November 23, 1996

Irish Skate Past Bowling Green, 5-3

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- Sophomore Brian Urick's two goals led a balanced scoring attack as visiting Notre Dame won for the second time this season at Bowling Green, 5-3, in Central Collegiate Hockey Association action Friday at the Bowling Green Ice Arena.

Notre Dame (4-5-1, 3-3-1 CCHA) moved back into a tie for fifth place in the CCHA standings with Western Michigan, which won at Ferris State earlier in the week. The loss dropped Bowling Green (6-6-1, 2-6-1 CCHA) into seventh place in the league standings.

Sophomore goaltender Forrest Karr was one of three Notre Dame players to repeat his clutch play from the last time the Irish visited Bowling Green (a 7-5 comeback win on Nov. 2). Karr, making his first career CCHA start, came up with 30 saves while helping the Irish stop 5-of-6 Bowling Green power play opportunities. Karr came off the bench three weeks ago to help turn around an early 3-0 deficit in the earlier win over the Falcons.

Junior Lyle Andrusiak - who sparked the Nov. 2 win with two goals - got the Irish on the board at the 8:33 mark of the first period after stealing the puck from center ice and putting a breakway shot between the legs of Bowling Green goalie Bob Petrie. Andrusiak has just three goals in his last 43 games, with each of them coming at Bowling Green.

Urick then scored 35 seconds later on a spin shot from the left circle to make it 2-0. Coming into the night, the Irish had only accounted for two goals in the first period through the first nine games of the season. The goal was also just the second power play score for the Irish in their last 23 chances.

Tim Harberts, who scored in the Nov. 2 game versus Bowling Green to break out of a scoring slump of his own, put the Irish ahead 3-0 midway through the second period after skating up the center of the ice on a 3-2 break and sending a shot over Petrie's glove hand.

The Falcons finally got on the board late in the second period, but Urick then put back a rebounded shot by Aniket Dhadphale, who had stolen the puck inside the blue line. The score gave the Irish a three-goal lead heading into the final period.

The Falcons scored midway through the third period and later had a chance to force overtime thanks to 38 seconds worth of a 5-on-3 opportunity with 4:55 remaining. But, the Irish defense stiffened and Andrusiak released from his holding penalty five seconds before the Falcons finally scored and were able to close to within 4-3. l Freshman Joe Dusbabek dumped in his team-leading fifth goal on an empty net with 21 seconds left in the contest to seal the Irish win.

Each of Notre Dame's three CCHA victories this season have come on the road and have been led by strong goaltending (Junior Matt Eisler earlier had 47 assists against Ohio St.)

Notre Dame next travels to Miami (Ohio) on Saturday. The Redskins lost a close game to Michigan State on Friday Night, 4-3, vaulting the Spartans (7-2-0) atop the league standings and dropping Miami (6-1-0) to third. Lake Superior St. (4-2-0) remains in fourth place and a point ahead of the Irish after a 3-2 victory at home Friday over Ferris State. The Lakers host the Bulldogs again on Saturday night.

NOTRE DAME 5, BOWLING GREEN 3
CCHA Hockey Action

              1st  2nd  3rd   Final
Notre Dame     2    2    1   -- 5
Bowling Green  0    1    2   -- 3

SCORING
First period
ND - Andrusiak (una), 8:33
ND - Urick (Dusbabek, Cotnoir), PP, 9:08
Second period
ND - Harberts (Fraser), 6:46
BG - Price (Johnson, Eldred), 17:30
ND - Urick (Dhadphale), 18:08
Third period
BG - Falkner (Johnson, Lamarre), 10:23
BG - Ratchuk (Johnson, Fry) PP, 15:48
ND - Dusbabek (Nelson), ENG, 19:39

SHOTS ON GOAL
ND - 19
BG - 33
SAVES
Karr (ND)   - 30
Petrie (BG) - 14
POWER PLAY OPPORTUNITIES
ND - 1-of-3
BG - 1-of-6
PENALTIES
ND - 8-for-16
BG - 4-for-19

POST-GAME QUOTES
Notre Dame coach Dave Poulin:"We had not played well in the first period all season until tonight. That was something we focused on the last few days and we had a great week of practice. We haven't been in the position of holding a lead very often and I was happy to see us show poise in that situation. This team is growing in confidence and is making strides towards developing a mentality of winning. Forrest again played fantastic in the goal for us tonight."