Oct. 11, 2002
Duluth, Minn. – Notre Dame got late game heroics from sophomore left wing Yan Stastny and goaltender Morgan Cey turned in another brilliant performance in goal as the Irish rallied for a 2-2 tie versus the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. The season-opening tie was played in front of 3,321 fans at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center Friday night.
With the Irish trailing and time running out, Notre Dame got an icing call with 1:07 left in the game. Coach Dave Poulin called timeout and pulled Cey in favor of a sixth attacker. Connor Dunlop won the faceoff to the left of UMD goaltender Rob Anderson. The draw went to Evan Nielsen who’s pass to Brett Lebda going to the net was behind him. Lebda tracked the puck down in the right wing corner and slid it in front to Stastny who slid the puck under Anderson for the 2-2 tie.
“Dunny (Dunlop) did a great job of winning the faceoff to start the play,” said a grinning Stastny.
“Evan (Nielsen) got the puck and tried to get it to Lebda going to the net. It looked like three guys went to the puck and I just yelled for it. The pass came to me and I just made a move on the goaltender and got it past him.”
Until Stastny’s late heroics, the game belonged to Cey as the Bulldogs came out flying in the first period to outshoot the Irish 19-6.
UMD ran off the first nine shots of the game before the Irish got their first on a Rob Globke wrister just over six minutes into the game.
Notre Dame’s penalty killers were put to the test early as the Irish were whistled for the first four infractions of the night. A too many men on the ice penalty just 22 seconds after Neil Komadoski was whistled off for cross checking at 6:03 proved costly.
With the two-man advantage, Minnesota-Duluth’s Neil Petruic fired a slapshot from the center point through a screen that beat Morgan Cey low to the stick side for a power-play goal at 7:04. The shots on goal were 11-1 in favor of the Bulldogs.
“I think there were some pregame jitters with it being the first game,” said Stastny.
“We lacked discipline early and couldn’t get any flow to the game. We stayed out of the box the final two periods and really picked up the tempo.”
The Irish made the most of their second shot of the night at 9:12 of the period when Tom Galvin slid a pass inside the UMD blue line to right wing Tim Wallace. Wallace ripped a wrist shot past Bulldog goaltender Rob Anderson from inside the right faceoff circle to tie the game at 1-1. The goal was the Anchorage, Alaska native’s first of the season.
The second period saw the Irish bounce back in the shot column as they outshot the Bulldogs 11-9 in the stanza with Minnesota-Duluth getting the only goal of the period.
With play in the right wing corner, UMD forward Junior Lessard got the puck back to the right point to defenseman Beau Geisler. Geisler’s low shot found its way to the net where Cey made the stop only to see senior right wing Drew Otten poke the loose puck past Cey for his first goal of the year. Duluth went into the second intermission with a 2-1 lead.
“Morgan did a great job early in the game to give as a chance to get going,” said Poulin.
“We took some undisciplined penalties early in the game and it hurt us. I thought we showed a lot of poise late in the game. Scoring late was a positive. I really thought we moved the puck well in the second part of the game. I expect us to be better tomorrow night.”
The Irish improve to 10-3-2 all-time in Duluth and will look for their first win of the season on Saturday night when they face the Bulldogs.
GAME SUMARY 1 2 3 OT FNotre Dame (0-0-1) 1 0 1 0 2
Minnesota-Duluth (0-0-1) 1 1 0 0 2
Scoring
First Period: UMD: Neil Petruic 1 (Jess Unklesbay), PPG, 7:05; ND: Tim Wallace 1 (Tom Galvin), 9:12.
Penalties: ND: 4 for 8 minutes; UMD: 1 for 2 minutes
Second Period: UMD: Tyler Brosz 1 (Beau Geisler, Junior Lessard), 3:38.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; UMD: 1 for 2 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Yan Stastny 1 (Brett Lebda, Evan Nielsen), 19:02.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; UMD: 2 for 4 minutes.
Overtime: No Scoring.
Penalties: None
Shots On Goal:
Notre Dame 6 - 11 - 10 - 1 - 28
Minnesota-Duluth 19 - 9 - 11 - 0 - 39
Goaltender Saves:
ND - Morgan Cey (64:52) 18 - 8 - 11 - 0 - 37
UMD - Rob Anderson (65:00) 5 - 11 - 9 - 1 - 26
Power Plays:
ND: 0 for 4
UMD: 1 for 6
Attendance: 3,321