One day after Massachusetts-Lowell dominated Notre Dame, 5-0, to take an early lead in their best-of-three series, the Irish rebounded strongly with a 4-2 win to force a deciding third game on Sunday.
Lowell led 2-1 heading into the third period and had been 16-0-2 in such situations this year, but Anders Bjork got the equalizer at 4:43 and Mario Lucia’s power-play goal at 10:30 proved to be the game-winner. Peter Schneider’s empty-netter with 7.6 seconds remaining iced the win.
The Irish looked like a different team right from the first drop of the puck, looking to atone for their poor performance one night earlier. They also knew that another loss would end their season.
“This is the way we should have come out last night, with a little more fire in our eyes,” Irish coach Jeff Jackson said.
The dramatic turnaround showed considerable character, especially after a potential tying goal was disallowed following video review.
“We went through everything last weekend,” Jackson said. “If the [players] can come back from losing a five-overtime game, they can certainly come back from a 5-0 loss. Five was the lucky number, I suppose.”
For the River Hawks, it was a lost opportunity to clinch the series and also move higher in the PairWise Rankings, possibly positioning themselves for an NCAA berth even if they lost in the semifinals next week. With the loss, however, they fell to a tie for seventeenth in the PairWise, almost certainly making Sunday’s contest do-or-die for both teams.
“We ran into a very desperate opponent,” Lowell coach Norm Bazin said. “Although we did a few things well, we didn’t do enough.
“When your back is up against the wall, you usually have some desperation. They definitely had that tonight, and we didn’t have enough of it. It’s playoff game three tomorrow.”
Notre Dame goaltender Cal Petersen, who had fueled his team’s stretch drive run but was quite ordinary in the series opener, looked sharp in the first period, stopping all but Joe Gambardella’s power-play goal in the final minute. John Edwardh fed Gambardella from the left wing boards to the far post, where the sophomore put it in the open net.
Petersen stopped the other 12 shots in the period and made a huge, potentially game-saving, stop on a Ryan McGrath breakaway early in the second, taking away all of McGrath’s net. Petersen finished with 25-of-27 saves for the win.
“We’re only going to go as far as he takes us,” Jackson said. “He’s had a few tough games in the second half, but he’s also been phenomenal for the large part of the second half.”
Sam Herr appeared to tie the game with a shot from the high slot, but it was disallowed due to an offside ruling on the video replay. The call raised the ire of some Irish partisans who recalled a refusal to look at an offsides on a pivotal goal in a regular-season matchup between the two teams.
Nonetheless, Herr tied the game for real, 1-1, at 11:45, deking Kevin Boyle then roofing the puck high into the net for his 12th of the year.
Lowell retook the lead, however, with its second power-play goal. Following an unnecessary slashing penalty by Lucia in the front of his offensive net, the River Hawks man advantage moved the puck to Evan Campbell at the right faceoff dot, and he one-timed it just ahead of Petersen’s slide.
This set up Bjork and Lucia’s third-period heroics, Bjork off a Lucia rush up the right wing and Lucia on a one-timer from the right faceoff circle.
The decisive win-or-go-home game will be played at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
“We have to play with the same grit and passion,” Jackson said. “It’s going to be a tough, gritty game.”
While Lowell earned a battle-tested reputation by winning the Hockey East tournament the last two years, many of the heroes from those titles are no longer with the team.
“We have 14 new kids,” Bazin said. “It’s a different team. We’ll find out. Some of the upperclassmen have that experience and that can’t hurt.
“Hopefully, they can relay some of those experiences to the younger kids. But let’s face it, the bulk of the team wasn’t here last year, so we don’t refer to last year.
“But I like the way they’ve responded in these types of situations.”
