Oct. 9, 2001
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The Games: Notre Dame Fighting Irish (0-0-0) vs. Union College Dutchmen (0-0-0)
Date/Site/Times: Thursday-Friday, Oct. 11-12, 2001 – Joyce Center (2,713) – Both games 7:05 p.m.
Broadcast Information: The game can be heard live on WLHY Radio (1630) with Dave Mager calling the action. The broadcast can also be heard via the internet at www.und.com.
SEASON OPENER: The Notre Dame Fighting Irish start playing for keeps this week when they host the Union College Dutchmen in a two-game series beginning Thursday, Oct. 11 at the Joyce Center. The series will conclude on Friday, Oct. 12 with both games starting at 7:05 p.m. This series is the regular season start for both teams. Last season, the Irish were 10-22-7 overall and finished 11th in the CCHA with a 7-15-6 record. Union was 12-18-4 overall and finished ninth in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) with an 8-12-2 league mark.
THE SERIES: The two schools have met just once in the past – Oct. 16, 1999 in the third place game of the Icebreaker Tournament at Denver, Colo., with the Irish taking a 4-0 shutout win. Irish goaltender Jeremiah Kimento (Palos Hills, Ill.), now a senior, recorded his first career win in that game making 19 saves. David Inman (Sr., Toronto, Ont.) recorded a pair of goals in that win while Connor Dunlop (Jr., St. Louis, Mo.) added three assists in the win.
HEAD COACH DAVE POULIN: Irish head coach Dave Poulin enters his seventh season behind the Notre Dame bench. He will start the 2001-02 season with an overall record of 81-121-29 (.413) and a 57-90-26 (.405) record in league play. Versus Union College, Poulin-coached teams are 1-0-0.
SCOUTING UNION: For more information on the Union College Dutchmen, check their website at www.union.edu (News and Sports).
ASSISTANT INFORMATION: Notre Dame assistant coach John Micheletto, now in his third season with the Irish served as an assistant coach for three years (1996-99) at Union College. He was an assistant along with current Union coach Kevin Sneddon under head coach Stan Moore. Union assistant coach Kevin Patrick played his collegiate hockey at Notre Dame from 1988-92.
UNDERGRADUATE ASSISTANT COACH: Senior Brett Henning (Huntington, N.Y.) has been named an undergraduate assistant coach with the Notre Dame hockey team. Henning was a three-year regular for the Irish but was forced to retire from hockey after suffering a neck injury last September. A center iceman, Henning played in 89 games for the Irish with eight goals and 15 assists for 23 points. He recorded 30 penalties for 60 minutes and had four power play goals and one game winner.
INJURY UPDATE: Left wing Sam Cornelius (Sr., Eden Prairie, Minn.) is out indefinitely with a cracked bone in his right wrist.
PRESEASON ACTION: Notre Dame got its first three goals from defensemen and behind the goaltending of freshman Morgan Cey (Wilkie, Sask.) took a 4-2 win over the University of Toronto on Oct. 5 at the Joyce Center. After falling behind, 1-0, the Irish got goals from T.J. Mathieson (So., Clarksville, Md.), Brett Lebda (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Tom Galvin (So., Miller Place, N.Y.) to take a 3-1 lead into the second intermission. Toronto cut the lead to 3-2 midway through the third period, but Yan Stastny (Fr., St. Louis, Mo.) scored an insurance goal with just under three minutes left for the 4-2 win. The Irish outshot Toronto, 53-21 in the game. Cey made 19 saves to pick up the win in goal.
FOR OPENERS: The Notre Dame hockey team begins its 35th season in the modern era (1968-69 was first season) and the Irish are 17-17-0 in season openers. Notre Dame is 4-6-0 in its last 10 season openers and 3-3-0 in Dave Poulin’s first six lidlifters. In the first 34 seasons, the Irish are also 20-14 in home openers. Last season, Notre Dame lost its season opener at Minnesota, 7-3, but won the home opener versus Wayne State, a 2-1 overtime thriller.
NEW FACE: Freshman forward Ryan Mundt (Edgartown, Mass.) has been added to the Irish roster for the 2001-02 season. The 5-7, 150-pound Mundt played last season at Martha’s Vineyard High School where he led the team in scoring with 36 goals and 37 assists for 73 points. He is that school’s all-time leading scorer. He made the team after trying out in the preseason.
ALL-Rookie Team: slick, skating defensemen tied for third in scoring for the Irish with seven goals and 19 assists, good for 26 points, the most by an Irish freshmen since defenseman Mark Eaton had 29 points during the 1997-98 season. Lebda led all CCHA freshmen defensemen in scoring and was fifth among all league blue liners. He was the first Irish player selected to the all-rookie team since David Inman (1998-99). Forwards Aaron Gill and Rob Globke were honorable mention selections.
Academic All-AmericanS: Notre Dame is the nation’s only Division I hockey program to produce a Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-American during each of the past five seasons (as part of the fall-winter at-large program). Dan Carlson kept the streak going in 2000-01 by earning third team honors with a 3.49 gpa and a double major in finance and computer applications. He joins two-time selection Steve Noble who took second-team honors in 1996-97 and first-team honors in ’97-’98, goaltender Forrest Karr who was a second teamer in ’98-’99 and left wing Andy Jurkowski who was a third team selection in 1999-2000.
CCHA ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM: Notre Dame 2001 graduate and two-time team MVP, left wing Dan Carlson (Edina, Minn.) was named to the prestigious eight-player CCHA All-Academic Team for 2000-01, making Notre Dame the CCHA’s only school to produce an All-Academic honoree each of the last six seasons. Carlson led the Irish in scoring for the second consecutive season (17-25-42) and was also an honorable mention all-CCHA selection. A six-time Dean’s List student, Carlson graduated from Notre Dame with a 3.49 cumulative grade point average and a double major in finance and computer applications. Notre Dame has produced eight previous first team CCHA All-Academic selections since rejoining the CCHA in ’92-’93: Curtis Janicke and Carl Picconatto (’92-’93), Garry Gruber (’95-’96), Steve Noble (’96-’97, ’97-’98), Forrest Karr and Aniket Dhadphale (’98-’99) and Andy Jurkowski (99′-’00). During that nine-year span, only Western Michigan (10) has produced more CCHA All-Academic selections than Notre Dame’s nine.
CaRLSON CAPERS: Dan Carlson closed out his Notre Dame career by leading the Irish in scoring for the second season in a row. The speedy left wing collected 17 goals and 25 assists for 42 points. The 17 goals equalled Carlson’s career high while his assists (25) and points (42) were career bests. He is the first Notre Dame player to score 40 points in a season since the 1998-99 campaign when Ben Simon had 42 (18-24). On Feb. 10, 2001, Carlson became Notre Dame’s all-time leader in games played (158), passing defenseman John Schmidt (1978-82) who played in 152 games during his career … Carlson finishes his career ranked 21st in goals (52), tied for 22nd in assists (80) and 20th in points with 132. Other Carlson marks included: fourth in shorthanded goals (6), 13th in power play goals (19) and tied for eighth in game-winning goals (9).
CENTURY MEN: Left wing Dan Carlson became the fourth Notre Dame hockey player to reach 100 points for his career in the last four seasons. He finished his career with 50 goals and 82 assists for 132 career points, good for 20th on the school’s all-time scoring list. The Edina, Minn., native joins right wing Brian Urick (57G-69A) and left wing Aniket Dhadphale (61G-44A) who each reached 100 points in the 1998-99 season and center Ben Simon (44G-86A) who reached the milestone in 1999-2000. Carlson is just the fifth Notre Dame player to score over 100 points in his career since the Irish returned to the CCHA in ’92-’93. Only center Jamie Ling (1992-96) has scored more points (51-102-153) than Carlson over the past nine seasons.
Closing The Deal: Notre Dame continued its success in games that the Irish took the lead into the third period. Notre Dame heads into the 2001-02 season having gone unbeaten in its last 50 games when holding the lead at the second intermission (42-0-8, including 7-0-3 in 2000-01). The last time the Irish lost after holding a second-intermission lead was Jan. 9, 1998, in the second of three games at Alaska-Fairbanks. UAF’s Sean Fraser tied the game (2-2) with a power-play goal in the third minute of the final period before Chris Kirwan converted a breakaway with 0:45 left in overtime. The Irish also are 27-3-5 since the 1998-99 season when leading after one period of play (7-1-2 in 2000-01 and 17-2-3 over the past two seasons).
Double (OT) Dip: Current Irish senior Dan Carlson turned in a rare feat during a three-week stretch of the 1999-2000 season, as the speedy left wing scored in overtime to beat both Western Michigan (4-3) and Ohio State (2-1). That marked just the second time-and the first in 28 years- that a Notre Dame player has scored two overtime goals in the same season, as then-junior winger Paul Regan scored overtime goals in 1971-72 versus Michigan Tech (6-5) and Cornell (5-4).
FAN FAVORITES: Notre Dame played in front of three of the top 20 crowds ever to watch Irish hockey during the 2000-01 season. Notre Dame opened the season on Oct. 7 in the Hall of Fame Classic at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., in front of 18,064 – the sixth biggest crowd in the history of the program. A weekend series at Ohio State’s Schottenstein Center Feb. 2-3 produced crowds of 12,354 and 10,451, the 14th and 19th largest crowds ever to watch Notre Dame hockey. The largest crowd ever to see the Irish play a hockey game was 21,347 on Dec. 29, 1982 when Notre Dame faced Michigan in the Great Lakes Invitational at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena. The largest regular season crowd to ever see the Irish was on January 29, 1993 when 20,247 fans saw Notre Dame play Michigan at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich.