Jan. 8, 2005
Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. – Sophomore defenseman Noah Babin scored the game-tying goal at 5:23 of the third period to erase a 1-0 deficit to give Notre Dame a 1-1 tie with the Lake Superior State Lakers on Friday night at Taffy Abel Arena.
The goaltenders took over the defensive game as Notre Dame’s Morgan Cey and Lake Superior’s Jeff Jakaitis put on a clinic. Cey finished the night stopping 25 of 26 Laker shots while Jakaitis stopped 32 of 33 Irish shots in the tie. Cey came up extremely big in overtime as he stopped all six Laker shots he faced in the extra stanza.
“Morgan (Cey) had another strong game in goal for us,” said Irish head coach Dave Poulin following the game.
“He gave us a chance to win a tough road game and then came up big for us in the overtime.”
The tie gives Notre Dame a 5-10-5 overall record and a 3-8-4 mark in the CCHA and the Lakers move to 6-11-2 on the year and 5-6-2 in league play.
Babin’s game-tying goal came off a face off in the Lakers’ zone to the left of Jakaitis. Matt Amado won the draw back to Mark Van Guilder who slid the puck to Babin on the right wing boards. Babin snapped a quick wrist shot that beat Jakaitis low to the ice just inside the left post for his third goal of the season.
“I thought we had a lot of jump in the third period and had some excellent scoring chances,” said Dave Poulin.
“Noah’s (Babin) goal came off one of our face-off plays. He did a good job of finding a lane and getting the shot to the net.”
Lake Superior scored first in the game as the Lakers took advantage of an Irish turnover in Notre Dame’s defensive zone. Junior left wing Steve McJannet stepped in front of an Irish clearing pass in the slot and fed it across the front of the goal to right wing Bo Cheesman. Cheesman tucked the shot inside the right post for his third goal of the season at the 7:24 mark for the lone goal of the first period.
“Lake Superior does a great job of taking advantage of your mistakes,” explained Poulin.
“We made one mistake in the first period and they put it in the net.”
The goaltenders took over in the second period as Jakaitis turned away all 13 shots he faced and Morgan Cey stopped eight shots.
The Lakers killed off two penalties in the period, including a five-minute major to Mark Adamek for boarding Notre Dame’s Evan Rankin. The Irish failed to capitalize with the advantage as Jakaitis stopped all seven shots the Irish were able to generate.
On the night, the Irish were held scoreless on three power-play chances while they killed off five Laker chances that extend their shut out string to 18 straight penalties killed dating back to last weekend versus Rensselaer.
The two teams meet for the second game of the series on Saturday night. Game time at Taffy Abel Arena is set for 7:05 p.m.
IRISH NOTES:
** Morgan Cey has now given up just four goals in his last three starts (1.31 goals-against average) and has stopped 74 of 78 shots (.948). He is 1-1-1 in the three games.
** Josh Sciba saw his four-game point streak (2-2-4) come to and end in the 1-1 tie as did Michael Bartlett’s three-game point and assist streak (0-3-3) and Tim Wallace’s two-game streak (1-1-2).
** The Irish are 8-1-2 in the last 11 meetings with Lake Superior State.