Oct. 12, 2007
Dayton, Ohio – Third-period goals by Aaron Bendickson, Tom Gorowsky and Kyle Turris snapped a 1-1 tie to give the Wisconsin Badgers a 4-1 win over Notre Dame in the opening game of the Lefty McFadden Invitational at the E.J. Nutter Center.
The loss puts the Irish in the third-place game against the loser of the Ohio State-Mercyhurst game at 4:35 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
Wisconsin dominated the first period of play, out shooting Notre Dame by a 13-3 margin as junior goaltender Jordan Pearce kept the Irish in the game with some stellar goaltending. The Irish struggled early in moving the puck and did not get their first shot of the game until the 11:46 mark of the period as the Badgers had the first nine shots of the game.
“We were nervous early in the game,” said head coach Jeff Jackson. “We had that deer-in-the-headlights look. We really played uptight but it may have been a blessing in disguise because it gave our goaltender a chance to show that he could play. I thought Jordan kept us in the game that period.”
Pearce’s biggest save of the period came with 5:57 gone in the first period when he stopped Wisconsin freshman Kyle Turris, the third pick in the 2007 NHL Draft, on a short-handed breakaway one minute into a Notre Dame power-play chance.
The Badgers would finally get one past Pearce at 15:05 of the opening period when Josh Engel whipped a shot from the slot past Pearce. Matthew Ford and Davis Drewiske assisted on the goal.
As lopsided as the first period was in favor of Wisconsin, the Irish dominated the second as they seemed to find their legs, getting 12 shots to the Badgers four in the middle stanza.
They would tie the game at 2:20 of the second when Mark Van Guilder took a feed from freshman Ben Ryan at the bottom of the left wing circle and drilled a shot through Wisconsin goaltender Shane Connelly’s pads on a power-play chance.
“I was calm with them after the first period because I knew that wasn’t our team,” explained Jackson.
“They just had to settle down and snap out of it. I thought they did with the way we played in the second period.”
Despite facing just four shots in the second period, Pearce made his biggest save of the night when he stopped a 2-on-0 Badger scoring bid.
Turris stripped the puck from an Irish defenseman at the Notre Dame blue line and raced in on Pearce with right wing Podge Turnbull. He carried the puck to the net and at the last second slid the puck to Turnbull, but Pearce was there to stop the scoring bid.
Play went back and forth in the third period with the score staying 1-1 until the 10:32 mark when Bendickson got what would be the game-winning goal as he poked a rebound past Pearce. Drewiske, who had three assists in the game, set up the goal as his shot from the left point went through a screen. Pearce stopped the shot but Bendickson beat a defender to the puck for his first goal of the year.
Three minutes later it was Gorowsky’s turn to jump on a Drewiske rebound as the senior defenseman’s shot was stopped in front and popped in front of the crease where the junior right wing was waiting for his first goal of the year.
Turris capped the scoring on a power-play goal with 35 seconds remaining as he redirected a back-hand pass from Michael Davies to wrap up the scoring.
For the game, Wisconsin out shot the Irish by a 25-24 margin. Pearce finished with 21 saves while Connelly had 23 in the Badger goal.
IRISH NOTES:
* Notre Dame trails in the all-time series versus Ohio State, 25-23-7 while they lead Mercyhurst, 3-0-0 in that series. The last time the Irish played the Lakers was Nov. 30-Dec. 1, 1990 at the Joyce Center with Notre Dame taking 7-2 and 7-6 decisions.
* The Irish were 1-for-7 on the power play and killed two of three Wisconsin power-play chances.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#14/#15 Wisconsin (1-0-0) 1 0 3 - 4#7/#8 Notre Dame (0-1-0) 0 1 0 - 1
ScoringFirst Period: UW: Josh Engel 1 (Matthew Ford, Davis Drewiske), 15:05.Penalties:UW: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Mark Van Guilder 1 (Ben Ryan, Brett Blatchford), PPG, 2:20.Penalties:UW: 4 for 8 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Third Period: UW: Aaron Bendickson 1 (Drewiske, Cody Goloubef), 10:32; UW: Tom Gorowsky 1 (Drewiske, John Mitchell), 13:31; UW: Kyle Turris 1 (Michael Davies, Ben Street), PPG, 19:35.Penalties:UW: 1 for 2 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Wisconsin 13 - 4 - 8 - 25Notre Dame 3 - 12 - 9 - 24
Goaltender Saves:UW - Shane Connelly (60:00) 3 - 11 - 9 - 23ND - Jordan Pearce (60:00) 12 - 4 - 5 - 21
Power Plays:UW: 1 for 3ND: 1 for 7
Attendance: N/A