Oct. 15, 2010
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame hockey team got solo goals from David Gerths, Calle Ridderwall, Billy Maday and Mike Voran plus a 26-save performance from goaltender Mike Johnson to lead the Irish to a 4-2 CCHA-opening win over Lake Superior on Thursday night in front of a sold-out crowd at the Joyce Center.
The victory for the Irish was the 300th of head coach Jeff Jackson’s career as he improved to 300-118-47 in this 12th season behind the bench. Ironically, the first 182 wins for Jackson came as the head coach of the Lake Superior State Lakers, a team he led to a pair of national championships. In his first five-plus seasons at Notre Dame, Jackson has 118 wins.
The Lakers got goals from defenseman Zach Trotman and left wing Will Acton while goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson had 30 saves in the loss.
The win improved the 19th-ranked Irish to 2-1-0 on the year and 1-0-0 in the CCHA while Lake Superior fell to 0-2-1 overall and 0-1-0 in conference action. The two teams will meet at 7:35 p.m. on Friday night, Oct. 15th in game two of the series at the Joyce Center.
Jackson was happy with the play of his young team. “With this team I have to watch the tape because they play at such a frenetic pace,” said Jackson.
“As a coach we always see the negatives, but there were plenty of positives tonight. We did a good job creating offensive chances but need to work on possessing the puck, especially in our zone. We had too many turnovers and in the offensive zone we gave it up deep too often.”
On his 300th win, Jackson said, “It’s a milestone for sure, but I don’t put much emphasis on it. It’s a credit to the great players that I’ve had and the great coaches that I’ve worked with. Paul Pooley has been a large part of it. He’s made me look good. Andy Slaggert does his job very well, so he’s made me look good. I think about all the players that I’ve had, the Erik Condra’s, the Christian Hanson’s and Jordan Pearce. They’ve all played a big part in winning that many games.
The newest members of Jackson’s 2010-11 team played a big role in win number 300. Goal number one was recorded by three players who got their first career points as Gerths scored his first career goal just 3:45 into the game.
Defenseman Sam Calabrese took a pass inside the Lake Superior blue line from Voran and moved down the left side toward the goal. The sophomore defenseman saw Gerths coming down the middle late and slid a pass across to the rookie center who one-timed a shot past Mahoney-Wilson for a 1-0 Notre Dame lead.
The Lakers answered back less than four minutes later when defenseman Zack Trotman scored his team high third goal at 7:35. Trotman took a pass from Acton and fired a shot through a screen that beat Johnson to tie the game at 1-1.
The pace of play picked up in the second period as each team scored once on the power play. Ridderwall gave Notre Dame a 2-1 lead when he took advantage of some strong Irish forechecking and Mahoney-Wilson getting caught out of the net.
With the Irish on the power play, defenseman Shayne Taker dumped the puck behind the Lake Superior net. Left wing Nick Larson, Mahoney-Wilson and a pair of Laker defenders all arrived at the puck at the same time and the puck bounced off the boards and in front of the goal where Ridderwall had an open net and backhanded it home for his first goal of the season at 2:37.
Lake Superior took advantage of a 5-on-3 power play and scored just after the first penalty expired at 4:57 to tie the game at 2-2. Again Trotman and Acton were involved in the action with Acton deflecting a shot from Trotman at the right point past Johnson for his first of the season.
Another power-play chance for the Lakers turned into a short-handed goal for the Irish at 11:29 with Riley Sheahan doing the work and Maday finishing the play in front.
With the Lakers on the power play, defenseman Sean Lorenz dumped the puck into the left wing corner where Sheahan tracked it down. The sophomore center slithered through two Lake Superior defenders before flipping a centering pass in front to a streaking Maday who batted the puck out of the air past Mahoney-Wilson for his first goal of the season.
“I saw Riley (Sheahan) coming out of the corner so I tried to time it to get to the front of the net to give Riley an option on the play. He got it through and I got my stick on it to put it in the net,” said Maday.
In the final period, the freshmen forwards again teamed up to get an insurance goal at 9:34 as Voran scored his first of the season, getting set up on the play by left wing Jeff Costello.
“The younger guys are really playing with confidence,” said Maday. “None of them seem to be struggling at all. They are pushing the rest of us to make us better. It’s been great so far, the energy that they have provided us.”
For the night, Notre Dame out shot the Lakers by a 34-28 margin. Lake Superior was 1-for-8 on the power play while the Irish were 1-for-4.
** IRISH NOTES **
* Notre Dame’s win over Lake Superior ran the Irish unbeaten streak to 13 games (10-0-3) versus the Lakers since the middle of the 2005-06 season.
* Notre Dame’s short-handed goal versus the Lakers was the third this season for the Irish in as many games. Last season, they had four short-handed tallies in 38 games.
* The sell-out crowd of 2,989 was the ninth consecutive sellout for the Irish going back to the second half of 2009-10. Since Dec. 13, 2008, Notre Dame has had sellouts in 24 of its last 28 games.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - FLake Superior State (0-2-1/0-1-0) 1 1 0 - 2Notre Dame (2-1-0/1-0-0) 1 2 1 - 4
Scoring First Period: ND: David Gerths 1 (Sam Calabrese, Mike Voran), 3:45; LSSU: Zach Trotman 3 (Will Acton), 7:35.
Penalties: LSSU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Calle Ridderwall 1 (Nick Larson, Shayne Taker), PPG, 2:37; LSSU: Acton 1 (Trotman), PPG, 4:57; ND: Billy Maday 1 (Riley Sheahan, Sean Lorenz), SHG, 11:29.
Penalties: LSSU: 1 for 2 minutes; ND: 5 for 10 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Voran 1 (Jeff Costello), 9:34.
Penalties: LSSU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Lake Superior State 6 - 10 - 12 - 28Notre Dame 13 - 9 - 12 - 34
Goaltender Saves:LSSU: Brian Mahoney-Wilson (58:48) 12 - 7 - 11 - 30ND: Mike Johnson (59:44) 5 - 9 - 12 - 26
Power Plays:LSSU: 1 for 8ND: 1 for 4
Attendance: 2,989