January 11, 1997

Bowling Green Holds on for 3-2 Win at Notre Dame

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Brad Holzinger and Dan Price scored in thefirst nine minutes of the game and Bowling Green held off a furiousNotre Dame rally, as the visiting Falcons defeated the Irish, 3-2, inCentral Collegiate Hockey Association action Saturday at the JoyceCenter.

Bowling Green (10-11-2, 6-9-2 CCHA) moved into sole possessionof fifth place in the league standings, after Ferris State (6-12-0) lost8-4 at Michigan on Saturday. The Falcons are now just six points behindfourth-place Michigan State (9-2-2), which Saturday played its secondconsecutive 4-4 tie at Lake Superior State.

Notre Dame (6-14-1, 4-10-1) held onto eighth place in the CCHAstandings, thanks to losses Saturday by 4-11-0 Ohio State (9-3 at Miami)and 4-14-0 Alaska-Fairbanks (3-1 at Western Michigan). Seventh-place WMU(5-6-2) stretched its lead on Notre Dame to three points, with theBroncos and Irish set to meet in what could be a crucial latehome-and-home series on Feb. 21-22.

The game marked Notre Dame’s eighth one-goal loss of theseason, with six of those narrow defeats coming vs. CCHA teams. TheIrish totaled 25 shots, to the Falcons’ 22, marking the seventh timethis season that Notre Dame has outshot its opponent but failed to win(0-6-1).

The teams combined to go just 1-for-14 on the power-play, withNotre Dame failing to convert on all eight of its man-up chances.

The Irish suffered through a lackluster first 40 minutes on theoffensive end–mustering just 12 shots on goal–but came out firing inthe final period, as senior Terry Lorenz (3:04) and freshman JoeDusbabek (3:56) scored in a one-minute stretch to bring the near-selloutcrowd (2,472) to its feet. The hosts continued theironslaught–compiling 13 shots in the first 12 minutes of the finalperiod to better its total from the first two period combined–but theBG defense and senior goaltender Bob Petrie held off the Irish for thewin.

Notre Dame missed out on a chance at its first-ever three-gameseries sweep of Bowling Green, after the Irish had won at BG on Nov. 2(7-5) and Nov. 22 (5-3).

The Falcons jumped ahead at the 5:27 mark of the first periodwhen Holzinger sent a power-play shot from the top of the left circlethat skipped between the legs of Notre Dame junior goaltender MattEisler, who appeared to be screened on the play. Less than four minuteslater, the visitors struck again, as senior Curtis Fry stole the pucknear the right corner and fired a pass across the crease. Eisler wasstationed near the right pipe while Price was waiting at the far leftpost, tapping in the score for his 10th goal of the season.

BG scored on its first shot of the second period, as seniorMike Johnson led a 2-on-1 down the right slide before dropping the puckinto the slot for junior Dave Faulkner, who beat Eisler for a 3-0 leadand what proved to be the game-winning goal (0:46).

The second period featured just six shots on goal between theteams (four for Bowling Green, two for Notre Dame) while the teamscombined for nine penalties that led to seven power-play opportunities,with the Irish failing to convert on four man-up chances while theFalcons missed out on three.

Lorenz finally got the Irish on the board three minutes intothe third after Dusbabek sent a pass from the left circle to the rightside of the crease, with Lorenz beating Petrie on a shot inside theright pipe.

Just 52 seconds later, Dusbabek took an outlet pass fromsophomore Benoit Cotnoir and skated down the right side before crankinga shot from the center of the right circle. A Falcons defenseman skatingwith Dusbabek was able to deflect the puck but the force of the blastcarried the shot on towards the goal, where it bounced past Petrie tocut the lead to 3-2.

Dusbabek’s goal was his team-leading 10th of the season andgives him 18 points for the season, tying him with sophomore and fellowMinnetonka, MN native Brian Urick for the team lead.

Three minutes after Dusbabek’s goal, the Irish had theirseventh power-play chance of the game but were unable to convert. Then,with just 4:15 remaining, Falcons forward Brett Punchard was whistledfor an elbowing penalty but the Irish again could not produce theequalizer.

Notre Dame’s pair of third-period scores gives the Irish 24goals in the final period this season (in 21 games), exactly double itscombined total during the first period (12).

Scoring Summary

Bowling Green  (10-11-2, 6-9-2 CCHA)    2   1   0   -   3Notre Dame  (6-14-1, 4-10-1 CCHA)       0   0   2   -   2

First period – BG 1. Holzinger 7 (Price, Eldred), PP, 5:27; BG 2. Price 10 (Fry).
Second period – BG 3. Faulkner 9 (Johnson, Perrault) 0:41.
Third period – ND 1. Lorenz 7 (Dusbabek, Simon) 3:04; ND 2. Dusbabek 10 (Cotnoir, Lorenz) 3:56.

Shots on goal: BG 15-4-3/22, ND 10-2-13/25.
Saves: BG (Petrie) 10-2-11/23, ND (Eisler) 13-3-3/19.
Power Play: BG 1-for-6, ND 0-for-8.
Penalties: BG 10 for 20:00, ND 8 for 16:00.