Oct. 5, 2001
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team opened the 2001-02 season on Friday night with a 4-2 preseason win over the University of Toronto Varsity Blues at the Joyce Center.
The Irish are 1-0 on the preseason and will now prepare for the regular season home opener on Thursday, Oct. 11 versus the Union College Dutchmen at 7:05 p.m. The two teams will also play on Friday night. Toronto falls to 0-2 on the preseason and plays at Western Michigan on Sunday.
Notre Dame got three of its four goals from defenseman as the Irish peppered Blues goaltender Jamie Bruno with 53 shots on the way to the victory. Sophomore defenseman T.J. Mathieson (Clarksville, Md.) paced the attack with a goal and an assist while fellow sophomores Brett Lebda (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Tom Galvin (Miller Place, N.Y.) each scored. Freshman Yan Stastny (St. Louis, Mo.) scored the insurance goal at 17:37 to seal the win.
“Overall I was pretty happy with the way we played,” said Irish coach Dave Poulin. “We had a lot of shots on goal and really created chances off those shots. We moved the puck well and made some nice plays. We had some real quality shots, that we’ll learn how to convert.”
The Irish fell behind just 5:33 into the game as Ian Malcolm took advantage of a Notre Dame turnover at the blue line and beat freshman goaltender Morgan Cey (Wilkie, Sask.) on a breakaway.
Mathieson tied the game at 14:03 when he fired the rebound of an Aaron Gill (So., Rochester, Minn.) shot over Bruno. Even though it was the preseason, it was the first goal he has scored in a Notre Dame uniform.
“T.J. was terrific tonight. He really played with confidence,” said Poulin.
Mathieson was all smiles in the locker room following the game. “I’ve been looking forward to this game since the last game of last season,” said Mathieson. “I put on about 20 pounds over the summer and really felt good playing out there tonight.”
Lebda put the Irish ahead to stay at 1:06 of the third period after David Inman (Sr., Toronto, Ont.) made a nice move to get a shot off on Bruno. Lebda closed from the point and fired the puck home to make it 2-1.
Galvin got the eventual game winner as his quick wrister of a face-off win from Michael Chin (Jr., Urbana, Ill.) somehow snuck between Bruno’s pads for a 3-1 lead.
Toronto cut the lead to 3-2 at 9:29 of the third period as Tristan Senior converted another Irish turnover as he picked up a loose puck in the slot and snapped it past Cey.
Stastny closed out the scoring as he pounced on the rebound of a Cory McLean (Fargo, N.D.) shot. Mathieson led the rush on the play feeding McLean as he cruised down the right side.
Cey held the Varsity Blues off the rest of the way as he finished with 19 saves in the game. Notre Dame outshot Toronto, 53-21 in the game.
“Morgan didn’t see a lot of action, but he made some big saves off turnovers in our zone. That’s something we will have to work on. He was aggressive though and broke up some plays before they could becoming scoring chances,” said Poulin.
SCORING SUMMARY
Toronto (0-2-0) 1 0 1 – 2
Notre Dame (1-0-0) 1 2 1 – 4
Scoring
First Period: UT: Ian Malcolm 5:53, ND: T.J. Mathieson (Aaron Gill) 14:03.
Penalties: UT: 1 for 2 minutes, ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Brett Lebda (David Inman) 1:06, ND: Tom Galvin (Michael Chin) 15:58.
Penalties: UT: 5 for 10 minutes, ND: 9 for 18 minutes.
Third Period: UT: Tristan Senior (PPG) 9:29, ND: Yan Stastny (Cory McLean, Mathieson) 17:37.
Penalties: UT: 1 for 2 minutes, ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Shots On Goal:
Toronto 4 – 11 – 6 – 21
Notre Dame 19 – 13 – 21 – 53
Goaltender Saves:
Toronto – Jamie Bruno (58:07) 18 – 11 -20 – 49
Notre Dame – Morgan Cey (60:00 ) 3 – 11 – 5 – 19
Power Plays: UT: 1 for 4, ND: 0 for 2
Attendance: 1,494