Oct. 22, 2009
Notre Dame, Ind. –
Complete Release in PDF Format 
• The Game: #10/#9 Notre Dame (3-2-0) vs. #15/#14 Boston College (0-1-0)
• Date/Site/Time: Friday, October 23, 2009 • Joyce Center • 7:35 p.m.
• Broadcast Information: Radio: Notre Dame hockey can be heard live on Cat Country 99.9 FM. Darin Pritchett will call the action for the Irish.
• Internet: The Boston College game will have live audio streamed on Notre Dame's website at und.com. That game also will have live video streaming on und.com free of charge.
NOTRE DAME WELCOMES BOSTON COLLEGE TO SOUTH BEND: The Notre Dame and Boston College hockey teams will renew their annual rivalry on Friday, Oct. 23 when the Eagles tangle with the Fighting Irish in a 7:35 p.m. game at the Joyce Center. Notre Dame, fresh off its 3-0 upset win at No. 3 Boston University, brings a 3-2-0 record into the game and is ranked 10th in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll and ninth by the USCHO.com poll. Boston College has played just once so far this season and dropped a 4-1 decision at Vermont on Sunday, Oct. 18. The Eagles are ranked 15th in the USA Today poll and 14th by USCHO.com. Friday’s game will have live video streaming and can be found at und.com free of charge. Following the game, the winner will be presented the John “Snooks” Kelley/Lefty Smith Trophy that goes each year to the winner of the Boston College-Notre Dame hockey game. Following the single game with the Eagles, the Irish close out October with a pair of games versus Ohio State on Oct. 30-31 at the Joyce Center. Game times are 7:35 p.m. on Friday and 5:05 p.m. on Saturday – Halloween night.
IRISH AND THE EAGLES: Notre Dame and Boston College have met 28 times in the all-time series with the Eagles owning a 15-11-2 edge in those games. The Irish have won four of the last five meetings, dating back to the 2003-04 season. The lone Boston College win came in the 2008 NCAA Championship game, a 4-1 victory, at Denver, Colo. Last season, the two teams met at Kelley Rink with the Irish taking a 4-1 win on Nov. 7, 2008. Garrett Regan `09, Christian Hanson `09, Billy Maday (So., Burr Ridge, Ill.) and Kevin Deeth (Sr., Gig Harbor, Wash.) scored one goal each and Jordan Pearce `09 made 27 saves in the win.
BIG IRISH WINS: Three of the last four times that Notre Dame defeated Boston College, the Eagles were ranked No. 1 in the nation. On Oct. 23, 2003, the Irish knocked off BC, 1-0, at Conte Forum with David Brown `07, getting the shutout. The second meeting came at the Joyce Center on Oct. 22, 2004 when Morgan Cey `05 made 50 saves and T.J. Jindra `07 scored a short-handed goal with 15 seconds left to give the Irish a 3-2 win. On Oct. 20, 2006, the Irish defeated Boston College, 7-1, at Conte Forum on the way to their first-ever CCHA championship.
TWO WEEKS IN HOCKEY EAST: With this week’s games versus Boston University and Boston College, Notre Dame wraps up four consecutive games versus teams from Hockey East. The Irish faced Providence College twice at home last week, splitting with the Friars, losing 3-2 on Oct. 15 and then winning, 2-0, on Friday, Oct. 16. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, Notre Dame won at Boston University, taking a 3-0 decision against the Terriers. Following this weekend’s game against BC, the Irish will have just two non-league games left on the docket with both of those coming in the Shillelagh Tournament versus Colgate and either Niagara or North Dakota.
STEALING THE SHOW: Junior goaltender Brad Phillips (Farmington Hills, Mich.) made a career-high 34 saves as he handed the Boston University Terriers a 3-0 loss Tuesday night at Agganis Arena. Phillips got all the offensive support he needed in the second period when Billy Maday (So., Burr Ridge, Ill.) and Ben Ryan (Jr., Brighton, Mich.) scored 12 seconds apart to give the Irish a 2-0 lead. Calle Ridderwall (Jr., Stockholm, Sweden) added a power-play goal in the third period for the 3-0 final score. Maday, Ryan and Ridderwall each had a goal and an assist in the game. Phillips made 27 of his 34 saves in the first and third periods, including 17 in the final stanza. Notre Dame was 8-for-8 killing penalties on the night and 1-for-6 on the power play. BU out shot the Irish, 34-16, in the game. The win was the first-ever for the Friars against Boston University.
SHUTOUT STREAK: With shutouts in the last two games (versus Providence, 2-0, on 10/16 and Boston University, 3-0, on 10/20), Notre Dame brings a 123:46 minute scoreless streak into Friday’s game with Boston College. The last time the Irish gave up a goal in a game was on Oct. 15 when Providence’s Aaron Jamnick scored at 16:14 of the third period in the Friars’ 3-2 win over the Irish.
STREAK BUSTERS: Notre Dame’s 3-0 shutout win over Boston University, snapped a streak of 99-consecutive games that the Terriers had not been shutout. The last time BU was shutout came on Dec. 2, 2006 when the Terriers shutout Boston College, 1-0. The win also marked the first time since Jan. 15, 2008 that Boston University lost a non-conference game, a streak of 10 consecutive wins.
A STUNNING START: Prior to Brad Phillips’ 3-0 shutout at Boston University, freshman goaltender Mike Johnson (Verona, Wis.) showed the way with a 2-0 shutout of Providence College in his rookie debut on Oct. 16. Johnson stopped all 29 shots he faced in blanking the Friars, 2-0, becoming the second Irish goaltender to record a shutout in his first career contest. He joins teammate Tom O’Brien (Sr., Mokena, Ill.) who picked up a shutout in his first start last season, a 7-0 blanking of Sacred Heart on Oct. 18, 2008.
SWEDE SCORER: Junior Calle Ridderwall has become one of college hockey’s premier power-play performers. With two goals this season, both on the power-play, Ridderwall has now scored 19 goals since the start of the 2008-09 season with 13 of them coming on the power play.
SWEEPLESS IN SOUTH BEND: For the second weekend in a row, Notre Dame found itself in a position of something that hasn’t happened very often over the last four seasons – looking at a possible opponent sweep. Since Jeff Jackson took over behind the Irish bench for the 2005-06 season, the Irish have lost back-to-back games on a weekend just eight times. Five of those series losses came during the 2005-06 season with two coming in 2007-08 and one last year (2008-09). The last time the Irish dropped a weekend series came on Oct. 24-25, 2008 when they lost twice to Miami at the Joyce Center.
HOME ICE STRUGGLES: A year ago, the Irish were 13-3-2 at the Joyce Center and over the last three years were 37-9-7 on home ice. Already this season, the Irish are just 2-2-0 in their own barn. Last season, the Irish were 11-2 in one-goal games. After the Oct. 15, 3-2 loss to the Friars, the Irish already have two home losses on the year to go with a pair of one-goal losses.
ROAD WARRIORS: During the 2008-09 season, Notre Dame turned in a 14-2-1 record on the road, the best in the program’s history. That included a nine-game road win streak and a 10-game unbeaten mark (9-0-1). The Irish got this season off to a good road start with the 3-0 win at Boston University.
OUT OF ACTION: Junior defenseman Teddy Ruth (Naperville, Ill.) has missed the first four games of the season due to a lower body injury. He will not play in this week’s games against Boston University and Boston College.
BEST OF THE BEST: Over the past three-plus seasons, the Notre Dame hockey program is tops in the nation. Since the start of the 2006-07 campaign, the Irish have won 93 games and own a .731 winning percentage over that period. Notre Dame leads Michigan (89) in wins and winning percentage (.720). Here are the top five teams by wins and winning percentage since 2006-07.
WINS WINNING .PCTNotre Dame 93 Notre Dame (.731)Michigan 89 Michigan (.720)Miami 83 Miami (.686)North Dakota 79 Boston Univ. (.655)Boston University 74 North Dakota (.650)
CENTURY CLUB ADDITIONS: Two members of the 2009-10 Notre Dame hockey team are on the verge of moving into the “Century Club” for career points. Senior Kevin Deeth (Gig Harbor, Wash.) comes into the Boston University game needing just one point to reach 100. He has played in 132 career games with 32 goals and 67 assists for 99 points. Deeth has started the year with a four-game scoring streak (0-4-4). Senior teammate Ryan Thang has now played in 127 career games, scoring 49 goals with 46 assists for 95 points. He needs just one goal to reach the 50 mark and a goal and four assists to join the 50/50 club for players with 50 goals and 50 assists in a career. To date, there are 43 players with 100 or more points in the Notre Dame record books.
BACK BETWEEN THE PIPES: Junior goaltender Brad Phillips (Farmington Hills, Mich.) returned to the Irish lineup, making his first start in the season opener versus Alabama-Huntsville, his first game since Jan. 19, 2008. The 6-2, 187-pound goaltender missed all of last season due to a knee injury suffered in the preseason that required surgery. Phillips, who made five starts in his freshman year (2007-08), stopped a career-high 28 shots in the 3-2 loss to Alabama-Huntsville. As a freshman, Phillips was 4-1-0 with a 1.53 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage to go with one shutout. He picked up his first win of the season on Oct. 20, when he stopped a new career-high 34 shots in the 3-0 shutout at Boston University. In three starts this season, Phillips is 1-2-0 with a 2.01 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage.
SPECIAL SPECIAL TEAMS: During the 2008-09 season, Notre Dame excelled on special teams. The Irish led the nation in power-play percentage, going 51-for-226 for a 22.6% success rate. On the penalty kill, Notre Dame was third overall, giving up just 20 power-play goals in 190 chances for an 89.5% success rate, just .3% behind national leader Yale as the Bulldogs were at 89.8%.
PICKING UP WHERE THEY LEFT OFF: So far this season, the Irish have scored at least one power-play goal in each of their five games, going 6-for-30 for a 20.0% success rate. On the penalty kill, the Irish were third in the nation and so far this season, they have killed 26-of-27 chances for a 96.3% success rate. The Irish have now killed 20 consecutive penalties since giving up a goal on the power play on opening night.
LIGHTING THE LAMP: When senior defenseman Brett Blatchford (Temperance, Mich.) scored his power-play goal in the first period of the Oct. 10 game with Alabama-Huntsville, it was his first time lighting the lamp since his freshman year. Blatchford’s last goal came on Jan. 20, 2007 when he scored versus Western Michigan. After that goal, Blatchford went 99 games without scoring. The Temperance, Mich., native would rather set them up than score them as he now has three career goals to go with 54 assists for 57 points. He was second on the team in assists in 2008-09 when he had 25 helpers on the year.
FRESHMEN FIRSTS: Notre Dame freshmen forwards Riley Sheahan (St. Catharine’s, Ont.) and Kyle Palmieri (Montvale, N.J.) wasted little time getting on the scoresheet in the 3-2 loss to Alabama-Huntsville on Oct. 9. Sheahan scored on his first career shot, scoring on the power play at 3:02 of the first period to give Notre Dame a 1-0 lead. He joins Billy Maday (So., Burr Ridge, Ill.) im Wallace `06 as recent Notre Dame players to score on the first shots of their college careers. Palmieri joined in with a second-period power-play goal to get his first career score in his first game. He added a second goal on Saturday in the 3-1 victory. Palmieri led the team with 12 shots on goal for the weekend while Sheahan had 10 in the series.
HOT HAND: Junior center Ben Ryan has the hot hand for the Irish as he has recorded a goal and three assists for four points over the last two games. Ryan had a pair of assists in the 2-0 win over Providence on Oct. 16 and followed with a goal and an assist in the 3-0 win over Boston University.
REUNITED: The Irish trio of left wing Calle Ridderwall, center Kevin Deeth and right wing Billy Maday saw their first action together this season in the 3-0 win at Boston University. Ridderwall and Maday each had a goal and an assist in the win while Deeth won 15-of-23 faceoffs. A year ago, the trio combined for 37 goals and 56 assists for 93 points on the season.
LOWE’S SENIOR CLASS AWARD: Notre Dame senior captain Ryan Thang has been named one of 20 nominees for the 2009-10 Lowes Senior CLASS Award. The award is given annually to an NCAA Division I student-athlete in nine sports based on achievement’s in the “Four C’s” of classroom, character, community and competition. CLASS is an acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School. Last season, two members of the Irish hockey team – Erik Condra `09 and Jordan Pearce `09 – were selected as one of 10 finalists for the honor. For the 2007-08 campaign, captain Mark Van Guilder `08 made it to the list of 10 finalists. For the 2006-07 season, goaltender David Brown `07 was selected as the first winner of the hockey award. The list of 20 candidates will be narrowed down midway through the season with the final 10 going on a ballot to select the national winner.
START A NEW STREAK: Notre Dame saw its string of consecutive sellouts snapped on Oct. 15 versus Providence as a crowd of 2,471 saw the game. A sellout at the Joyce Center is 2,713. A new streak started the following night as a standing-room only crowd of 2,857 saw the Irish defeat the Friars, 2-0. Notre Dame has now sold out 12 of its last 13 home games, dating back to Dec. 13, 2008 versus Bowling Green. Last season, the Irish played in front of a sold-out Joyce Center in 13 of its 18 home games. The opening night crowd of 2,994 against Alabama-Huntsville is the largest crowd to see a home opener since 1995 as the buildings seating capacity was reconfigured following that year with 2,713 being a sellout since then.
CLOSE ONES: During the 2008-09 season, Notre Dame was 25-0-0 when leading after two periods of play. Already this season, the Irish are 2-1-0 when leading after two as they dropped the season opener, 3-2, a game that Notre Dame led, 2-1, after two periods of play.
NUMERO UNO: Notre Dame reached the top of the college hockey rankings twice during the 2008-09 season, marking the third and fourth time in the program’s 42-year history that the Irish sat atop the national polls. From Dec. 1 to Jan. 26 (seven weeks), Notre Dame was ranked first in both the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine and USCHO.com/CSTV polls. The Irish then reached the top spot one time in each poll the rest of the season – the week of Feb. 23 in the USA Today poll and the week of March 16 in the USCHO.com rankings. Previously, Notre Dame reached number one in the nation status during the 2006-07 season. The Irish moved into the top spot in both polls on Feb. 5, 2007 and remained there for seven consecutive weeks through March 25. The Irish finished the year ranked fourth in the USA Today poll that covers the entire season and finished number one in the USCHO.com poll that ended with the finish of the regular season. During the `07-’08 season, the Irish were ranked every week of the season for the first time in the program’s 41-year history. Going back to the 2006-07 season, Notre Dame has been ranked in both polls for 60 consecutive weeks, the longest stretch for the Irish icers.
Week-by-week with the Irish this season:
2009-10 Irish National RankingsDate USA TODAY USCHO.com
10/5 5th 5th 10/12 7th 7th 10/19 10th 9th CAPTAINS: Senior left wing Ryan Thang will serve as Notre Dame’s captain for the 2009-10 season. Joining Thang as alternate captains in `09-’10, are senior defenseman Kyle Lawson (New Hudson, Mich.), senior center Kevin Deeth (Gig Harbor, Wash.) and junior defenseman Teddy Ruth (Naperville, Ill.). Thang and Lawson served as alternate captains in 2008-09, while this is the first season as captain for Deeth and Ruth.
STINGY IRISH: Over the last three seasons, the Irish have been ranked first in the nation twice in lowest goals-against average. For the 2006-07 season, Notre Dame was best in the nation with a 1.67 goals against. The Irish followed that in 2007-08 with a 2.13 goals-against average to rank fifth in the country and last year the goals-against average was best with a 1.73 average.