Oct. 10, 2007
Notre Dame, Ind. – Junior Justin White jumped on a rebound of a shot by Erik Condra as time ran out to give the Gold Team a 3-2 win in Notre Dame’s annual Blue-Gold Intrasquad scrimmage on Wednesday night at the Joyce Center.
The game featured two periods of action with the first being 20 minutes of five-on-five play that saw the Blue squad take a 2-0 lead on a penalty shot by junior Evan Rankin (12:15) and a slapshot by senior defenseman Brock Sheahan. Both goals came against freshman goaltender Brad Phillips who played the final 10 minutes of the opening period.
The second stanza featured 12 minutes of power-play action with each team getting six minutes each.Phillips stopped the Blue team, turning aside all four shots he faced.
The gold squad would score three times in its six minutes of power-play time against sophomore Tom O’Brien. Sophomore center Kevin Deeth scored first, taking a pass from Calle Ridderwall and wheeled down the left side before cutting in front to beat O’Brien.
Condra would tie the game at 2-2 when he took a feed from Ridderwall and whipped a shot past O’Brien. The junior then set up the game winner as he carried the puck off the left wing boards and fired a shot from the left face-off dot. O’Brien made the stop, but White was parked in front and backhanded the rebound home for the game-winning goal.
In the game, junior goaltender Jordan Pearce played 20 minutes, making four saves for the Blue team. O’Brien played the first 10 minutes of the first period, making seven saves while giving up no goals. Phillips played the final 10 and made seven saves. In the second period, Phillips made four saves for the Gold in 12 minutes while O’Brien made 11 saves in his 12 minutes.
Ridderwall, who had two assists in the game was named the winner of the George Komodoski Award as the game’s most valuable player while the Gold team won the Edward Slaggert Award as the winners of the Blue-Gold game.
The Blue-Gold game was the final tuneup for the Irish as they open the regular season on Friday night in Dayton, Ohio in the Lefty McFadden Invitational. Notre Dame faces Wisconsin at 5:05 p.m. in the opening game.
Head coach Jeff Jackson saw some things he liked while watching his team from the press box.
“I was happy with the way we looked tonight,” said Jackson. “I liked some of our line combinations. It was sloppy at times, but we’re not doing drills anymore. There was some nervousness out there, but it takes awhile for different lines and different combinations to get to know each other.”
The third-place game and championship game of the Lefty McFadden Invitational will be played on Saturday, October 13 at Nutter Center with games at 4:35 and 7:35 p.m. Ohio State and Mercyhurst are the other two teams in the tournament.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 - FGold 0 3 - 3Blue 2 0 - 2
ScoringFirst Period: Blue - Evan Rankin (penalty shot), 12:15; Blue - Brock Sheahan (Erik Condra), 13:54.
Second Period: Gold - Kevin Deeth (Calle Ridderwall), ppg; Gold - Condra (Ridderwall), ppg; Justin White (Condra), ppg.
Shots On Goal:Gold 4 - 14 - 18Blue 16 - 4 - 20
Goaltender Saves:Gold - Tom O'Brien (10:00) 7 - x - 7 Brad Phillips (22:00) 7 - 4 - 11Blue - Jordan Pearce (20:00) 4 - x - 4 Tom O'Brien (12:00) x - 11 - 11