Nov. 21, 2007
Notre Dame, Ind. – Junior goaltender Jordan Pearce made 27 saves and got all the offense he would need on goals by Ben Ryan and Kyle Lawson as the Irish downed Bowling Green, 2-1, in front of 2,711 at the Joyce Center on Tuesday night.
Derek Whitmore scored the lone Bowling Green goal as Notre Dame won its third game in a row and sixth of seven in the month of November.
The victory gives Notre Dame a 10-4-0 record and moves the Irish to 8-2-0 in the CCHA. Bowling Green falls to 6-4-0 overall and 5-3-0 in conference play. The Irish are now 9-0-1 against the Falcons in the last 10 meetings dating back to the 2004-05 season.
After facing just 23 shots over two games last weekend versus Western Michigan, Pearce kept the Irish in the game in the first period as the Falcons out shot Notre Dame, 14-5.
“Jordan (Pearce) was the difference maker tonight,” said Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson. “We weren’t as sharp as we have been the last few games. We were making bad decisions with the puck. They (Bowling Green) were beating us to the puck and kept us on our heels early in the game.”
Despite the pressure, the Irish got on the scoreboard first. After a battle along the left wing boards, the puck squirted out near the top of the left circle. Ryan poked the puck past a BG defender and carried it to the slot where he beat Falcon goaltender Nick Eno with a wrist shot at 6:29 for his third goal of the season.
Bowling Green got the equalizer at 9:15 when Whitmore beat Pearce from the slot for his 12th goal of the season. The Falcon senior forward is second in the nation with those 12 goals.
“Bowling Green is a strong team that’s playing some great hockey,” said Pearce, the owner of a career-high nine wins this season. “They do a great job of throwing the puck at the net from all areas. They follow hard to the net, so you have watch the rebound chances.”
The Irish came to life in the second period turning the tables on the Falcons by out shooting Bowling Green 10-4 in the period but could score just once.
Lawson, the CCHA’s defenseman of the week for last week, got to show his offensive skills when he notched his third goal of the season just 2:05 into the middle stanza. This time right wing Erik Condra found the sophomore defenseman in the slot where he whipped a shot past Eno to give the Irish a 2-1 lead.
“The goal came off a great stop by Pearce. We moved up ice and (Brett) Blatchford and I were able to jump into the play,” said Lawson. “(Erik) Condra has such great vision and he got the puck to me. (Ryan) Thang created traffic in front and I got the shot on goal.”
From there, Notre Dame’s team defense did the job in front of Pearce as the Irish limited the Falcons to just 14 shots in the final two periods.
“As a team, I think we are starting to come together,” said Lawson. “You have to give Jordan (Pearce) a lot of credit for the start we’ve had. He’s made the saves when we needed them all year. As a defense, some of our success comes from the play of our forwards. They do a great job getting back and limit scoring chances.”
With 1:09 left in the game and Lawson serving a penalty, Bowling Green coach Scott Paluch pulled his goaltender in favor of a sixth attacker.
The Falcons would get just two shots with the two-man advantage as Condra came up with a big block on defenseman Kevin Schmidt and Pearce stopped Schmidt’s final shot of the game for the win.
Pearce has now played 13 of Notre Dame’s 14 games and is now 9-4-0 on the year.
“I like to get a lot of shots. It keeps you in the game,” said Pearce. “You get in the flow and it’s easy to focus on the next shot and the next save. We’re on a bit of a roll now, so it’s easy to play every night and a lot of games in a short amount of time.”
The Irish slammed the door on Bowling Green’s sixth-ranked power play that entered the night converting on 25.5% of its chances. Of course they were facing a Notre Dame penalty-killing unit that has given up just four power-play goals all season and had a 93.4% success rate.
“The goaltender is the most important penalty killer and Jordan has played well all season,” said Jackson. “The success of the penalty-killing unit is a credit to (associate head coach) Paul Pooley. He baby sits the group. He prepares them well, watching film, making adjustments as needed.”
Notre Dame returns to action this weekend when the Irish participate in the 57th Rensselaer Holiday Tournament in Troy, N.Y. They will face Alabama-Huntsville in the opening game on Friday, Nov. 23 at 4:00 p.m. R.P.I. and American International College play at 7:15 p.m. The third-place and championship games take place on Nov. 24.
**IRISH NOTES**
• With an assist versus Bowling Green, Erik Condra now has a three-game point streak (2g, 3a) and is just three points away from becoming the 43rd player in the program’s history to score 100 points. In 92 career games, Condra has 26 goals and 71 assists for 97 points.
• Goaltender Jordan Pearce leads the nation in minutes played with 775:00 in his 13 starts. In his first two seasons, Pearce played a total of 621:56 minutes.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - FBowling Green (6-4-0/5-3-0) 1 0 0 - 1#9/#9 Notre Dame (10-4-0/8-2-0) 1 1 0 - 2ScoringFirst Period: ND: Ben Ryan 3 (unassisted), 6:29; BGSU: Derek Whitmore 12 (Kevin Schmidt, Brandon Svendsen), 9:15.Penalties: BGSU: 1 for 2 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Kyle Lawson 3 (Erik Condra, Ryan Thang), 2:05.Penalties: BGSU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: No Scoring.Penalties: BGSU: 1 for 2 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.Shots On Goal:Bowling Green 14 - 4 - 10 - 28Notre Dame 5 - 10 - 9 - 24Goaltender Saves:BGSU - Nick Eno (58:41) 4 - 9 - 9 - 22ND - Jordan Pearce (59:57) 13 - 4 - 10 - 27Power Plays:BGSU: 0 for 5ND: 0 for 4
Attendance: 2,711