Nov. 4, 2011
Marquette, Mich. – Notre Dame and Northern Michigan battled 65 minutes on Friday night in front of 3,794 at the Berry Events Center with the teams settling for a 2-2 overtime tie. The Wildcats picked up the extra point in the CCHA standings as they won the shootout, 1-0, on a goal by Reed Seckel.
Notre Dame got goals in regulation from Mike Voran and Billy Maday while Northern Michigan’s Ryan Kesti and Justin Florek lit the lamp for the Wildcats.
The Irish out shot Northern Michigan, 27-21, on the night. Mike Johnson made 19 saves for Notre Dame while Reid Ellingson had 25 stops for the Wildcats.
Northern Michigan opened the scoring at the 6:02 mark of the first period, taking a 1-0 lead when Kesti redirected a centering pass from Tyler Gron past Johnson for his first career goal.
The Irish answered back at 13:20 when Voran scored off a face off to the right of Ellingson. Maday won the draw, pushing the puck to the bottom of the right wing circle. Voran got past a defender and one-timed a shot that found its way through Ellingson’s pads for his second goal of the year, to tie the game at 1-1.
Notre Dame took the lead just 3:36 into the second period as the Irish scored on the power play. Maday scored the goal from the low slot, his second of the year, set up by some outstanding passing from Anders Lee and Riley Sheahan.
The Irish controlled the play deep in the Wildcat zone with the puck played to the right wing boards. Lee was able to win the battle on the wall and carried the puck towards the goal. He fed the puck to Sheahan on the goal line to the left of Ellingson. Sheahan centered a pass to Maday all alone in front and the senior one-timed a shot that beat Ellingson to his stick side in the upper right corner for a 2-1 lead.
The Irish have now scored at least one power-play goal in each of their first eight games this season.
Northern Michigan evened the score at 6:41 when Florek whipped a shot past Johnson from between the face-off circles. Matt Thurber and Reed Seckel picked up assists with Thurber’s original shot being stopped by Johnson from the right side. The rebound bounced out in front to Florek who was trailing the play. He wasted no time in firing it into the open net. The goal was Florek’s sixth of the season.
Notre Dame carried the play in the middle period, outshooting the Wildcats by a 14-4 margin but the score was tied 2-2.
The teams traded scoring chances in the third period and overtime but neither team could score, with shots limited in the final period and the five-minute overtime. The Irish were held to five over the final 25 minutes with Northern Michigan getting six.
In the shootout, the Irish went first with T.J. Tynan’s shot stopped by Ellingson. Northern Michigan’s Andrew Cherniwchan was stopped at the other end by Johnson. Next up for the Irish was Riley Sheahan who had the puck roll off his stick before he finished his final move on goal. For the Wildcats, Florek’s shot from the slot was high and wide past Johnson. Notre Dame’s third shooter was Maday who fired his shot wide. That left it to Seckel who came down the ice, made a move on Johnson that looked like the Irish netminder had stopped until Seckel pulled the puck away and slid it inside the left post for the shootout win, 1-0.
The results give the Irish a tie in the overall standings and leave Notre Dame with a 5-2-1 overall record and a 3-1-1-0 mark in the CCHA, good for 10 points. Northern Michigan goes to 4-3-2 for the season and 1-2-2-1 in conference play for six points.
The tie extends Notre Dame’s unbeaten string to 22 games in contests that go to overtime (5-0-17). The last time the Irish lost in overtime was March 21, 2008, to Miami. Last season, Notre Dame was 2-0-5 in overtime games and 2-1 in CCHA shootouts.
Notre Dame returns to action on Saturday for game two of the series versus Northern Michigan. Face off against the Wildcats is set for 7:35 p.m. at the Berry Events Center.
IRISH NOTES:
** Sophomore center T.J. Tynan saw his career-best eight-game point streak (3-14-17) stopped in the tie with Northern Michigan. His streak started on April 7, 2011 in the Frozen Four and continued through the first seven games of this season. Fellow sophomore left wing Anders Lee saw his career-best goal-scoring streak stopped at seven games (10-3-13) but extended his point streak to eight games with an assist on Maday’s power-play goal. Lee and Tynan are now tied for the team lead with 14 points.
** Senior defenseman Sean Lorenz returned to the lineup after missing one game at Bowling Green due to an injury. Sophomore left wing Jeff Costello returned to the lineup after missing the last five games with an injury suffered on Oct. 8 at Minnesota-Duluth.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 OT - F#4/#6 Notre Dame (5-2-1/3-1-1-0) 1 1 0 0 - 2rv/#17 Northern Michigan (4-3-2/1-2-2-1) 1 1 0 0 - 2
Scoring
First Period: NMU: Ryan Kesti 1 (Tyler Gron), 6:02; ND: Mike Voran 2 (Billy Maday), 13:20.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; NMU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Maday 2 (Riley Sheahan, Anders Lee), PPG, 3:36; NMU: Justin Florek 6 (Matt Thurber, Reed Seckel), 6:41.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; NMU: 3 for 6 minutes.
Third Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; NMU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Overtime: No Scoring.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; NMU: 0 for 0 minutes.
Shootout (Northern Michigan wins shoot out, 1-0)
ND: T.J. Tynan (save)NMU: Andrew Cherniwchan (save)ND: Riley Sheahan (shot wide)NMU: Justin Florek (shot wide)ND: Billy Maday (shot wide)NMU: Reed Seckel (score)
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 8 - 14 - 4 - 1 - 27Northern Michigan 10 - 4 - 6 - 1 - 22
Goaltender Saves:ND: Mike Johnson (64:50) 9 - 3 - 6 - 1 - 19NMU: Reid Ellingson (65:00) 7 - 13 - 4 - 1 - 25
Power Plays:ND: 1 for 5NMU: 0 for 2
Attendance: 3,794