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