Jan. 5, 2002
Notre Dame, Ind. – Michigan forward Mark Mink scored off a scramble in front of Notre Dame goaltender Morgan Cey at 19:08 of the second period to give the Wolverines a 2-1 win at the Joyce Center on Saturday night.
The Notre Dame loss dropped the Irish to 7-8-5 on the season and 5-5-4 in CCHA play. Michigan moved into a first-place tie with Michigan State as the Wolverines improve to 12-6-4 on the year and 9-3-3 in league action. Both Michigan and Michigan State have 21 points on the year.
Notre Dame came out fast in the game scoring just 1:06 into the game as Michael Chin drilled a feed from Jake Wiegand past Michigan’s Josh Blackburn for his ninth of the season.
Cey was on top of his game all night as he faced a season-high 19 shots in the first period making 18 stops. The lone goal in the period came shorthanded.
With the Irish on the power play, Michigan defenseman Andy Burnes fired the puck down the right wing boards where John Shouneyia gathered it in at the Notre Dame blueline and teammed with Michael Woodford on a two-on-one chance. Shouneyia pulled the defenseman towards him and fed the puck to Woodford who had a wide-open left side of the net and he buried it to tie the game at 16:26.
“The power play was really the turning point,” said Irish head coach Dave Poulin.
“We had the momentum and a goal there would give us a 2-0 lead. We tried a long bomb and it came back to cost us.”
While Cey kept the Wolverines off the board the remainder of the period, Michigan took over the play in the second period with 16 more shots on the Irish freshman goaltender.
“They hammered us every shift in the second period and we just couldn’t seem to dig out,” said Poulin.
“The work of No. 29 (Cey) kept us in it and it looked like it would be 1-1 after two periods but they got the bounce on the goal. Morgan really gave us a chance to win tonight.”
The Irish got nine shots in the third period, but the combination of Blackburn and the Michigan defense held the Irish off the scoreboard as the Wolverines leave South Bend with three points on the weekend.
“It was frustrating that we gave up a period (the second) and it cost us two points. I thought our third period was our best of the weekend and that’s frustrating.”
Cey finished the game with a career-high 37 saves and for the weekend stopped 70 of 75 shots. Blackburn had 24 saves for Michigan.
“The story of the weekend was the play of Morgan Cey. He’s the reason we earned a point. He gave us a chance to win both nights,” said Poulin.
The Irish will continue their six-game homestand next weekend when they play host to the Northern Michigan Wildcats on Jan. 11-12. Face-off both nights at the Joyce Center is 7:05 p.m.
IRISH HOCKEY NOTES:
**The Irish are now 1-2-1 this season versus ranked teams.
**Michigan’s 39 shots on goal equalled the most given up by the Irish this season. Boston College also had 39 shots versus the Irish on Oct. 26.
**Michael Chin continues his strong play with his career-best ninth goal of the season. The junior right wing has now scored a goal in three of the last four games.
**Since starting the season with an 0-4-2 mark, the Irish are 7-4-3 in their last 14 games. Notre Dame is 5-2-1 in its last eight contests.
SCORING SUMMARY
Michigan (12-6-4/9-3-3) 1 1 0 – 2
Notre Dame (7-8-5/5-5-4) 1 0 0 – 1
Scoring
First Period: ND: Michael Chin 9 (Jake Wiegand, Sam Cornelius), 1:06, UM: Michael Woodford 5 (John Shouneyia, Andy Burnes), SHG, 16:26.
Penalties: UM: 2 for 4 minutes, ND: 0 for 0 minutes.
Second Period: UM: Mark Mink 2 (Shouneyia, Charlie Henderson), 19:08.
Penalties: UM: 2 for 4 minutes, ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: UM: 0 for 0 minutes, ND: 0 for 0 minutes.
Shots On Goal:
Michigan 19 -16 – 4 – 39
Notre Dame 13 – 4 – 9 – 26
Goaltender Saves:
Michigan – Josh Blackburn (60:00) 12 – 4 – 9 – 25
Notre Dame – Morgan Cey (58:48) 18 -15 – 4 – 37
Power Plays: UM: 0 for 1, ND: 0 for 3
Attendance: 2,713 (sellout)