The Irish played fairly well Friday night, after getting blown out
the last few times they visited the BG Ice Arena. Their goalie Wade
Salzman was their best player, stopping 90% of the shots he faced
(37/40). He made several great saves, but a few weak shots slipped
past him.
 
BG's first goal came on the power play near the end of the first period.
Play was to Salzman's left when the puck deflected directly onto Dale
Crombeen's stick, all alone in front of the net.
 
The killer for the Irish came a little later in the period when Mike
Hall slipped a weak shot past Salzman. BG was up 2-0 after 1.
 
Both teams played an even 2nd, with no scoring. Brian Holzinger scored
in the third on another not-so-tough shot. BG goalie Will Clarke again
gave up a late goal against UND to lose his shutout.
 
Clarke extended his nation-leading GAA and winning percentage with the
win.
 
Both teams were ecstatic to see CCHA reffing again, after suffering
thru the two ref system over the holidays. Surprisingly, we had "Spartan"
Steve Piotrowski, who got that nickname for his tendancy to do MSU TV
games. Pi was a bit of a homer last night, as he missed some early calls
against BG but saw everything against UND. Linesman John Kelly evened
things up a bit when he called BG for slashing behind the play once. The
power plays were 5 for BG and 3 for UND, I think. BG's 5th came with
under a minute to go in the game, so the reffing wasn't that lopsided.
It did make it hard for UND in the early going, however.
 
The three stars were Clarke (23 saves), defenseman Chad Ackerman (who
played great D and almost scored twice), and Salzman.
 
The Irish were supposed to bus Friday night to Columbus to face OSU on
Saturday. But beacuse of the snow storm, they spent the night in BG and
were leaving Saturday morn.
 
Illinois-Chicago, who played at OSU on Friday, is at BG tonight.
 
 
Keith