Notre Dame looks for victory at Bowling Green
By MATT OLIVA
Sports Writer
The Irish hockey team (13-15-6, 10-9-5 CCHA) remains in the fifth and final home-playoff position spot as they visit conference rival Bowling Green (13-15-0, 10-12-0) this weekend. They hold a one-point lead over Ferris State after splitting last weekend's series with Nebraska-Omaha. Bowling Green enters the series holding on to 9th place in the CCHA standings.
This will mark the second straight year that the Irish head into the traditional late-season Bowling Green series on the bubble for a home-ice playoff opener. The Irish dropped one game last year, which forced a final series with Northern Michigan to decide the playoff positioning.
The key to Notre Dame's success is their powerplay. The Irish are 11-8-4 when scoring one power-play goal, 7-1-1 when scoring two, and 2-7-1 when scoring none. Notre Dame's percentage of power-play goals to overall goals (36 to 83) ranks as the third-highest in the CCHA (.434), with 17 of ND's last 30 goals coming on the PP (.566), including in their 7-4 win on Saturday. With all the recent success, the Irish are averaging nearly one power-play goal per game, but have only been able to score an average of 1.5 even-strength goals.
Despite their powerplay success, Notre Dame is one of the CCHA's lowest scoring teams. They do have one of the league's top scoring fivesomes all in the CCHA's top forty scorers. Dan Carlson, Joe Dusbabek, Ryan Dolder, Ben Simon, and David Inman all have scored more than 20 points this season. Only Michigan has more players that have totaled 20 points.
The Irish have relied on their defense for their success this season because of their low scoring totals. The penalty-killing unit has shut out their opponent on 15 of the last 16 powerplay chances, spanning three games. The defense has allowed only 32 powerplay goals on 191 chances this year for a .168 opponent average.
Adding to the defense's success has been the limited number of shot that they have given recent opponents. In the last eight games, Notre Dame has outshot its opponent in seven games and tied them in the other. During this stretch the average shot totals have favored the Irish 36-22, while the Irish have posted a 5-2-1 record.
The freshmen Irish players emerged in last Saturday's game to contribute eight points against UNO. Michael Chin has four goals and four assists in his last seven games, and all six of his goals have come in the last 15 games. He has scored the most goals by a freshman and trails Connor Dunlop (2 goals-11 assists) by only one point for most points by an Irish freshman. Defenseman Evan Nielsen added one goal and two assists last weekend to pass senior Tyson Fraser as the top scoring defenseman, with 12 points (4 goals, 8 assists).
The Irish begin their two-game series with Bowling Green tonight at 7:35. Notre Dame will return for their last home game next weekend against Michigan State in the home and home series to conclude the regular season.
All Sports Stories for Friday, February 18, 2000
