Junior defenseman Kevin Lind scored his second goal of the season in the 6-3 loss at Ohio State.

Irish Fall Victim To Ohio State Power Play In 6-3 Loss To The Buckeyes

Feb. 1, 2013

Final Stats

Columbus, Ohio – Special teams was the name of the game on Friday night as Notre Dame and Ohio State combined for six power-play goals and one four-on-four goal as the Buckeyes handed the Irish a 6-3 loss in front of 5,779 at Value City Arena.

Ohio State scored four power-play goals on nine chances while the Irish picked up two on five their five opportunities and had the one four-on-four goal. The Buckeyes’ totals were season highs against Notre Dame in both categories

Ryan Dzingel led the Ohio State attack with a pair of power-play goals. Nick Oddo chipped in a goal and two assists while Alex Szczechura, Anthony Greco and Jason DaSilva also scored for Ohio State. Mario Lucia, Kevin Lind and Bryan Rust lit the lamp for Notre Dame.

The Irish were out shot in the game by a 33 – 32 margin. Steven Summerhays played the first 40 minutes and made 20 saves. Mike Johnson played the third period (19:10) and had seven. Brady Hjelle had 29 stops in the Buckeye’s goal.

Notre Dame falls to 16-11-0 overall and 12-7-0-0 in the CCHA. Ohio State improves to 11-11-5 overall and 10-6-3-0 in conference play. The #11/#9 Irish remain in third place in the conference with 36 points but fall six points behind Western Michigan and Miami. Notre Dame has just a two-point lead on three teams – Ferris State, Ohio State and Alaska – as the trio is tied for fourth with 34.

“The major penalty really took us off our game for that extended period of time,” said Irish head coach Jeff Jackson following the game.

“You’re not going to win many games when you take 25 minutes in penalties. It’s not going to happen. We have to eliminate the unnecessary penalties.”

The Irish scored the first goal of the game for the sixth consecutive game and are just 1-5-0 in those games. Lucia notched his ninth of the season at 12:32 of the first with a power-play goal. Just seconds before scoring, the freshman left wing rang a shot off the post, that went back to the point where Sam Calabrese put the scoring-play in motion.

The lone senior on the Notre Dame blue line fired a shot that was stopped by Hjelle. The rebound went to Mike Voran who fired a shot from the slot that the senior goaltender stopped but Lucia managed to jam the loose puck behind him to extend his point streak to five games (4-3-7).

The Buckeyes exploded for five goals in the second period, the most surrendered by the Irish in a period this season, as were the six in the game. Four of them came via the power play with three on a five-minute major penalty to start the stanza. Notre Dame’s Voran was called for hitting from behind at 19:50 of the first period and OSU scored three times on the penalty to take a 3-1 lead.

All three goals were of the rebound variety with Oddo starting the scoring at 1:09 when he tucked a rebound inside the right post for his first of the season to make it 1-1.

Ohio State took the lead at 2:45 when Dzingel got his first of two power-play goals in the game, flipping a rebound over Summerhays’ stick hand for his 11th of the season to make it 2-1.

Twenty-seven seconds later it was 3-1 in favor of the Buckeyes when Szczechura rapped the rebound of a shot by Oddo past Summerhays for his sixth of the game.

The Irish dug deep and battled back to tie the game by the eight-minute mark of the second on goals by Lind and Rust.

With the two teams short a man and playing four aside, freshmen Steven Fogarty and Thomas DiPauli worked the puck down the right side with DiPauli finding Lind, the junior defenseman coming late through the middle. Lind took the pass and whipped a wrister past Hjelle for his second of the year at 7:02 to cut the lead to 3-2.

Less than a minute later, the Irish evened the score at 3-3 when Rust was left all alone in front to bury a shot behind Hjelle from below the hash marks on the left circle off a centering feed from defenseman Stephen Johns at 7:56. The goal was Rust’s seventh of the season.

The score remained tied until the 16:05 mark when Greco’s slap shot from the center point found its way through Summerhays’ pads and trickled across the goal line to make it 4-3. The goal was Greco’s fourth of the season.

Ohio State got one more power-play chance and capitalized on it at 17:51 as Dzingel scored his second of the night and 12th of the season as he took a centering feed from Max McCormick and beat Summerhays from the top of the crease to make it 5-3 and the period ended with the Buckeyes on top by two goals.

Johnson took over between the pipes for Summerhays in the third period and stopped all seven shots he faced in 19:10 of playing time.

OSU closed out the scoring in the final minute with Johnson on the bench in favor of a sixth attacker. DaSilva stopped an Irish rush at the Buckeye’s blue line and flipped a shot down the ice into the empty net for his first career goal at 19:02 for the final score of 6-3.

The two teams will meet for the second game of the series at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday night at Value City Arena. This will be the final regular-season CCHA meeting between the Irish and the Buckeyes.

GAME SUMMARY                                1     2     3  -  F#11/#9 Notre Dame (16-11-0/12-7-0-0)        1     2     0  -  3Ohio State (11-11-5/10-6-3-1)               0     5     1  -  6

Scoring

First Period: ND: Mario Lucia 9 (Mike Voran, Sam Calabrese), PPG, 12:32.

Penalties: ND: 4 for 19 minutes; OSU: 2 for 4 minutes.

Second Period: OSU: Nick Oddo 1 (Anthony Greco, Alex Szczechura), PPG, 1:09; OSU: Ryan Dzingel 11 (Oddo, Devon Krogh), PPG, 2:45; OSU: Szczechura 6 (Oddo, Curtis Gedig), PPG, 3:12; ND: Kevin Lind 2 (Thomas DiPauli, Steven Fogarty), 7:02; ND: Bryan Rust 7 (Stephen Johns, Anders Lee), PPG, 7:56; OSU: Greco 4 (Gedig, Justin DaSilva), 16:05; OSU: Dzingel 12 (Max McCormick, Tanner Fritz), PPG, 17:51.

Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; OSU: 2 for 4 minutes.

Third Period: OSU: DaSilva 1 (unassisted), ENG, 19:02.

Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; OSU: 1 for 2 minutes.

Shots On Goal:Notre Dame       13 -  7 - 12 - 32Ohio State        8 - 17 -  8 - 33
Goaltender Saves:ND: Steven Summerhays (40:00) 8 - 12 - x - 20 Mike Johnson (19:10) x - x - 7 - 7OSU: Brady Hjelle (60:00) 12 - 5 - 12 - 29
Power Plays:ND: 2 for 5OSU: 4 for 9
Attendance: 5,779