Jan. 4, 2010
Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Notre Dame rallied from a 3-1 second-period deficit on Sunday evening to tie sixth-ranked North Dakota, 3-3, in overtime in the title game of the second annual Shillelagh Tournament at the Sears Centre Arena. The Irish then won the tournament title by taking a 2-1 win in five rounds of the shootout after 65 minutes of play.
Notre Dame got regulation goals from Ben Ryan, Kevin Deeth and Billy Maday for the tie and then won the shootout on goals by Dan Kissel and Ryan to gain the win. The Fighting Sioux got goals from Chris VandeVelde, Brett Hextall and Brett Bruneteau in 65 minutes of play before Evan Trupp scored in the shootout.
The shootout victory gives the Irish their second consecutive Shillelagh Tournament Championship after knocking off Colgate, 5-2, in the opening round of play on Jan. 2. North Dakota advanced to the championship game on the strength of a 3-1 win over Niagara in Saturday’s opening game.
Notre Dame is now 9-8-5 on the season and returns to CCHA action this coming weekend when the Irish host Ferris State on Jan. 9-10 at the Joyce Center. North Dakota is 10-6-4 on the year.
The Irish got on the scoreboard first in this contest as junior right wing Ben Ryan scored his fourth goal of the season at 3:59 of the first period on the power play. Freshman left wing Nick Larson kept the puck moving on the left wing boards, getting it to junior defender Ian Cole. Cole’s shot was stopped by Fighting Sioux goaltender Brad Eidsness but Ryan pounced on the rebound, firing the puck past Eidsness for his fourth of the season and a 1-0 Irish lead.
North Dakota answered back at the 16:54 mark of the opening period when VandeVelde followed up a Jason Gregoire shot for his sixth of the season and send the game to intermission tied at 1-1.
The Fighting Sioux broke the game open early in the second period, scoring twice to open a two-goal lead at 8:47 of the middle period.
Hextall would do the honors via the power play just 2:15 into the second period on the power play as he beat Irish goaltender Mike Johnson of passes from Jake Marto and Joe Gleason.
The lead would go to 3-1 less than halfway through the game. Mario Lamoureau moved the puck into the Notre Dame zone where he would dump it behind the net to Brett Bruneteau. The freshman center would try to flip the puck back to Lamoreaux but it bounced into the air and off of Johnson into the goal, giving North Dakota the two-goal lead at 8:57 of the middle period.
The Irish answered back at 12:22 when Deeth scored his second of the season off a neat pass from junior Ryan Guentzel. The right wing had the puck on the boards and found Deeth coming over the blue line. The senior center wasted little time drilling a low shot that beat Eidsness low to the Irish to make it a 3-2 game.
Maday would get the equalizer and his third goal of the weekend when he scored just 1:36 into the final period. New defenseman Joe Lavin took the puck away and got it to Maday inside the Notre Dame blue line where he was hit hard on a check. He moved the puck ahead to Christiaan Minella who carried it deep into the Sioux defensive zone. Eidsness stopped Minella’s shot with the rebound coming to the high slot where Maday fired a shot past the North Dakota goaltender for his seventh of the season.
From there, neither team would score again in regulation or overtime with the game ending tied 3-3 for the national standings. The Irish and the Sioux would then go to the shootout to decide the Shillelagh title. The shootout would give five rounds before taking a 2-1 win and the tournament crown.
The Sioux took an early lead in the shootout as Evan Trupp beat Johnson to make it 1-0 in favor of North Dakota. Calle Ridderwall was stopped by Eidsness before Johnson stopped David Toews. Maday was stopped on Notre Dame’s second scoring chance and Matt Frattin missed for North Dakota. Matt Frattin missed on a scoring bid for the third North Dakota shot. Dan Kissel tied the shootout at 1-1 with his goal on the last Irish chance to send things to overtime. Jason Gregoire, Ryan Thang for ND and Corban Knight, all missed to set up the final shot. Ryan closed the scoring when he snapped a wrist shot from the slot to give the Irish the tournament title.
Four Notre Dame players were selected to the all-tournament team, led by Johnson in the Irish goal. Defenseman Brett Blatchford was joined by North Dakota’s Jake Marto. Irish center Kevin Deeth made the team as did Fighting Sioux forward Brett Hextall with Maday chosen to the team and the tournament MVP with three goals on the weekend.
Notre Dame returns home to face the Ferris State Bulldogs on Sat.-Sun., Jan. 9-10. The Saturday game has a 7:05 p.m. start time while Sunday’s game begins at 4:05 p.m.