Feb. 14, 2014
Providence, R.I. – Senior goaltender Steven Summerhays had a career-high 47 saves and Notre Dame got goals from T.J. Tynan and Sam Herr as the Irish battled ninth-ranked Providence to a 2-2 tie in front of a sellout crowd of 2,978 at Schneider Arena Friday night.
John Gilmour and Nick Saracino scored for Providence as Friar goaltender Jon Gillies made 26 saves in the tie.
The tie is just the second of the year for Notre Dame as the Irish are now 16-12-2 overall and 5-9-2 in Hockey East action, good for 12 points and sole possession of eighth place. Notre Dame is now two points behind seventh-place Vermont (14) with the Catamounts having a game in hand. Providence is 15-8-6 on the season and 7-6-2 in conference action. The Friars have 16 points and are in sixth place, one point behind fifth-place Northeastern (17) and two behind third-place Maine (18) and New Hampshire (18).
The Irish are now 1-6-1 on the road in Hockey East and 0-5-1 in the last six since winning at Vermont on Nov. 2.
Summerhays faced a season-high 49 shots in the game. The previous high was 39 by Massachusetts on Dec. 6th.
“I thought we played a pretty good gritty road game which we had to do against a real good hockey team,” said Irish head coach Jeff Jackson.
“I thought Steven (Summerhays) played pretty well. They do a good job of creating traffic in front of the goal. That’s how they scored the tying goal. We have to do a better job of helping him out in those situations. He made some good saves, he did what he had to do.”
The Friars dominated the shots in the first period, out shooting the Irish by a 16-8 margin. They got the first goal of the game with just 1:13 left in the first period off a deflection in front of Summerhays.
With Providence applying pressure, Gilmour fired a shot from the left point that appeared to be going wide. Defenseman Eric Johnson tried to knock it down with his glove and it deflected past Summerhays to make it 1-0. The goal was Gilmour’s fifth of the season and they Friars had the lead after 20 minutes.
Notre Dame tied the game at 6:04 of the second period when Tynan notched his eighth of the season, beating Gillies on a breakaway.
With the Irish killing a penalty to Tynan, Mario Lucia poke checked the puck away from a Friar forward. The puck went to Vince Hinostroza who caught Tynan coming out of the penalty box. The senior center moved in on Gillies and snapped a wrist shot from the slot over his stick hand to tie the game at 1-1.
The Irish took a 2-1 lead at 13:49 as Herr snapped a seven-game goal less drought, deflecting a Stephen Johns shot over Gillies for his 13th of the season. Tynan also assisted on the goal, collecting the 100th assist of his career. He is just one of 11 players in Irish history to record 100 assists.
The lead did not last long as Providence got the equalizer just 1:11 later when Saracino scored his sixth of the season, getting to a rebound at 13:49 to make it 2-2.
Defenseman Steven Shamanski fired a shot from the left point that two Irish defenders went down to block. Summerhays made the save, but the rebound came to Saracino who tucked the rebound past Summerhays to even the score.
For the game, Notre Dame was 0-5 on the power play while Providence was 0-3.
“We need to do a better job on the power play. We scored once last week but we need to do a better job of getting pucks to the net and gettng traffic to the net,” said Jackson.
In overtime, the Friars would out shoot the Irish by a 5-0 margin but Summerhays came up big to hold on to the 2-2 tie.
The two teams will meet in the second game of the series at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 15 at PC’s on-campus arena – Schneider Arena.
IRISH NOTES:
— Senior center T.J. Tynan had a goal and an assist in the game to give him 54 goals and 100 assists for his career. His 154 points moves him into 14th on Notre Dame’s all-time points list, passing Jamie Ling `96. His 100 career assists makes him the 11th Notre Dame player to have 100 assists in his career.
— Mario Lucia’s assist on Tynan’s goal gives him 12 helpers this season, a career high for the sophomore left wing. He now has career highs in goals (15), assists (12), points (27), power-play goals (7) and game winners (3).
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 OT - F#rv/#20 Notre Dame (16-12-2/5-9-2) 0 1 1 0 - 2#9/#9 Providence (15-8-6/7-6-2) 1 0 1 0 - 2
Scoring
1st Period: PC: John Gilmour 5 (Brandon Tanev, Mark Jankowski), 18:47
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; PC: 1 for 2 minutes.
2nd Period: ND: T.J. Tynan 8 (Vince Hinostroza, Mario Lucia), 6:04.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; PC: 2 for 4 minutes.
3rd Period: ND: Sam Herr 13 (Stephen Johns, Tynan), 12:38; PC: Nick Saracino 6 (Steven Shamanski), 13:49.
Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; PC: 2 for 4 minutes.
Overtime: No Scoring.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; PC: o for 0 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 8 - 9 - 11 - 0 - 28Providence 16 - 17 - 11 - 5 - 49
Goaltender Saves:ND: Steven Summerhays (65:00) 15 - 17 - 10 - 5 - 47PC: Jon Gillies (65:00) 8 - 8 - 10 - 0 - 26
Power Plays:ND: 0 for 5PC: 0 for 3
Attendance: 2,978 (sellout)