Brad Phillips

Irish And Northern Michigan Battle To A 2-2 Tie; Notre Dame wins shoot out, 2-1

Nov. 15, 2009

Final Stats | Photo Gallery media-icon-photogallery.gif

Notre Dame, Ind. – Notre Dame and Northern Michigan battled to a 2-2 overtime tie on Sunday afternoon at the Joyce Center with the Irish picking up the extra point in the CCHA standings by winning the shoot out, 2-1.

Junior right wing Billy Maday keyed a Notre Dame comeback from a 2-0 second-period deficit, scoring twice in the game and then added one of two Irish goals in the shoot out. Linemate Calle Ridderwall scored the winning goal in the shoot out victory. The Wildcats got second-period goals from Ray Kaunisto and Jared Brown 42 seconds apart to build the 2-0 lead.

Junior goaltender Brad Phillips, making his first start since Oct. 31 versus Ohio State stopped 32-of-34 Northern Michigan shots in the game, including 14 in the third period and then two-of-three in the shoot out. Brian Stewart finished with 25 saves for the Wildcats on the night.

The Notre Dame win snapped a two-game Irish losing streak and left them with a 5-5-2 overall record and a 2-2-2-1 CCHA mark, good for nine points in the league standings. Northern Michigan leaves the weekend with a 3-5-2 record on the year and is now 2-3-1-0 in the conference, good for seven points.

“Give our guys credit for coming back from the 2-0 deficit,” said Irish coach Jeff Jackson.

“It was a hard-fought game. Northern Michigan is a good hockey team. People picked them to be in the top of our standings this year. There were positive signs; we had to grind it out. They (the Wildcats) are a big, tough team to play against.”

After a scoreless first period that saw Northern Michigan have an 8-3 shot advantage, the Wildcats scored twice in the first 2:08 of the second period.

Kaunisto put Northern ahead, 1-0, just 1:26 into the stanza when he beat Phillips for his fourth of the season off assists to Justin Florek and Alan Dorich.

The lead would go to 2-0 just 42 seconds later at 2:08 when Brown started the play and then ended it, winning a face off to Dorich on the right point and then going to the front of the net to deflect a shot past Phillips for his second goal of the weekend and the season.

Notre Dame’s special teams got the Irish back in the game when Maday scored his first of two on the power play at 8:42 to cut the Wildcat lead in half at 2-1.

“Blatch (Brett Blatchford) moved it to Deeth (Kevin) and he went back to Calle (Ridderwall),” said Maday describing his first goal of the night.

“Calle got it back to Deeth and I snuck in the back door. Kevin made a nice pass to me and I had an open net to shoot into for the goal.”

Maday added, “We were looking for some spark and we seemed to play with more jump and energy after the power-play goal.”

The spark carried on into the third period when Maday got the equalizer at 2:36 on a wrap-around goal for his fourth of the season.

Maday moved the puck from the left boards back to Teddy Ruth at the point. Ruth fired a shot that hit Riley Sheahan in front of the goal. Maday grabbed the rebound and went around the right side of the net and beat Stewart to the left post to tuck the puck inside the left post to make it 2-2.

From there it was Phillips who held off Northern Michigan, including a span of 3:50 that saw the Irish play short-handed forcing him to make several stops in close.

“The team really did a great job on that big kill in the third period,” said Phillips.

“They blocked a lot of shots and kept them (Northern Michigan) to minimal scoring chances.”

Jackson was pleased with the way Phillips played all night, but especially in the third period.

“Brad made the difference tonight in the third period when we were short-handed four times in the period,” said Jackson.

“It was good for him to step up. Tonight was the first time he shut them down in the third period. I’ve been waiting for him to do that – finish the game. Like a closer in baseball, you have to be your best at the most important time of the game.”

The score remained tied 2-2 after 65 minutes, sending it to the shoot out. Northern shot first with Phillips stopping Mark Olver’s shot. Maday put the Irish ahead, 1-0, when he beat Stewart under the cross bar. The Wildcats’ Greger Hansen tied the shoot out at 1-1 when he beat Phillips but Ridderwall answered back by getting Stewart to try and poke check the puck before shooting it over him for the 2-1 advantage. Phillips then sealed the extra point in the CCHA standings when he stopped Erik Gustafsson’s scoring bid with a pad save.

Despite scoring just three goals or less for the 12th straight game, the Irish showed signs of breaking out of their season-long scoring slump.

“There was about an eight-minute span in the second period when I saw what I think this team is capable of,” said Jackson.

“We were proactive, we played on our toes and we were passing the puck and supporting it well. We really looked good until a penalty took the momentum away.”

The Irish will have a short turnaround in keeping the momentum going as they return to action on Thursday, Nov. 19 with a road game at Michigan State. Game time at Munn Arena is 7:05 p.m.

** IRISH NOTES **

** Notre Dame’s 2-1 shootout win marked the fifth time that the Irish have been involved in a shoot out over the last two seasons. The Irish are 1-1 this season and 4-1 all-time.

** The Irish have scored at least one power-play goal in 10 of the team’s 12 games this season. The Irish are 14-for-67 on the power for a 20.9% success rate.

** For the third time this season, Notre Dame avoided a series sweep. Since the 2005-06 seasons, the Irish have been swept just eight times; five times in 2005-06, twice in 2007-08 and once last season. The last time Notre Dame was swept was Oct. 24-25, 2008 against Miami (Ohio).

GAME SUMMARY                           1     2     3    OT  -  FNorthern Michigan (3-5-2/2-3-1-0)      0     2     0     0  -  2#8/#8 Notre Dame (5-5-2/2-2-2-1)       0     1     1     0  -  2

Scoring

First Period: No Scoring.

Penalties: NMU: 3 for 6 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.

Second Period: NMU: Ray Kaunisto 4 (Justin Florek, Alan Dorich), 1:26; NMU: Jared Brown 2 (Dorich), 2:08; ND: Billy Maday 3 (Kevin Deeth, Calle Ridderwall), PPG, 8:42.

Penalties: NMU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.

Third Period: ND: Maday 4 (Teddy Ruth, Riley Sheahan), 2:36.

Penalties: NMU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 4 for 8 minutes.

Overtime: No Scoring.

Penalties: NMU: 0 for 0 minutes; ND: 0 for 0 minutes.

Shootout:  Notre Dame wins shootout, 2-1.           NMU:  Mark Olver (save); ND: Billy Maday (goal).           NMU:  Greger Hanson (goal); ND: Calle Ridderwall (goal).           NMU:  Erik Gustafsson (save).
Shots On Goal:Northern Michigan 8 - 11 - 14 - 1 - 34Notre Dame 3 - 14 - 9 - 1 - 27
Goaltender Saves:NMU - Brian Stewart (64:43) 3 - 13 - 8 - 1 - 25ND - Brad Phillips (65:00) 8 - 9 - 14 - 1 - 32
Power Plays:NMU: 0 for 6ND: 1 for 5
Attendance: 2,337