Feb. 2, 2002
Notre Dame, Ind. – Ryan Campbell and Aaron Voros scored two goals each and defenseman Felipe Larranaga had a three-point game (a goal and two assists) to lead Alaska Fairbanks to a 6-5 win over Notre Dame Saturday night at the Joyce Center.
The Nanooks took 5-1 and 6-2 leads only to see the Irish rally with four second-period goals but fall short in the 6-5 loss.
Junior center Connor Dunlop sparked the Irish offense with a four-point night (a goal and three assists) but it was not enough as the Nanooks held off the Irish for the weekend sweep.
The loss, Notre Dame’s sixth in its last seven games, drops the Irish to 9-14-5 overall and 7-11-5 in the CCHA. The Nanooks go to 16-10-2 on the year and move into fourth place in the league with a 12-10-2 record.
UAF took a 3-0 lead in the first period before Notre Dame could get its offense in gear. Campbell got his first of two goals at 7:08 when he scored on a breakaway for his 10th goal of the year.
Larranaga gave the Nanooks a 2-0 lead with a power play goal at 11:54 as he fired a rebound past Irish goaltender Morgan Cey from the bottom of the left wing faceoff circle.
Campell got his second goal of the night at 15:00 when he combined with Larranaga on a two-on-one to give Alaska Fairbanks the 3-0 lead.
Notre Dame was able to break through on UAF goaltender Preston McKay when Dunlop took a lead pass from defenseman Derek Smith, got by the defenseman, and beat McKay with a wrist shot from between the face-off circles for his career-best eighth goal of the season.
The Nanooks got their three-goal lead back with just 30 seconds left in the first period as Ryan Lang whipped a centering pass from Cory Rask past Cey for his sixth of the season.
Cey gave way to senior Jeremiah Kimento to start the second period, but the Alaska Fairbanks’ power play clicked again. Voros got his first of the night and one of four on the weekend at the 2:00 mark.
Rob Globke answered back with his ninth of the season off a Yan Stastny setup at 4:49, but Voros got his second of the night and the eventual game-winner as he deflected Keith’s centering pass from the left wing boards past Kimento on a bang-bang play at the crease at 7:28.
The Irish would then score three times in the final 8:11 to make it 6-5 after two periods. Stastny scored on the power play for his fourth of the season and third in three games at 11:49.
Kyle Dolder blasted a shot from the top of the right wing circle that beat McKay to the far post for his second of the year at 12:23. Dunlop picked up his third assist of the night with a nice drop pass to Dolder as he had a hand in Notre Dame’s first four goals.
Neil Komadoski then scored on a slapshot from the left point at 18:52 for his first goal of the season and the Irish were back in the game.
After seeing 11 goals scored in the first two periods, the defenses took over. Alaska Fairbanks replaced McKay with Lance Mayes in goal and he turned away all six Irish shots in the third period as neither team could get on the scoreboard.
Notre Dame finished the game outshooting UAF by a 39-33 margin. Cey made nine saves in 20 minutes of action and Kimento turned aside 18 in his two periods of action. McKay made 28 saves in two periods to go along with Mayes’ six in the final period.
The Irish will return to action next weekend when they travel to East Lansing, Mich. for a pair of games with the Michigan State Spartans on Feb. 8-9. Game time both nights at Munn Arena is 7:05 p.m.
IRISH HOCKEY NOTES:
** Center Connor Dunlop had two goals and five assists on the weekend for seven points. His four-point game on Saturday was the second of the year and gives him 11 games with two or more points. He now has career-highs in goals (8), assists (28) and points (36). The last Notre Dame player to record more than 28 assists in a season was Jamie Ling in 1994-95 when he had 31 assists that year. Dunlop has now scored in four straight games (2-9-11) and has points in five of his last six games (3-9-12).
** Freshman Yan Stastny extended his goal and point scoring streak to three games as he now has three goals and two assists in for five points in that span.
** Rob Globke scored his second goal in as many nights in the 6-5 loss to Alaska Fairbanks. The sophomore right wing has a five-game point streak (2-3-5).
** Freshman Ryan Mundt saw his first action for the Irish versus Alaska Fairbanks. The 5-7, 150-pound center who walked on to the team in the fall won nine of 16 faceoffs and was -1 for the game.
** Prior to the weekend series with Alaska Fairbanks, the Irish had won six straight games versus the Nanooks at the Joyce Center and were 8-0-2 in the last 10 meetings between the two schools.
** The Irish gave up two power play goals for the fifth straight game and have now given up 11 over the last six contests. Since stopping Northern Michigan on Jan. 12, Notre Dame has killed just 25 of 36 opponent power plays for a 69.4% penalty killing rate.
SCORING SUMMARY
Alaska Fairbanks (16-10-2/12-10-2) 4 2 0 – 6
Notre Dame (9-14-5/7-11-4) 1 4 0 – 5
Scoring
First Period: UAF: Ryan Campbell 10 (Ryan Lang), 7:08, UAF: Felipe Larranaga 4 (Bobby Andrews, Cam Keith), PPG, 11:54, UAF: Campbell 11 (F. Larranaga), 15:00, ND: Connor Dunlop 8 (Derek Smith), 17:47, UAF: Lang 6 (Cory Rask, F. Larranaga), 19:30.
Penalties: UAF: 0 for 0 minutes, ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Second Period: UAF: Aaron Voros 14 (Andrews, Keith), PPG, 2:00, ND: Rob Globke 9 (Yan Stastny, Dunlop), PPG, 4:49, UAF: Voros 15 (Keith, Andrews), 7:28, ND: Stastny 4 (Tom Galvin, Dunlop), PPG, 11:49, ND: Kyle Dolder 2 (Dunlop, Evan Nielsen), 12:23, ND: Neil Komadoski 1 (Galvin), 18:52.
Penalties: UAF: 7 for 14 minutes, ND: 5 for 10 minutes.
Third Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: UAF: 2 for 4 minutes, ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Shots On Goal:
Alaska Fairbanks 13 -10 – 10 – 33
Notre Dame 15 – 18 – 6 – 39
Goaltender Saves:
Alaska Fairbanks – Preston McKay (40:00) 14 -14 – x – 28
Lance Mayes (20:00) x – x – 6 – 6
Notre Dame – Morgan Cey (20:00) 9 – x – x – 9
Jeremiah Kimento (38:55) x – 8 – 10 – 18
Power Plays: UAF: 2 for 6, ND: 2 for 5
Attendance: 2,470