Nov. 19, 2009
East Lansing, Mich. – Two of the nation’s top teams – Notre Dame and Michigan State – got together on Thursday night at Munn Arena and battled to a 1-1 overtime time. The Irish then picked up an extra point in the CCHA standings by winning the shoot out, 2-1, as Ben Ryan and Dan Kissel scored for Notre Dame.
Freshman right wing Kyle Palmieri scored the lone goal for the Irish while Derek Grant got the lone goal for the Spartans. Notre Dame freshman goaltender Mike Johnson stopped 23-of-24 shots on the night while Michigan State’s Drew Palmisano stopped 25-of-26.
In the shoot out, Billy Maday and Palmieri were stopped on the first two shots for the Irish while Johnson stopped Dean Chelios only to see Andrew Rowe beat him with a back-hander from the right side. Ryan kept the Notre Dame hopes alive when he beat Palmisano with a deke to his forehand before sliding a backhander inside the left post. Johnson stopped Nick Sucharski as he lost the puck in his feet before pushing the puck on goal and the shoot out was tied 1-1 after three shots each.
In the sudden-death portion Kissel beat Palmisano with a great move. A left-handed shot, Kissel came down the right side, moved toward the middle before spinning to his right, pulling Palmisano down, then tucking the puck inside the right post. Johnson then stopped Corey Tropp to give the Irish the shoot out win.
The shoot out was the second in a row for the Irish and their third of the season while Michigan State was playing in its second of the year. Notre Dame, ranked 14th in the nation, is now 5-5-3 overall and 2-2-3-2 in the CCHA, good for 11 points. The sixth-ranked Spartans are 9-2-2 on the year and 6-1-2-0 in the conference, good for 20 points.
The first 65 minutes featured strong defense by both squads and excellent penalty killing by the Irish as they were forced to kill a pair of five-minute major penalties in the game.
After a scoreless first period, Notre Dame broke through on Palmisano at the 13:36 mark of the middle period on a play that was all hustle.
Junior defenseman Ian Cole picked up a loose puck in the left wing circle of his own zone and carried it the length of the ice before throwing a centering pass in front of the Michigan State goal. Palmieri trailed the play and drove to the net from the right side. The freshman right wing dove at the last second and deflected Cole’s centering bid just inside the left post past Palmisano to give the Irish a 1-0 lead.
The goal was his third of the season and fellow freshman Riley Sheahan picked up an assist along with Cole.
Late in the period, Ryan Thang was called for a hitting-from-behind penalty on the Spartans Kevin Walrod at 19:05, giving Michigan State a five-minute power play that rolled over to the third period.
The Irish penalty-killing unit, along with goaltender Mike Johnson held MSU to just two shots in killing off the first of two five-minute penalties on the night against Notre Dame..
Michigan State got the equalizer less than two minutes later at 6:26 when freshman Derek Grant shoveled a rebound over Johnson for his sixth goal of the season.
Sucharski took a feed at the left point and fired a shot on the Irish goal. Tropp got his stick on the puck to deflect the shot off Johnson. The rebound bounced to the right side of the crease where Grant dug it out of his skates and flipped it into the goal.
The Irish were whistled for their second five-minute major of the game at 14:15 of the third after Cole leveled sophomore Daultan Leveille along the right wing boards. To add make things tougher, defenseman Kyle Lawson was called for goaltender interference just over a minute later to give the Spartans a 5-on-3 for two minutes that the Irish were able to kill.
Johnson stood tall in goal, stopping nine of 10 shots in the third period and then kicked aside all four Spartan shots in the overtime for 12 of his 23 saves in the final 25 minutes of the game.
For the night, the Irish were 0-for-2 on the power play while the Spartans were 0-for-4. Michigan State had 9:57 of power-play time while Notre Dame had just 2:17.
Game two of the series comes on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 22, when Michigan State and Notre Dame travel to Ft. Wayne, Indiana to play at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. Game time is 4:05 p.m.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 OT - F#14/#14 Notre Dame (5-5-3/2-2-3-2) 0 1 0 0 - 1#6/#6 Michigan State (9-2-2/6-1-2-0) 0 0 1 0 - 1
Scoring
First Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; MSU: 0 for 0 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Kyle Palmieri 3 (Ian Cole, Riley Sheahan), 13:36.
Penalties: ND: 5 for 21 minutes; MSU: 3 for 6 minutes.
Third Period: MSU: Derek Grant 6 (Corey Tropp, Nick Sucharski), 6:26.
Penalties: ND: 3 for 17 minutes; MSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Overtime: No Scoring
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; MSU: 0 for 0 minutes.
Shoot Out:ND - Billy Maday - saveMSU - Dean Chelios - saveND - Kyle Palmieri - saveMSU - Andrew Rowe - goalND - Ben Ryan - goalMSU - Nick Sucharski - saveND - Dan Kissel - goalMSU - Corey Tropp - save
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 12 - 11 - 3 - 0 - 26Michigan State 5 - 5 - 10 - 4 - 24
Goaltender Saves:ND: Mike Johnson (65:00) 5 - 5 - 9 - 4 - 23MSU: Drew Palmisano (64:45) 12 - 10 - 3 - 0 - 25
Power Plays:ND: 0 for 2MSU: 0 for 4
Attendance: 4,683