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Hockey Prepares For Home Series Versus UMass And Princeton

Dec. 7, 1999

IRISH TAKE MONTH-LONG BREAK FROM CCHA PLAY

* Icers prepare for home series versus UMass and Princeton
* Dolder’s goal and Zasowski’s 24 saves spark win over Michigan State
* Henning, Inman and Dunlop named to U.S. National Junior Team

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The Notre Dame hockey team (6-8-2, 4-6-2 CCHA) returns home for a pair of non-conference series sandwiched around final exams, starting with a pair of games vs. UMass on Dec. 10-11 (start times of 7:05 p.m.) … the Irish are coming off a split with Michigan State (1-0 win at home, 4-1 loss at MSU) … the ND-UMass games will be carried live in South Bend by WJVA 1580 AM (also available via the Notre Dame athletic web site, at www.und.com) … last week’s MSU series is ND’s only Central Collegiate Hockey Association action in a 55-day span … the Irish close out the pre-Christmas schedule with a non-league series vs. Princeton before playing in the Norwest Denver Cup, vs. DU on Dec. 31 and Maine or Colorado College on Jan. 1.

CRAZIER EIGHTS: After senior LW Andy Jurkowski (4G-4A) collected an assist in last week’s 1-0 win over MSU, seven players sat atop the Notre Dame scoring charts, with eight points each … senior C Ben Simon and senior RW Joe Dusbabek then had assists in the 4-1 loss at MSU, to move into a tie for first … the other four players who were tied for the scoring lead include sophomore LW David Inman (7G-1A), junior LW Dan Carlson (3G-5A), sophomore C Brett Henning and freshman C Connor Dunlop (2G-6A).

WORLD STAGE: Three ND players have been named to the U.S. National Junior Team that will compete in the World Junior Championship (Dec. 26-Jan. 4 in Skelleftea and Umea, Sweden), marking the fourth consecutive year that Irish players will be members of the prestigious 22-player team … the invitees include sophomore C Brett Henning (Huntington, N.Y.), sophomore C/LW David Inman (Toronto, Ont.) and freshman C Connor Dunlop (St. Louis, Mo.)-representing the most players from any school on the U.S. team … the team will assemble on Dec. 13 in West Point, N.Y. , before traveling to Sweden for exhibition games (Dec. 20-22) … the Irish will play four games without the services of Henning, Inman and Dunlop-who each rank among the team’s top four C candidates and are vital members of the PP … they will rejoin Notre Dame in time for a CCHA series vs. Lake Superior (Jan. 7-8) … Inman-whose mother Straughn is a U.S. citizen-holds joint citizenship in Canada and the U.S. and was one of the final two forwards cut from the ’98-’99 U.S. National Junior team … Henning and Dunlop have past experience playing for U.S. national teams, as members of the National Team Development Program that trains in Ann Arbor, Mich. (Henning in 1997-98 and Dunlop during each of the past two years) … Dunlop was an alternate captain and one of the leading scorers on the ’98-’99 U.S. Under-18 national team … ND is one of five schools that have placed players on the National Junior Team in each of past four years … current Irish captain and senior C Ben Simon played on the USA’s silver medal-winning team in 1996-97 and was joined on the USA squad in ’97-’98 by senior RW Joe Dusbabek while junior LW Dan Carlson was a member of the ’98-’99 junior national team … Boston College leads the way with a total of nine selections to the National Junior Team during the past four years, followed by Notre Dame (7), Minnesota (6) and Michigan State (6) … six different Notre Dame players have been named to the National Junior team during the last four years, second only to BC’s seven.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS: ND had allowed just five goals in the previous five games before the 4-1 loss at MSU on Dec. 5. … six different players have scored ND’s six game-winning goals this season while no Irish player has more than two game-winning points (a total of 12 players have scored or assisted on the six GWGs this season) … the last four games have seen Notre Dame go 1-for-21 on the power play but 16-for-17 on the penalty kill … Notre Dame’s 2.54 team goals-against average is on pace to challenge the team record set in 1998-99 (2.60) … prior to the 4-1 first period vs. Vermont, the Irish had been outscored 13-4 in the first period this season (now 16-8, with a 15-12 edge in the second, 13-13 in the third) … the 3-2 win over UAF on Nov. 13 (2 PPGs) is the only game this season where a PPG helped provide ND’s winning margin, with four loss margins by opponent PPGs (ND’s 9-1-2 start in ’98-’99 included a 3-0 mark in games decided by PPGs) … the 3-2 win over UAF is Notre Dame’s only victory this season in the second game of a CCHA series (1-4-1), with the following dropoffs on the second night of the five CCHA series this season: goals allowed (total of 13 in first games, 23 on second night, avg. of 2.2 to 3.8), PK pct. (drop from .865 to .795) and PP pct. (.139 to .105) … Notre Dame’s 6-8-2 start stands in stark contrast to its 9-5-2 opening in ’98-’99, with the most notable dropoffs coming in goals per game (3.6 to 2.3), PP pct. (.250 to .140) and first-period goals (16 to 8) … only two current Irish players have four-plus goals, compared to seven players with four-plus goals after 16 games in ’98-’99 … senior C Ben Simon (34G-72A) is the only current player with 70-plus career points, compared to four 70-plus scorers through 16 games in ’98-’99.

AROUND THE HORN

Freshman G Tony Zasowski has turned in seven strong starts (two shutouts, five other games with 2G allowed) while suffering two rough games (5 GA at UNO, 4 at MSU ) … Zasowski as a starter: 4-3-2, 2.08 GAA and .924 save pct. (he ranks 6th overall in the CCHA with a 2.25 GAA, which would best the Irish record of 2.58 set by Forrest Karr last season) … Zasowski (19 saves vs. UAF, 24 vs. MSU) is the second ND goalie with two solo shutouts in the same season (Karr shut out OSU and Miami in ’98-’99) … Zasowski turned in a shutout streak of 130:36, spanning 54 minutes of the 2-1 loss at UNH and the first 76 minutes of the MSU series … freshman C Connor Dunlop was injured in the Dec. 4 game vs. MSU and remains day-by-day due to arm injury … senior LW Andy Jurkwoski (4G-4A)-who moved up from the D this season-has surpassed his career scoring total of six points (2G-4A in 70 games, including 18 as a freshman F) and has points in eight of the last 11 games … Jurkowski (4) and sophomore LW David Inman (7) remain the only Irish players with more than 3G this season … senior D Sean Seyferth has made the most of his recent chances, leading the team in plus-minus (+5) while recording 1G-1A in the 5-1 win over Vermont (he had 1G-1A in the last two seasons combined) … senior D Sean Molina is tied for third on the squad in plus-minus (+3), after ranking second on the ’98-’99 squad (+13) … Molina has totaled just 31 career penalties (none in the last six gams) while playing the most games (122) of any current Irish player (he is averaging 3.9 games per penalty for his career) … Molina is tied for fourth on the 1999-2000 team with five assists, equaling his total from ’98-’99 and one shy of his career-best season total (6, in ’97-’98) … senior C Ben Simon is averaging just 2.0 shots/gm this season (30 in 15 games), compared to 3.1 in ’98-’99 (113 in 37) and 2.8 over his first three seasons (287 in 104).

CHECKING THE BOXSCORES: Despite an 0-4-0 start in the CCHA, Notre Dame is 4-2-2 in its last eight CCHA games and tied for ninth place, just four points out of fourth and six out of third … the Irish rank 10th in the CCHA for overall goals/gm (2.25), 5th in goals allowed (2.56), 10th in power-play pct. (.140), 9th in penalty-kill pct. (.833) and 1st in fewest penalty minutes/gm (15.50) … sophomore LW David Inman is tied for 12th in the CCHA with seven goals (he totaled 10 in ’98-’99).

SLAP SHOTS: Notre Dame’s four first-period goals in the 5-1 win over Vermont (Nov. 28) were its most in 25 games, since scoring four times in the first period vs. UAF on Feb. 6, 1999 (a 5-2 win) … Notre Dame has allowed just five goals in its last four games (0 vs. UAF, 2 vs. UAF, 2 vs. UNH, 1 vs. Vermont) … the Irish have scored PPGs in 10 of 14 games this season … the Irish are 17-5-4 in their last 26 regular-season home games … Notre Dame has scored two or fewer goals in eight of 14 games (three games with three, one with four, two with five) … Notre Dame’s last eight OT games have produced seven ties and one loss (0-1-5 in 1998-99).

AVOIDING THE SIN BIN: Notre Dame’s low team GAA is due in large part to a surging penalty-killing unit (.833, 75-of-90) and the CCHA’s least-penalized squad (7.5 penalties and 15.50 penalty minutes/gm, leading to just 5.6 opponent PP chances/gm) … just three CCHA teams have allowed fewer PPGs than ND’s 15 (Michigan and MSU with 12, Lake Superior with 14) … since ranking as the CCHA’s most-penalized team in ’95-’96 (11.31 penalties/gm), the Irish were the CCHA’s least-penalized teams in ’96-’97 (8.69 pen./gm) and ’97-’98 (6.37) and the third-least penalized in ’98-’99 (8.40) … Notre Dame’s more disciplined players this season have included sophomore RW John Wroblewski (one penalty), senior LW Andy Jurkowksi (two, 21 in 86 career games), senior C Ben Simon (three, compared to 30-31-31 in the past three seasons), and sophomore C Brett Henning (three, 18 in 54 career games) … senior D Sean Molina has five penalties this season and just 31 in 120 career games … senior D Nathan Borega had just 16 penalties as a sophomore and 13 as junior but already has totaled 16 in 16 games this season.

SCOUTING THE MINUTEMEN (www. umassathletics.com): UMass is 3-7-2 (0-6-1 Hockey East), after dropping a pair to Boston University (2-1 at home, 4-3 at BU) … UMass owns wins at Army (1-0), at home vs. UConn (7-4) and at Union (5-1) … UMass and Notre Dame have faced three common opponents this season: New Hampshire (both lost 2-1), Vermont (3-3 tie for UMass, 51 win for ND) and Union (5-1 win for UMass, 4-1 win for ND) … UMass ranks eighth in the nine-team Hockey East for overall scoring (2.50 goals per game), sixth in overall defense (2.75 goals allowed/gm), ninth in power-play pct. (.094) and seventh in penalty-kill pct. (.841) … the Minutemen rank first in Hockey East for fewest penalty minutes/gm (15.17), similar to Notre Dame’s CCHA-best mark of 15.50 … top UMass scorers include junior Jeff Turner (6G-9A) and senior Jeff Blanchard (5G-10A) … junior Markus Helanen has logged 527 minutes in goal, with a 3-5-1 record, 2.73 goals-against average and a .904 save pct. while sophomore Mike Johnson is 0-2-1 with a 2.59 GAA and .893 save pct. … UMass returned 20 of 25 letterwinners from its ’98-’99 team that went 12-21-2 overall and finished sixth in Hockey East … top returning scorers include Blanchard (11G-17A in 1998-99) and Turner (9G-13A), while Helanen went 10-18-2 with a 3.32 GAA and .898 save pct.

THE SERIES: Notre Dame and UMass have met twice previously, splitting a pair of games in the 1994-95 season at UMass (a 6-3 win for the Irish and a 4-3 overtime victory for UMass) … the Irish win on Dec. 30, 1994, included two goals from Terry Lorenz and a goal and assists from Jamie Morshead … the Irish have lost their last 12 games where the winning goal was scored in the final minute of regulation or overtime, including the loss to UMass, when Warren Norris scored with 48 seconds left in overtime (assisted by Rob Bonneau) … the Irish had three power-play goals in the loss, with Garry Gruber and Davide Dal Grande each collecting two assists.

FRIEND OR FOE?: Notre Dame freshman left wing Jake Wiegand and UMass junior forward Justin Shaw were teammates on the Lincoln Stars … Irish junior RW Ryan Dolder and UMass junior F Nick Stephens both played for the Twin City Vulcans … UMass sophomore G Mike Johnson attended Minnetonka (Minn.) HS, as did Irish senior RW Joe Dusbabek and former Irish right wing and team captain Brian Urick (1995-99).

RECAPPING THE MSU SERIES (Dec. 4-5): Notre Dame posted a 1-0 home win, thanks to junior RW Ryan Dolder’s goal with five minutes to play, after a deflected shot from junior D Ryan Clark … Tony Zasowski made 24 saves, including 15 in the third … the win was ND’s first shutout of MSU in the last 42 games of the series, dating back to a 2-0 win at MSU on Feb. 24, 1978 … Notre Dame’s previous six shutouts had come vs. OSU (4) and Miami (2), with ND’s last shutout of a major Div. I team other than Miami or OSU coming Feb. 13, 1982 vs. Ferris State … the next night at MSU, the Spartans scored in every period and received 24 saves from Joe Blackburn for a 4-1 win (Ryan Miller started the game at ND) … the Irish goal came in the second period, on a triple-rebound sequence that yielded junior LW Jay Kopischke’s first goal since Jan. 30, 1998 (Joe Dusbabek and Ben Simon had the assists) … Notre Dame is 1-3-1 in its last five games vs. MSU, despite going 1-for-24 on the power play in those games (0-for-8 on Dec. 5) … the Irish have totaled just two goals in their last three games at MSU’s Munn Ice Arena.

ROAD WARRIORS: Notre Dame has posted wins in 21 road arenas during the five-year tenure of head coach Dave Poulin (19 in the past two-plus seasons) … the Irish could add OSU’s Value City Arena to that list (Feb. 4-5) … the previous two seasons saw ND post road wins over all 10 CCHA opponents, including a 4-2 CCHA playoff win at Michigan and wins over OSU at the OSU Ice Arena and the Columbus Fairgrounds … Notre Dame owns three road wins over Wisconsin during the Poulin era, all at different sites, plus road wins in the Poulin era at St. Cloud State and North Dakota and a 5-5 tie at Boston College.

Waiting for the Wakeup Calls

Unlike the 1998-99 season-when Notre Dame bounced back repeatedly in the second game of a weekend-the Irish have tailed off in the second game of their CCHA series this season.

Notre Dame has totaled just three points in the second game of its six CCHA series while seeing a drop in its average scoring (2.2 to 2.0) and shots (25.2 to 24.0), with the power-play efficiency also lower (.139 to .105, 5 PPGs to 4).

Defensively, the Irish have allowed one 1.6 more goals per game in the final game of the weekend (2.2 to 3.8), with the penalty kill dropping from .865 to .795 (5 PPGs allowed to 8).

In ’98-’99, the Irish were 9-5-4 on the first game of a weekend, 8-7-1 in the second (highlighted by a 2-2 tie vs. Michigan, a 4-3 win at North Dakota and a 2-1 win over Northern Michigan).

1999-2000

                1st Game     2nd GameW-L-T            3-2-1         1-4-1Goals (Avg.)    13 (2.2)      12 (2.0)PPGs               5             4
PPGs All. 5 8GA (Avg.) 13 (2.2) 23 (3.8)Shots/Goal 11.6 12.0
PP Pct. .139 .105PK Pct. .865 .795Shots (Avg.) 25.2 24.0

LAMP LIGHTERS

… Notre Dame entered 1999-2000 with five players who had 15-plus career goals (68.8 pct. of the team’s career goals) but those players have combined for just 30.6 pct. of the current total (11 of 36), as senior C Ben Simon, senior RW Joe Dusbabek and junior LW Dan Carlson each have 3G while junior RW Matt Van Arkel has two (junior LW Chad Chipchase has not scored in 8 GP) … unexpected scoring boosts have included 4G from senior LW Andy Jurkowski (two previous goals in his ND career), plus 3G from sophomore C Brett Henning (4G as a freshman), 3G from junior RW Ryan Dolder (8G in previous two seasons) and 2G from senior D Tyson Fraser (5G in previous three seasons).

… The Irish continue to look for offensive boosts, after graduation losses of RW and team captain Brian Urick (16G-25A in ’98-’99), LW power-play ace Aniket Dhadphale (18-11) and All-America D Benoit Cotnoir (7-18) … senior C/LW Ben Simon (35 career goals, 72 assists) is the team’s most accomplished scorer while sophomore C/LW David Inman has seven of the 36 Irish goals this season … Inman has 13 points (10G-3A) in the last 19 regular-season games while junior RW Ryan Dolder has nine (5G-4A) in the last 20 … freshman C Connor Dunlop it tied for third on the team scoring charts with eight points, including assists on four of the team’s five goals at the IceBreaker … ND’s trio of junior LWs-Dan Carlson, Chad Chipchase and Jay Kopischke-are due for a scoring breakthrough, as that threesome has combined for just six goals in Notre Dame’s last 32 games … Carlson’s goal in the 3-2 CCHA playoff win over Northern Michigan represented his only goal in 21 games (before his recent PPGs vs. Ferris State and Miami and a nifty goal vs. Vermont) while Chipchase’s crucial goal in the ’98-’99 season finale at Miami (4-2) marks his only goal in his last 24 games played … Kopischke’s goal last week at Michigan State was his first since Jan. 30, 1998, spanning 50 games played … senior RW Joe Dusbabek could provide a huge scoring lift for the Irish, after scoring 13 goals during his big freshman season (he has eight goals, plus 28 often timely assists, in 66 games over the past three years and heads into the UMass series with 3G-5A in the last nine games) … sophomore C Brett Henning had one goal in a 19-game span before netting goals vs. Union, Miami and UAF (he has 3G in the last 13 games and 2G-4A in the last nine) … junior RW Matt Van Arkel’s goals vs. Union and Miami extended his history of strong early-season play (19 of 25 career points before New Year’s).

SIMON REACHES 100: Notre Dame senior C Ben Simon (Shaker Heights, Ohio) has earned preseason CCHA “player of the year” honors from Hockey News … Simon registered a goal and assist in the season-opening Michigan series, giving him 100 points (32G-68A) in his 106th career game … he added 1G-2A in the series at UNO, 1G-2A vs. Vermont and 1A at MSU, for a career total of 107 points (34G-73A) in 119 games … Simon is the fourth Irish player to reach 100 points in the five-year tenure of head coach Dave Poulin, joining ’96 graduate Jamie Ling (51-102) and ’99 grads Brian Urick (57-69) and Aniket Dhadphale (61-44) … Simon needs 16 more goals to become the 29th ND player ever to total 50-plus goals and 50-plus assists … he is 24 points shy of cracking Notre Dame’s top-20 career scoring list and needs 24 more assists to crack that top 10 list.

HOMESTANDERS: In its last 27 regular-season home games, Notre Dame is 18-5-4 with a 94-53 scoring edge (two 7-1 wins, one 9-5 win) … ND’s last 18 home wins have included 10 by three goals or more … despite opening ’98-’99 with a 10-0-2 mark at home, the Irish are just 6-5-2 in their last 13 overall home games (including the CCHA playoff series with Northern Michigan) and have been outscored 34-29 in those games.

EARLY ROOKIE HONORS: Notre Dame produced two early CCHA rookie-of-the-week honorees, with center Connor Dunlop (St. Louis, Mo.) honored by the CCHA on Oct. 18 while goaltender Tony Zasowski (Darien, Ill.) was recognized on Nov. 1 for his strong series vs. Miami (58 saves, 4 GA) … Zasowski became the first freshman to start in net for the Irish since Matt Eisler made his first career start in the second game of ’94-’95 … Dunlop assisted on four of ND’s five goals in the IceBreaker Tournament.

New Challenges …

… Notre Dame’s 6-8-2 start to the 1999-2000 season stands in stark contrast to the 9-5-2 opening in ’98-’99. The Irish have shown a considerable dropoff in goals per game (3.6 to 2.3), shots per game (30.3 to 25.4), power-play goals (22 to 13) and first-period goals (16 to 8) while the Irish are averaging 11.3 shots/goal (8.3 last season).

… A big part of the Irish success in ’98-’99 was the PP unit, which operated at a .274 efficiency during the first 16 games and provided the winning margin in three early wins (the PP is just .145 this season). By comparison, Notre Dame’s .815 penalty kill produced just two losses due to opponent PPGs through the first 16 games of ’98-’99 while the .833 unit this season has given up PPGs that have provided the margin in four Irish losses.

… Defensively, the Irish are allowing an equal amount of goals per game this season (2.6) and have allowed four-plus goals in six games (five in first 16 games of ’98-’99).

… David Inman (7) and Andy Jurkowski (4) are the only current Irish players with four-plus goals, compared to seven at this point in ’98-’99: Aniket Dhadphale (9), Brian Urick (9), Ben Simon (7), Matt Van Arkel (5), Inman (6), Chad Chipchase (5) and Dan Carlson (4). Simon (34G-72A) is the only current player with 70-plus career points (Joe Dusbabek is next, with 21G-35A), compared to four 70-plus scorers through 14 games in ’98-’99 (Simon 79, Dhadphale 92, Urick 106 and Benoit Cotnoir 71).

… The Irish continue to search for the right forward combinations, after opening 1998-99 with the potent line of Urick-Simon-Dhadphale that combined for 50 points, 22 goals and nine PPGs in the first 10 games (2.2 goals/gm by that line alone, just shy of the entire 1999-2000 team’s average of 2.6).

After 16 Games 1998-99 1999-2000
W-L-T 9-5-2 6-8-2
Goals (Avg.) 58 (3.6) 36 (2.3)
Power-Play Goals 22 13
Shots Per Goal 8.3 11.3
PPGs Allowed 19 15
Goals All. (Avg.) 42 (2.6) 41 (2.6)
Power-Play Pct. .250 .140
Penalty Kill Pct. .812 .833
Shots (Avg.) 30.3 25.4
Players w/ 4+ Goals 7 2
Pl. w/ 70+ Career Pts 4 1
Games w/ 4+ GA 5 6
First-Period Goals 16 8
Wins by PPGs 3 1
Losses by PPGs 2 4