 11 penalties for 22 minutes in the game
Notre Dame and Bowling Green will resume the series on Saturday night in South Bend. Game time at the Joyce Center set for 7:05 p.m.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 OT F
Notre Dame (10-7-2/7-6-2) 1 3 0 0 4
Bowling Green (5-10-6/3-7-3) 0 3 1 1 5
Scoring
First Period: ND: Brett Lebda 3 (Morgan Cey), PPG, 6:58.
Penalties: ND: 4 for 8 minutes; BGSU: 4 for 8 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Josh Sciba 3 (Aaron Gill, Matt Williams-Kovacs), 8:37; BGSU: D’Arcy McConvey 6 (James Unger, Brian Escobedo), 10:27; ND: A. Gill 6 (Neil Komadoski, Tom Galvin), PPG, 11:02; BGSU: Kevin Bieksa 4 (Unger), 4X4, 13:26; ND: Jason Paige 4 (Rob Globke, Sciba), 18:09; BGSU: Brett Pilkington 8 (McConvey, Eric Meloche), PPG, 19:50.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; BGSU: 4 for 8 minutes.
Third Period: BGSU: Steve Brudzewski 5 (McConvey, Jonathan Sigalet), PPG, 14:08.
Penalties: ND: 5 for 10 minutes; BGSU: 3 for 6 minutes.
Overtime: BGSU: Unger 3 (Brudzewski, McConvey), 4:32.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; BGSU: 0 for 0 minutes
Shots On Goal:
Notre Dame 7 – 12 – 12 – 1 – 32
Bowling Green 13 – 8 – 10 – 3 – 34
Goaltender Saves:
ND – Morgan Cey (64:32) 13 – 5 – 9 – 2 – 29
BGSU – Jordan Sigalet (64:32) 6 – 9 – 12 – 1 – 28
Power Plays:
ND: 2-8
BGSU: 2-8
Attendance: 1,639