Nov. 5, 2002
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- The Series: Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3-2-2/2-2-0) vs. Miami RedHawks (8-2-0/5-1-0)
- Date/Site/Times: Fri.-Sat., Nov. 8-9 – Joyce Center (2,713) – 7:05 p.m.
- Broadcast Information: Notre Dame hockey will be simulcast live on WDND South Bend’s ESPN Radio 1620 and WDNV 1490 with Mike Lockert and Tom Nevala calling all the action. Irish hockey can also be heard live via the internet at www.und.com.
BACK TO CCHA ACTION: Notre Dame returns to league play this weekend when the Miami RedHawks visit the Joyce Center on Fri.-Sat., Nov. 8-9. Game time both nights is 7:05 p.m. The Irish will face a RedHawk team that is in the midst of a five-game CCHA-winning streak and is 8-2-0 overall and 5-1-0 in league play. Miami comes into the weekend ranked 14th in both the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine and the U.S. College Hockey Online polls. Last weekend, while the Irish were skating to a 3-3 tie versus third-ranked Boston College, Miami was sweeping Bowling Green at home, 3-2 and 6-1. That moves the RedHawks into second place in the CCHA with 10 points, just two behind first-place Ferris State. Following this weekend’s games with Miami, the Irish are off the weekend of Nov. 15-16. They then travel to Michigan (Nov. 22-23) and Alaska Fairbanks (Nov. 29-30) before returning home to face Bowling Green on Sat.-Sun., Dec. 7-8 at the Joyce Center.
IRISH VERSUS REDHAWKS: The two teams split a pair of games last January in Oxford, Ohio. Aaron Gill’s overtime goal gave the Irish a 4-3 overtime victory in the Friday night contest. The following night, the RedHawks bounced back for a 7-3 win. The two teams have split the last 10 meetings, 4-4-2. The last time Miami visited the Joyce Center, the RedHawks swept the Irish5-2 and 4-1. The last time the Irish won at home versus Miami was a 5-2 win on Oct. 28, 1999. In the history of this series, the Irish have never won more than two in a row versus the RedHawks.
SCOUTING THE REDHAWKS: Miami comes into this weekend’s series in the midst of a five-game winning streak that includes a win over Nebraska-Omaha, two over Northern Michigan and two over Bowling Green. The RedHawks are averaging 5.1 goals per game while giving up just 2.1. They are outshooting the opposition by a 40.6 to 19.5 shots per game margin. The RedHawks have five players in their lineup with 10 points or more led by Mike Kompon (7-11-18) who is second among CCHA scorers to Ferris State’s Chris Kunitz. Kompon is followed by Greg Hogeboom (6-9-15), Derek Edwardson (4-9-13), Nick Jardine (7-3-10) and Vince Pulera (5-5-10). Miami’s power play has clicked at a 25.4% success rate (17-for-67) while the RedHawks penalty-killing unit has killed 47-of-57 chances (82.5%). Senior goaltender David Burleigh has played every minute in goal through the first 10 games and is 8-2-0 with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .897 save percentage. For more information on the Miami University RedHawks, contact their website at www.muredhawks.com.
BOSTON COLLEGE RECAP: The Irish battled third-ranked Boston College to a 3-3 tie on Nov. 1 in front of a soldout Joyce Center. Notre Dame jumped out to a 2-0 lead midway through the second period on goals by Alex Lalonde (Newmarket, Ont.) and Yan Stastny (St. Louis, Mo.). Chris Collins’ goal at 11:19 of the second period cut the lead to 2-1 and the Eagles tied the score at 2:50 of the third on a Brett Peterson goal. The Eagles took their only lead of the night at 16:29 when Ryan Murphy rapped a shot past Morgan Cey (So., Wilkie, Sask.) for a 3-2 advantage. As time ran down, the Irish pulled Cey in favor of a sixth attacker and it paid off for the second time this season as Rob Globke (Jr., West Bloomfield, Mich.) fed Aaron Gill (Jr., Rochester, Minn.) in front and the junior center lifted a backhander over BC goaltender Matti Kaltiainen at 19:18 for the tying goal. On the night, Boston College outshot the Irish 38-29. Cey finished with 35 saves while Kaltiainen made 26. Boston College was 0-for-5 on the power play while Notre Dame was 0-for-4.
INJURY LIST: Notre Dame will be without the services of freshman left wing Mike Walsh (Northville, Mich.) who suffered a broken jaw in the preseason game with Toronto (Oct. 4). Walsh is expected to miss six-to-eight weeks with the injury. Senior center Jake Wiegand (Sr., Northville, Mich.) will miss 4-6 weeks with a sprained left knee suffered on Oct. 19 at Western Michigan.
SOLDOUT SHOW: The Notre Dame-Boston College game on Nov. 1 was played in front of a sellout crowd of 2,763. That’s the largest crowd to see the Irish play since 2,749 saw the Irish and Eagles play on Nov. 10, 2000. The last time the Irish played in front of a bigger crowd was March 3, 1995 when a sellout crowd of 3,310 saw the Irish defeat Illinois Chicago, 5-2. The following season, new seating was installed in the Joyce Center, reducing capacity to 2,667. In the 2000-01 season, capacity was increased to 2,713 due to relocating the band’s seats.
PULLING THE GOALTENDER: Notre Dame is 2-for-2 when they pull the goaltender late in a game in favor of a sixth skater. Aaron Gill got the game-tying goal with 42 seconds left and Morgan Cey on the bench Nov. 1 to send the Boston College game into overtime at 3-3. On Oct. 11, Yan Stastny performed the heroics versus Minnesota-Duluth. With Cey on the bench, Stastny scored with 57 seconds left to tie that game at 2-2.
MULTIPLE-POINT SCORERS: Aaron Gill and Michael Chin (Sr., Urbana, Ill.) each picked up their second multiple-point games of the year versus Boston College. Gill collected a goal and an assist in the tie, while Chin assisted on a pair of goals. Both players other multiple-point games were of the three-point variety. Gill collected a hat trick on Oct. 19 at Western Michigan and Chin had a goal and two assists on Oct. 18 versus the Broncos.
MORGAN’S BACK: After giving up nine goals in his previous two starts (five at Western Michigan – Oct. 19 and four vs. Ferris State – Oct. 25), sophomore goaltender Morgan Cey rebounded to make 35 saves and hold Boston College to three goals in the 3-3 tie on Nov. 1. Prior to the nine-goal outburst, Cey had given up just 23 goals in his previous 13 games (back to Feb. 8, 2002). Since Feb. 9 of last season, Cey is 9-3-2 with a 2.05 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage.
FIT TO BE TIED: The 3-3 tie versus Boston College was Notre Dame’s second tie of the season and they are 0-0-2 in those games. Since the 1999-2000 season, the Irish are 5-2-22 in overtime games.
POWER OUTAGE: Two of the better power plays in the nation were shutdown last Friday when Notre Dame faced Boston College. The Irish came into the game scoring at a 24.2% (8-for-33) clip while Boston College lit the lamp at a 31.2% rate (10-for-33). The two teams went 0-for-9 in the contest with the Irish 0-for-4 with the man-advantage and the Eagles 0-for-5 on the night.
TURNING ON THE POWER: After scoring at a 14.6% clip on the power play last year, the Irish have improved through the first seven games of the season to a 21.6% success rate (8-for-37). The Irish are 6-for-19 (31.5%) over the last four games despite going 0-for-8 over the last two games.
IRISH STREAKS:
Point Streaks
Tom Galvin has a two-game point streak (0-2-2) and points in three of his last four games (0-4-4).
Neil Komadoski has points in three of his last four games (1-4-5).
Rob Globke has points in five of his last six games (6-4-10)
Goal Streaks
Yan Stastny has goals in three of his last four games (3-1-4).
OUTSHOT: Notre Dame has been outshot in five of its first seven games this season. On the year, opponents have recorded 240 shots (34.3 shots per game) on goal to 213 (30.4 shots per game) for the Irish.
DEFENSIVE SCORING: Junior defenseman Neil Komadoski (Chesterfield, Mo.) is off to a fast start this season with a goal and six assists to tie for second on the team in scoring with seven points. His six assists tie Connor Dunlop (Sr., St. Louis, Mo.) for the lead in that category. Komadoski’s best season came last year when he had two goals and nine assists for 11 points. Komadoski already has three games this season with two or more points.
GILL THE THRILL: Junior center Aaron Gill has provided his heroics twice for the Irish this season. The Rochester, Minn., native scored with 42 seconds left to give Notre Dame a 3-3 tie with third-ranked Boston College on Nov. 1. Earlier in the season (Oct. 19), Gill recorded the first hat trick of his career in Notre Dame’s 8-5 win over Western Michigan. Gill scored two power-play goals and had the game-winning tally among his three lamplighters.
RED HOT: Junior Rob Globke has recorded 10 points (6g, 4a) this season, getting them in five of his last six games. Globke set up Aaron Gill’s game-tying goal with 42 seconds left in the 3-3 tie with Boston College. Included in his 10 points are a four-point game (3g, 1a) game at Minnesota-Duluth on Oct. 12 and a three-point game (2g, 1a) against Western Michigan (Oct. 18). The last time a Notre Dame player scored five goals over a two-game period was during the 1994-95 season when Tim Harberts scored four goals in a game versus Waterloo (Oct. 21) and then scored a single-goal versus Lake Superior (Oct. 28). The last time a Notre Dame player had seven-points in a two-game span was last season when Connor Dunlop (Sr., St. Louis, Mo.) had two goals and five assists in a weekend series versus Alaska Fairbanks (Feb. 1-2, 2002). For his career, Globke now has 12 multiple-point games and seven multiple-goal games.
HAT TRICKS: Junior center Aaron Gill scored three goals for the Irish in the 8-5 win at Western Michigan on Oct. 19. The hat trick was the first of his collegiate career and marked the second time in the first four games that Notre Dame recorded a hat trick. Rob Globke scored three times in the 5-3 win at Minnesota-Duluth. This marks the first time since the 1994-95 season that two Notre Dame players have recorded hat tricks in the same season. Tim Harberts (four goals) and Ben Nelsen each had hat tricks in October of 1994.
EIGHT IS GREAT: The eight goals scored by the Irish in the 8-5 win at Western Michigan are the most goals scored by the Irish in a game since Nov. 20, 1998 in a 9-5 win over Western Michigan. That covers a span of 150 games.
NOT SO GREAT EIGHT: Ferris State’s Chris Kunitz scored eight points in the weekend (Oct. 25-26) series versus the Irish. The senior left wing recorded two goals and two assists in each game. The last time Notre Dame gave up eight points in a CCHA series was during the 1981-82 season when Western Michigan’s Ross Fitzpatrick recorded six goals and two assists on Feb. 26-27, 1982. Fitzpatrick had three goals and one assist in each game.
NO BULL: Notre Dame will face teams with the nickname Bulldogs eight times this season. The Irish opened the season with two games versus the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. They will face the Ferris State Bulldogs four times this season as members of the CCHA. In January, the Irish will play host to the Yale Bulldogs with one game (Jan. 17) at the Joyce Center and one game (Jan. 18) at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.
SWEEPS: Notre Dame’s series sweep of Western Michigan gives the Irish three consecutive CCHA series sweeps going back to the 2001-02 season. The Irish ended the season by sweeping Lake Superior at Sault Ste. Marie and then Bowling Green at the Joyce Center. That marks the first time in Notre Dame’s 11 years in the CCHA that the Irish have won three consecutive league series. The last time Notre Dame won three consecutive weekend series was during the 1990-91 season with sweeps versus Mercyhurst, Alabama-Huntsville and UMass-Boston. Notre Dame’s streak of three consecutive regular-season series sweeps came to an end versus Ferris State when the Bulldogs took 5-2 and 4-1 verdicts from the Irish on Oct. 25-26.
CLOSING THE DEAL: After seeing their 50-game unbeaten streak (42-0-8) when leading after two periods in the second game of last season, the Irish went 16-0-1 over the final 17 games they led after two periods. This season, the Irish are 2-0-1 when they lead after two periods of play. Since Jan. 9, 1998, the Irish are 60-2-10 when leading after two periods of play. During that period, Boston College has handed the Irish a loss and a two ties.
WROBO-MATIC: Senior left wing John Wroblewski (Neenah, Wis.) has gotten his final season off to a fast start with four goals and three assists for seven points in his first seven games. He has recorded a pair of three-point games in Notre Dame’s first four games this season. On Oct. 12, he recorded two goals and an assist in a 5-3 win at Minnesota-Duluth. He followed that with a goal and two assists in the 8-5 win at Western Michigan.
GETTING IT DUN(LOP): Senior center Connor Dunlop (St. Louis, Mo.) recorded the sixth game of his career with three or more points in the 4-2 win over Western Michigan (Oct. 18). The Irish all-CCHA and all-American candidate now has six assists in the first seven games of the season. That gives him 67 assists for his career. He is now 14 points short of the 100- point mark in his career with 19 goals and 67 assists for 86 career points.
WOW ZOW: Notre Dame goaltender Tony Zasowski (Sr., Darien, Ill.) made his first start since Dec. 1, 2001 in the second game of the weekend series at Minnesota-Duluth. After giving up two first-period goals, Zasowski stopped 30 of 31 shots over the final two periods for the 5-3 win. On the night, Zasowski made 39 saves, the second highest total of his career. Zasowski made 29 saves in his second appearance of the year, a 4-1 loss to Ferris State on Oct. 26.
ROAD WARRIORS: The Irish have picked up where they left off last season when it comes to success on the road. After three road games this season, the Irish are 2-0-1 away from home. Last season, Notre Dame was 10-8-3 on the road for their first winning road record since 1997-98 when the Irish were 12-11-0 away from the Joyce Center.
IRON MEN: Senior center Jake Wiegand saw his consecutive games streak of 79 straight games snapped on Oct. 25 versus Ferris State. The 6-3, 218-pound forward went down with a sprained left knee in Notre Dame’s 8-5 win at Western Michigan (Oct. 19). Defenseman Evan Nielsen (Sr., Evanston, Ill.) now has the team lead having played in 82 consecutive games. Junior defenseman Brett Lebda has played in 80 of 84 career games at Notre Dame. The lone games he has missed came between 12/28 – 1/5 of last season while he was playing for the U.S. Junior National Team in the World Junior Championships. The Notre Dame record for consecutive games played is 103 and was set by Ryan Dolder over three seasons. The Notre Dame record for games played is held by Dan Carlson who played in 158 of a possible 160 games between 1997-2001. The only two he missed came while he was playing for the U.S. Junior National Team in 1998-99.
Current Notre Dame consecutive game streaks:
Evan Nielsen – 82 games
John Wroblewski – 80 games
Tom Galvin – 63 games
Aaron Gill – 55 games
WASTING LITTLE TIME: Freshman right wing Tim Wallace (Anchorage, Alaska) wasted little time scoring his first collegiate goal in the 2-2 tie at Minnesota-Duluth. Wallace scored the first goal of his career and the first goal of the season for the Irish on the first shot of his collegiate career. The goal came at 9:12 of the first period and tied the score at 1-1. He added his second career goal in the first period of ND’s 8-5 win over Western Michigan. That goal snapped a 1-1 tie and put the Irish ahead to stay in the game. Through seven games this season, Wallace has two goals and two assists for four points in his rookie season.
CENTER OF ATTENTION: Irish center Connor Dunlop is coming off the best season of his career and the best year for a Notre Dame hockey player since 1991-92. Dunlop capped his junior year by leading the Irish in scoring with nine goals and 36 assists for 45 points. The 36 assists were the most since Curtis Janicke recorded 38 in 1991-92 and the 45 points were the most since Janicke’s 50-point campaign in ’91-’92.
An all-CCHA and all-American candidate this season, Dunlop was fourth overall among CCHA scorers and third in assists. In the 28-game regular season league rankings, Dunlop was second in points (36) and assists (27).
An honorable mention all-CCHA selection in 2001-02, Dunlop turned in a seven-point (two goals, five assists) weekend series versus Alaska Fairbanks (Feb. 1-2) including his second four-point game of the season. For the year, Dunlop recorded two four-point games, three with three-points and 13 multiple-point games in all.
Dunlop is off to a strong start this season with six assists in his first four games, including a three-point effort on Oct. 18 versus Western Michigan.
SEN-CEY-SATIONAL: Notre Dame goaltender Morgan Cey was among the top freshmen netminders in the country during the 2001-02 season. Cey turned in a 15-14-3 record with a 2.72 goals against average and a school-record .910 save percentage. He also equalled a Notre Dame mark with two shutouts. Over the final nine games of the year, Cey was 7-2 with a 1.77 goals against average. Cey backstopped the Irish to their playoff series win at Nebraska-Omaha. In three games covering 208:49 minutes, Cey gave up five goals, while stopping 99 of 104 shots for a 1.49 goals against and a .951 save percentage.
THE CAPTAINS: Senior defenseman Evan Nielsen will serve as team captain for the second consecutive season in 2002-03. He is the first two-time captain since Steve Noble handled the job in 1996-97 and 1997-98. He becomes the 12th two-time captain in the program’s 35th season. One of the CCHA’s top returning defensemen, Nielsen had a career season during 2001-02 with seven goals and 13 assists for 20 points while being +5 on the year. Serving as alternate captains this season will be senior center Connor Dunlop and junior center Aaron Gill. Dunlop served as an alternate captain in 2001-02 and had the best season of his career. Dunlop had nine goals and 36 assists for 45 points with the assist and point totals being the most for a Notre Dame player since 1991-92. An honorable mention all-CCHA performer, Dunlop was fourth among CCHA scorers overall and finished second in 28 league games with nine goals and 27 assists for 36 points. Gill has been a steady performer in his first two seasons with the Irish. He is coming off an eight-goal, 14-assist season. Known for his non-stop hustle, Gill is one of the teams top faceoff men and penalty killers.
ALL IN THE FAMILY: Three current members of the Notre Dame hockey program – senior center Connor Dunlop, junior defenseman Neil Komadoski and sophomore forward Yan Stastny – hold a unique connection, as each of their fathers enjoyed lengthy careers in the National Hockey League.
Blake Dunlop played 11 seasons in pro hockey (’73-’84), including NHL stints with the Minnesota North Stars (’73-’77), Philadelphia Flyers (’77-’79), St. Louis Blues (’79-’83) and Detroit Red Wings (’83-’84), while totaling 130G-274A in 550 career NHL games.
Neil Komadoski, Sr., played eight NHL seasons as a defenseman with the Los Angeles Kings (’72-’78) and the St. Louis Blues (’77-’80), totaling 16G-76A and 632 penalty minutes in 501 career games.
Peter Stastny played 15 seasons in the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques (’80-’90), the New Jersey Devils (’90-’93) and the St. Louis Blues (’93-’95). He is currently the 23rd all-time scorer in league history with 450 goals, 789 assists and 1,239 points in 997 games. A six-time NHL all-star, Stastny is the highest scoring European-born player in NHL history and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998. The 1981 NHL rookie-of-the-year, Stastny is currently a special assignment scout for the St. Louis Blues.
Notre Dame’s NHL connection doesn’t stop there.
Sophomore forward Alexander “Newsy” Lalonde (Newmarket, Ont.) also has NHL lineage as he is a distant relative of NHL pioneer and Hall of Famer, Edouard “Newsy” Lalonde. Lalonde played for the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Americans between 1917 and 1927 for a total of six seasons in which he scored 124 goals and 41 assists for 165 points in 99 games.
ALL IN THE FAMILY, PART II: Two freshmen hockey players – Rory Walsh (Milton, Mass.) and Mike Walsh have fathers who attended Notre Dame. Rory Walsh’s father, Brian (’77), was an all-American hockey player for the Irish. A center, the elder Walsh is Notre Dame’s all-time leading scorer after recording 234 career points on 89 goals and 145 assists. Mike Walsh’s father, Max, (’74) was an offensive lineman on the Notre Dame football team and a member of the 1973 national championship team. Adding to the Irish family theme, sophomore left wing Yan Stastny’s (St. Louis, Mo.) younger sister, Kristina, is a freshman with the Notre Dame women’s tennis team while junior Aaron Gill’s younger brother Tony gives the Irish their ninth brother combo in the program’s history.
CCHA ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM: David Inman was named to the CCHA’s nine-man 2001-02 all-Academic Team, making Notre Dame the CCHA’s only school to produce an all-Academic honoree in each of the last seven seasons. Inman finished second for the Irish in scoring with 19 goals and 18 assists for 37 points and was also an honorable mention all-CCHA selection. Inman turned in a 3.54 grade point average in finance during his Notre Dame career. The Irish have produced eight previous first team CCHA All-Academic selections since rejoining the CCHA in ’92-’93: Curtis Janicke and Carl Picconatto (’92-’93), Garry Gruber (’95-’96), Steve Noble (’96-’97, ’97-’98), Forrest Karr and Aniket Dhadphale (’98-’99), Andy Jurkowski (99′-’00) and Dan Carlson (2000-01). During that 10-year span, only Western Michigan (11) has produced more CCHA All-Academic selections than Notre Dame’s 10.
ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICANS: Notre Dame saw its streak of five consecutive Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-Americans snapped in 2001-02. Senior right wing David Inman (Toronto, Ont.) was selected as a District V selection for the At-Large team but did not make it to the national team. Prior to 2001-02, four Irish hockey players made the team over a five-year period.
2000-01: Dan Carlson (3rd team)
1999-00: Andy Jurkowski (3rd team)
1998-99: Forrest Karr (2nd team)
1997-98: Steve Noble (1st team)
1996-97: Steve Noble (2nd team)
HOMETOWNS: The 2002-03 Notre Dame hockey team features players from 10 states and four Canadian provinces – Alberta, British Columbia,Ontario and Saskat-chewan. In the seven-year tenure of head coach Dave Poulin, the Notre Dame hockey letter winners have hailed from 20 different states and provinces – those listed below, plus: Colorado, Delaware, New Jersey, Prince Edward Island and Quebec.
2002-03 Notre Dame Hockey
– By State or Province:
Illinois (5): Michael Chin, Brett Lebda, Evan Nielsen, Tony Zasowski, Joe Zurenko
Michigan (5): Rob Globke, Jake Wiegand, Derek Smith, Chris Trick, Mike Walsh
Minnesota (3): Kyle Dolder, Aaron Gill, Tony Gill
Missouri (3): Connor Dunlop, Neil Komadoski, Yan Stastny
Alaska (1): Tim Wallace
Alberta (1): Brad Wanchulak
British Columbia (1): Matt Amado
Maryland (1): T.J. Mathieson
Massachusetts (1): Rory Walsh
New York (1): Tom Galvin
North Dakota (1): Cory McLean
Ontario (1): Alex Lalonde
Saskatchewan (1): Morgan Cey
Wisconsin (1): John Wroblewski
NHL DRAFTEES: Notre Dame had three players selected in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft in June. Junior Rob Globke (West Bloomfield, Mich.) led the way as he was selected in the second round, 40th overall, by the Florida Panthers. That is the highest any Notre Dame hockey player has ever been selected in the NHL Draft. In the fifth round, freshman Mike Walsh was selected 143rd overall by the New York Rangers. The third member of the Notre Dame roster picked was sophomore Yan Stastny who was selected in the eighth round, 259th overall, by the Boston Bruins. They join senior Evan Nielsen (Atlanta Thrashers, 8th round, 2000 Draft) and junior defenseman Neil Komadoski (Ottawa Senators, 3rd round, 2001 Draft) as Notre Dame players selected by the NHL.
PATRIOTIC GROUP: Notre Dame’s current roster includes eight players who have past experience with USA Hockey, as members of the National Team Development Program (NTDP) and/or the National Junior Team. Notre Dame ranks second with 10 NTDP alums, one behind Michigan State (11), while Minnesota has nine. Notre Dame’s contingent includes seniors Michael Chin, John Wroblewski and Connor Dunlop, juniors Rob Globke, Neil Komadoski and Brett Lebda, sophomore Derek Smith and freshman forward Tim Wallace.
Former Irish players Brett Henning and Paul Harris also were members of the Developmental program prior to playing at Notre Dame.
Globke and Lebda also played for Team USA at last year’s World Junior Championships. For Globke, it was his second appearance for Team USA and he scored two goals with one assist in helping the U.S. team to a 4-1-2 record and fifth place. Lebda made his first appearance and scored a goal in seven tournament games. The Irish have had at least one player on the National Junior Team in each of the last six years.
NOTRE DAME PLAYERS ON JUNIOR NATIONAL TEAM – (since ’96-’97):
Ben Simon – 1996-97, 1997-98
Joe Dusbabek – 1997-98
Dan Carlson – 1998-99
Brett Henning – 1999-2000
Connor Dunlop – 1999-00, 2000-01
David Inman – 1999-2000
Rob Globke – 2000-01, 2001-02
Brett Lebda – 2001-02
RIVALRY CLUSTERS: The CCHA starts its new scheduling format this season as the league’s 12 teams are grouped in “rivalry pairings.” In the new pairings, Notre Dame is paired with Bowling Green. The league’s other pairings include Michigan-Michigan State, Miami-Ohio State, Lake Superior State-Northern Michigan, Ferris State-Western Michigan and Alaska Fairbanks-Nebraska-Omaha.
The conference will continue to use the 28-game three-cluster format that was implemented three years ago to determine the regular-season champion. The teams will be divided into three clusters made up of two of the above pairings with each team playing the other three members of its cluster four times (twice at home and twice on the road). Each team hosts two teams and visits the other two from each of the other clusters. While the schedule is designed for two-game weekend series, some teams have taken advantage of the option to play home-and-home series when geographically possible.
In 2002-03, Notre Dame will play Bowling Green, Ferris State and Western Michigan four times with two games at home and two away. The Irish will also host two-game series with Lake Superior State, Miami, Michigan State and Ohio State while traveling for two games to Alaska Fairbanks, Michigan, Nebraska-Omaha and Northern Michigan.
WINNING STREAKS: Notre Dame ran off five straight wins from Feb. 9 through Mar. 2 to close the 2001-02 regular season. That five-game win streak was the longest for the Irish since a five-game streak (Jan. 3-Jan. 16) during the 1998-99 season. All five wins came versus CCHA opponents which equals Notre Dame’s longest CCHA winning streak in their 12 seasons as a member of the CCHA. The Irish have done it twice – Oct. 9-23, 1998 and Jan. 30-Feb. 13, 1982.
PRESEASON POLLS: The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) announced the results of the coaches and the media’s preseason polls at it’s annual Media Day in Detroit on Sept. 17. In the annual polls, Notre Dame was picked to finish seventh by both the coaches and the media. In fact, the both polls were identical from top to bottom as both groups selected defending champion Michigan to defend its title. In the coaches poll, Michigan received eight of 12 first-place votes with Michigan State getting two and Northern Michigan and Ohio State each getting one. The media’s poll (with 72 members of the media voting) saw Michigan get 39 first-place votes, Michigan State 22, Northern Michigan 7 and Ohio State 3.