Feb. 16, 2009
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Central Collegiate Hockey Association announced today that Notre Dame forward Erik Condra (Sr., Livonia, Mich.) and defenseman Kyle Lawson (Jr., New Hudson, Mich.) have been selected as the CCHA’s offensive and defensive players of the week respectively for the week ending February 15.
The Notre Dame duo was instrumental in back-to-back wins for the Irish over Northern Michigan by 9-5 and 5-2 scores. Condra paced the Notre Dame attack with two goals and five assists for seven points while Lawson was scoring once (a game winner) while chipping in four assists for a five-point weekend.
This marks the first time this season that Condra has been honored by the conference while Lawson picks up his second weekly defensive player of the week honors. He also was selected on Jan. 12.
The weekend sweep improved Notre Dame to 23-5-3 overall and 17-4-3-3 in the CCHA, good for 40 points and first place in the league. The Irish are four points ahead of second-place Miami with four games left to play in the regular season. The Irish are ranked second in both the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll and the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports poll.
In Friday’s 9-5 win against Northern Michigan, Condra turned in a five-point game, scoring a pair of first-period goals while adding three assists. His two goals came 1:51 apart at 10:05 and 11:56 of the first period to give the Irish a 3-0 lead. He then assisted on goals by Ben Ryan (So., Brighton, Mich.) and two power-play goals by defenseman Ian Cole (So., Ann Arbor, Mich.). Condra’s second goal came on the power play and was one of Notre Dame’s six power-play goals in the game. The five-point game was the third of Condra’s career and he was named the Perani Cup first star of the game.
Lawson equaled a career high with three assists in the game, with all of them coming on the power play, in the 9-5 victory as he set up man advantage goals by Garrett Regan (Sr., Hastings, Minn.), Condra and Cole.
In Saturday’s 5-2 victory, Condra set up a pair of goals while Lawson had a goal and an assist for two-point games. In the win, the Irish had four more power-play goals and Condra set up two of them, one by Lawson and one by Ryan as the Irish opened up a 4-0 lead early in the second period. Lawson got what proved to be the game winner just 30 seconds into the second period when he snuck in from the right point and took a pass from Condra to score in front. The goal was his third of the season. He later had a hand in Ryan’s power-play tally. The junior defenseman was selected as the Perani Cup first star of the game.
On the season, Condra leads Notre Dame in scoring with 10 goals and 21 assists for 31 points. He has five power-play goals, two short-handed goals and one game winner. Lawson is ninth on the team and third among defensemen in scoring with three goals and 15 assists for 18 points this season. He has two power-play goals, a short-handed tally and one game winner this season.
Condra, Lawson and the Irish return to action this weekend when Notre Dame travels to Omaha, Neb., for a two-game series with Nebraska-Omaha on Feb. 20-21. Game time both nights at the Omaha Civic Auditorium is 7:05 p.m. (CT). CBS College Sports will televise Friday’s game.