Nov. 29, 2013
Notre Dame, Ind. –
– Date/Site/Time: Fri., Nov. 29, 2013 – 4:05/7:35 p.m. – Compton Family Ice Arena (5,022) – Notre Dame, Ind.
Sat., Nov. 30, 2013 4:05/7:35 p.m. – Compton Family Ice Arena (5,022) – Notre Dame, Ind.
– The Teams: #10/#11 Notre Dame (8-5-1); Alabama Huntsville (0-12-0), Northeastern (8-5-0), Western Michigan (5-5-2)
– The Games:
Friday - 4:05 p.m. - Northeastern vs. Western Michigan 7:35 p.m. - #10/#11 Notre Dame vs. Alabama-Huntsville Saturday - 4:05 p.m. - Alabama-Huntsville vs. Western Michigan/Northeastern 7:35 p.m. - #10/#11 Notre Dame vs. Western Michigan/Northeastern
– Broadcast Information: Radio: Notre Dame hockey can be heard live on Real Country 99.9 FM in South Bend or at WatchND. Darin Pritchett, the voice of the Irish will call the action.
– Internet Broadcast: Audio: Both Notre Dame games can be heard at WatchND on the Notre Dame website. Video Streaming: Both Notre Dame games will have live video streaming at NBC Sports.com and is free of charge. The first games each day will be streamed at WatchND on the Irish web site and are free of charge. Live Stats: Available at und.com with all games of the Shillelagh Tornment available on Game Tracker.Twitter: Follow Irish hockey on Twitter at @NDHockey.
TOURNEY TIME: Notre Dame will once again play host to the Shillelagh Tournament, this time, at the home of the Fighting Irish, the Compton Family Ice Arena, on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. The tournament has been held three previous years, in 2009, 2010 and 2011 at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Ill., before Notre Dame moved into its own building during the 2011-12 season. The Irish will welcome Alabama-Huntsville (WCHA), Northeastern (Hockey East) and Western Michigan (NCHC) to this year’s holiday tournament held over Thanksgiving weekend. Northeastern and Western Michigan will open the tournament action at 4:05 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 29 with that game followed by Notre Dame facing off against Alabama Huntsville at 7:35 p.m., or one hour after the end of game one. The championship and third-place games will be held on Saturday, Nov. 30 with games at 4:05 p.m. and 7:35 p.m. The Chargers of Alabama Huntsville will be looking for their first win this season as they are 0-12-0 overall and 0-8-0 in their first season in the WCHA. The Northeastern Huskies are 8-5-0 on the season and 3-4-0 in Hockey East, good for six points in the league race. The Western Michigan Broncos own a 5-5-2 overall record and are 2-2-0 in their first season in the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC). Notre Dame enters the weekend with an 8-5-1 overall record and is 2-3-1 in Hockey East play.
SHILLELAGH TOURNAMENT HISTORY: This is the fourth edition of the Shillelagh Tournament after a two-year hiatus. The Irish won the first two tournaments held at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Ill., winning in 2009 with wins against Union College (3-1) and Minnesota-Duluth (3-1). In 2010, Notre Dame won for the second time, with a 5-2 win over Colgate before tying North Dakota in the championship game (3-3), winning the shootout to claim the tourney title. In 2011, the Irish finished third after falling to Minnesota State (4-3) in the opening game before tying Boston University (3-3). They claimed third-place by beating the Terriers in a shootout. Minnesota State went on to win the 2011 championship. Notre Dame has played in 40 in-season tournaments in the 45-year history of the program and owns a 31-44-5 record. The Irish have finished first (nine times), second (seven times), third (10 times) and fourth (14 times). The last time Notre Dame was in an in-season tournament was Oct. 12-13, 1012 when the Irish won the Ice Breaker Tournament in Kansas City, Mo.
SHILLELAGH TOURNAMENT HISTORY:
2009 Tournament:
Minnesota-Duluth 2, UMass-Lowell 1Notre Dame 3, Union College 1
Third-PlaceUnion 2, UMass-Lowell 1
ChampionshipNotre Dame 3, Minnesota-Duluth 1
All-Tournament Team
G - Jordan Pearce, ND (MVP)D - Evan Oberg, UMDD - Kyle Lawson, NDF - Ben Ryan, NDF - Garrett Regan, NDF - Justin Fontaine, UMD
2010 Tournament:
North Dakota 3, Niagara 1Notre Dame 5, Colgate 2
Third-PlaceNiagara 5, Colgate 1
ChampionshipNotre Dame 3, North Dakota 3 (ot)Notre Dame wins shootout, 2-1 (five rounds)
All-Tournament Team
G - Mike Johnson, NDD - Jake Marto, North DakotaD - Brett Blatchford, NDF - Billy Maday, ND (MVP)F - Kevin Deeth, NDF - Brett Hextall, North Dakota
2011 Tournament:
Brown 6, Boston University 1Minnesota State 4, Notre Dame 3
Third-PlaceNotre Dame 3, vs. Boston University 3 (ot)Notre Dame wins shootout, 1-0, (three rounds)
ChampionshipMinnesota State 7, Brown 3
All-Tournament Team
G - Phil Cook, Minnesota StateD - Matt Wahl, BrownD - Cameron Cooper, Minnesota StateF - Jack Maclellan, BrownF - Ryan Galiardi, Minnesota StateF - Michael Dorr, Minnesota State (MVP)
RANKINGS: Notre Dame enters the week ranked 10th in the USA Today/U.S. Hockey Magazine rankings and 11th in the USCHO.com polls. The Irish started the season ranked eighth in both polls. Notre Dame is the only team participating in the Shillelagh Tournament that is ranked.
A LOOK AHEAD: It’s hard to believe but we are looking at the final weekend series of the first half on Dec. 6-7, at the Compton Family Ice Arena. Following this weekend’s 2013 Shillelagh Tournament, the Irish actually close out the first half of the 2013-14 season with a pair of home games against Hockey East foe, the University of Massachusetts. The two teams will meet at 7:35 p.m. on Dec. 6 and then have a 6:35 p.m. contest on Sat., Dec. 7. Both games of the series will be broadcast on the NBC Sports Network with Dave Strader calling the action and Anson Carter “Inside the Glass.” After UMass, Notre Dame breaks for finals and then the Christmas holidays before returning to action on Jan. 4 at Fenway Park where the Irish will face Boston College in a 7:35 p.m. game.
UMASS.-LOWELL RECAP:
Friday, Nov. 22, 2013
Massachusetts-Lowell 1, Notre Dame 0
Massachusetts-Lowell junior center Stephen Buco scored a first-period power-play goal and it proved to be the only goal the River Hawks would need as they blanked Notre Dame, 1-0, in front of 6,515 at the Tsongas Center. River Hawks goaltender Connor Hellebucyk stopped all 40 shots he faced to pick up his second shutout of the season. Notre Dame out shot UMass.-Lowell, 40-28 on the night. Steven Summerhays (Sr., Anchorage, Alaska) made 27 saves, giving up just the one goal to suffer the loss. The River Hawks took advantage of a pair of Notre Dame penalties late in the first period to score the only goal of the game. Garrett Peterson (Jr., Manhattan, Ill.) went off for holding at 13:21 and Jeff Costello followed at 14:15 to give UMass.-Lowell a two-man advantage for 1:06. The Irish killed Peterson’s penalty but with 29 seconds left on Costello’s, Buco got his third of the season at 15:46, beating Steven Summerhays with a back hander from the right side of the goal for the 1-0 lead. From there, it was all about the goaltending as Hellebucyk and Summerhays dueled the rest of the way. The River Hawks were 1-for-3 on the power play while the Irish were 0-for-3.
Saturday, Nov. 23, 2013
Massachusetts-Lowell 3, Notre Dame 1
Special teams dominated the action as UMass-Lowell scored three power-play goals to one for Notre Dame on the way to a 3-1 victory over the Irish in front of 6,405 at the Tsongas Center Saturday. The River Hawks scored two man-advantage goals in the first period with defensemen Zack Kamrass and Michael Kapla scoring off screen shots against Steven Summerhays. Notre Dame cut the lead to 2-1 in the second period on a power-play goal by Bryan Rust (Sr., Novi, Mich.) and UML’s Joe Pendenza scored into an open net on the power play in the final minute of play. Notre Dame out shot the River Hawks by a 35-34 margin. Summerhays finished with 31 saves while Connor Hellebucyk had 34 stops. The Irish were 1-for-5 on the power play while UMass.-Lowell was 3-for-6. The River Hawks took a 2-0 lead with a pair of power-play goals in the first period following a goal that was waved off on the Irish. After Notre Dame killed off a penalty to Kevin Lind (Sr., Homer Glen, Ill.), the Irish broke back on the UMass.-Lowell goal with Sam Herr (So., Hinsdale, Ill.) beating a defenseman and scoring on Hellebucyk to give the Irish what looked like a 1-0 lead. On the play, Herr was bumped into the River Hawks goaltender before the shot and was called for goaltender interference at 16:53 of the opening period. Less than a minute later, Kamrass fired a shot from the top of the left circle through a screen to beat Summerhays for the power-play goal at 17:48 and the River Hawks had the 1-0 lead. The Irish bench then was given a minor penalty following the goal for protesting the call on Herr and the goal that followed. UMass.-Lowell capitalized on that opportunity when Kapla scored on a wrist shot from the high slot that slipped through a screen past Summerhays for Kapla’s first of the year and a 2-0 lead for the River Hawks. Notre Dame got back in the game at 11:36 of the second period when Rust broke through on Hellebucyk for the first Irish goal of the weekend on the power play. T.J. Tynan (Sr., Orland Park, Ill.) carried over the blue line and left the puck for Rust coming down the left side. The senior snapped a shot inside the left post and the goaltender’s blocker to make it 2-1. The goal was Rust’s third of the season. The third period saw the action go both ways with Notre Dame having several good chances as the Irish out shot the River Hawks, 11-7, but could not dent the sophomore goaltender. UMass.-Lowell’s closed out the scoring when Pendenza fired a loose puck from center ice into an open net for the final score of 3-1.
IRISH VERSUS RIVER HAWKS: The two losses to UMass-Lowell came in the first two games played in the series. Prior to last weekend, Notre Dame and UMass-Lowell had never met in any sport.
TAKING THE HIT: Prior to last weekend’s (Nov. 22-23) series at UMass-Lowell, Notre Dame’s penalty-killing unit had given up just four power-play goals in the first 12 games of the season. In the two-game series against the River Hawks, the Irish gave up four power-play goals on nine chances, including three in the 3-1 loss on Nov. 23. Notre Dame has now stopped 58-of-66 opponent power-play chances for an 87.9% success rate. The Irish fell from 1st in Hockey East in penalty killing to third and from third nationally to sixth.
SHUTOUT: Friday night’s 1-0 shutout at the hands of Connor Hellebucyk and the UMass.-Lowell River Hawks marks the first time that Notre Dame has been shutout since Feb. 17, 2012 when the Irish were blanked 3-0 at Miami (OH). Another Connor, Miami’s Connor Knapp had 31 saves in the 3-0 loss at Oxford, Ohio. That was a span of 59 games between shutouts for Notre Dame.
FIRING THE PUCK: The Irish scored just one goal on 75 shots in the series at UMass-Lowell with Bryan Rust scoring the lone lamplighter on the weekend. Notre Dame had 40 shots in the 1-0 shutout on Nov. 22 and added 35 more in the 3-1 loss on Nov. 23. Bryan Rust led the Irish with 15 shots in the two games, including a career-high eight in the 1-0 loss. Sam Herr had nine on the weekend and Jeff Costello (Sr., Milwaukee, Wis.) added eight of his own in the series.
SLAMMING THE DOOR: After giving up five goals in the 5-4 loss to Minnesota on Nov. 9, Irish goaltender Steven Summerhays has given up just five goals in his last four games. In that span, Summerhays is 1-2-1 with a 1.24 goals-against average and a .958 save percentage. On the year, Summerhays is 8-4-1 overall with a 1.64 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage with three shutouts. He enters this weekend second in Hockey East in goals-against average, third in save percentage, second in wins and tied for first in shutouts.
SHORT-HANDED: Notre Dame has played without the services of as many as five players this season. Against UMass-Lowell, the Irish played without forwards Vince Hinostroza (four games), Thomas DiPauli (eight games), Mike Voran (five games) and Steven Fogarty (three games) plus defenseman Eric Johnson (eight games), who were are all out of the lineup with injuries (number of games missed this season).
ROAD SWEEP: When UMass-Lowell swept Notre Dame on Nov. 22-23, it marked the first time that the Irish were swept on the road since Feb. 17-18, 2012 when they dropped a pair of games at Miami (OH), losing 3-0 and 4-1 decisions to the RedHawks.
BLANKED ON THE POWER PLAY: Friday night’s (Nov. 22) game at UMass-Lowell marked just the third time this season that Notre Dame was held without a power-play goal. Earlier this month, at Vermont, the Irish were blanked in back-to-back games, going 0-12. The Irish bounced back in Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the River Hawks with one power-play goal in five chances. On the season, Notre Dame is 16-for-91 for a 17.6% success rate. The Irish continue to lead the nation with 91 power-play chances (Quinnipiac is second with 82). The 16 power-play goals ties Notre Dame for third in the country behind St. Lawrence (19) and Denver (19).
EXPERIENCE FACTOR: The 2013-14 Notre Dame squad is a veteran team with 10 seniors on the roster. Experience goes a long way on this team as the Irish have eight players that have played over 100 games in their careers and a ninth that has over 90. The list:
Stephen Johns 138T.J. Tynan 138Bryan Rust 135David Gerths 133Shayne Taker 126Kevin Lind 124Mike Voran 122Jeff Costello 119Robbie Russo (Jr.) 95
GO TO GUY: Dating back to Feb. 24, 2012, Notre Dame goaltender Steven Summerhays has played in 55 of Notre Dame’s last 60 games, making 53 starts. During those 55 games, Summerhays is 32-17-3 with a 1.83 goals-against average, a .932 save percentage and nine shutouts. For his career, he is now 44-28-4 with a 2.17 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage. This season, Summerhays is 8-4-1 with a 1.64 goals-against average, a .938 save percentage and three shutouts. During the 2012-13 campaign, Summerhays was tops among CCHA goaltenders in wins (21) and second in goals-against average (2.01). He was seventh in save percentage (.919) and tied for the league lead with four shutouts. His 21 wins make him the seventh goaltender in the program’s history to record 20 or more wins in a season.
SUMMERHAYS STOPS: Senior goaltender Steven Summerhays recorded his third shutout this season on Nov. 15, equaling a season high with 31 stops in blanking Merrimack, 4-0. The shutout was the ninth of Summerhays’ Irish career and puts him third all-time behind David Brown `07 and Jordan Pearce `09 who each recorded 12 shutouts with the Irish.
JACK OF ALL TRADES: Not only can Notre Dame goaltender Steven Summerhays stop the puck, he can do it all in other areas too. Against Merrimack (Nov. 15) he assisted on his second goal of the season and has now tied former Irish goaltender Bob McNamara `83 in career assists by a goaltender with four. Summerhays also plays a physical game. Versus Minnesota Duluth (Oct. 25), he received a major penalty for grabbing the face mask and a game misconduct. He currently is third on the Irish with 15 penalty minutes.
ALL TIED UP: Notre Dame’s 2-2 tie with Merrimack (Nov. 16) was the first tie game played at the Compton Family Ice Arena (3rd season) and the first home tie for the Irish since Jan. 29, 2011 versus Miami (2-2). Last season, Notre Dame was 1-0-3 in overtime and over the last three-plus seasons, the Irish are 5-1-12 in overtime with the lone loss coming on March 9, 2012, a double-overtime loss to Michigan in the CCHA Quarterfinals.
GAME TIME CHANGES: The starting times for several games later this season have been changed to earlier starts.
1/10/14 - vs. Ala.-Huntsville Now at 7:35 p.m.1/17/14 - vs. Lake Superior Now at 7:35 p.m.1/24/14 - vs. Northeastern Now at 7:35 p.m.2/7/14 - vs. Maine Now at 7:35 p.m.2/21/14 - vs. Boston Univ. Now at 7:05 p.m.
These five join the earlier announced Dec. 6 game versus Massachusetts that has moved from 8:05 to 7:35 p.m.
TOP 40: With the 4-0 win and the 2-2 tie over Merrimack, Notre Dame goaltender Steven Summerhays improved to 8-2-1 on the season and is now 44-26-4 for his career. He is the eighth goaltender at Notre Dame to win 40 or more games in his career and his 44 wins moves him into sole possession of sixth place on Notre Dame’s all-time wins list.
Goaltender Wins1. Jordan Pearce (2005-09) 592. Lance Madson (1986-90) 563. David Brown (2003-07) 554. Dick Tomasoni (1968-72) 495. Dave Laurion (1978-82) 456. Steven Summerhays (2010-) 447. Mike Johnson (2009-13) 438. Len Moher (1974-78) 41
SCHNEIDER SNIPES: In the 4-0 win over Merrimack (Nov. 15), junior right wing Peter Schneider (Vienna, Austria) scored a pair of goals for the first multi-goal game of his career. The two-point night was the third multi-point game for the native of Austria. In 13 games this season, Schneider now has three goals and two assists for five points.
FIRST TIMER: Freshman left wing Ali Thomas (Fr., New York, N.Y.) wasted no time in getting his first career goal for the Irish as he notched it in just his second game and it also was the game winner in the Nov. 15, 4-0 win over the Warriors of Merrimack. The big left wing, stole the puck behind the Merrimack goal and scored on a wrap around at 3:21 of the second period to give the Irish a 1-0 lead.
BLOCK PARTY: One of the reasons for Notre Dame’s defensive success this season is the team’s ability to block shots. Through the first 14 games, the Irish have blocked 188 shots, including a season-high, 21, versus Western Michigan on Oct. 11. Notre Dame is averaging 13.43 blocks per game as a team. Senior Kevin Lind (Homer Glen, Ill.) lead the team with 36 blocks and is followed by Stephen Johns with 26 and junior Robbie Russo (Westmont, Ill.) with 23. Nineteen different players have blocked a shot this year.