Jan. 4, 2008
Marquette, Mich. – The Notre Dame hockey team has seen more than its share of the road since returning to action on Dec. 29 in Tampa. From the warmth of Florida, the Irish found themselves back to CCHA play on Friday night, dropping a 2-1 decision to Northern Michigan at the Berry Events Center.
The Wildcats got goals from Matt Butcher and Mark Olver (ppg) and strong goaltending from Brian Stewart to hand the Irish their second loss in the last three games. The loss to the Wildcats snapped a five-game CCHA winning streak for Notre Dame and a three-game win streak versus Northern Michigan.
Sophomore Dan Kissel got the lone Irish goal and goaltender Jordan Pearce made 19 saves in the loss.
With the loss, Notre Dame falls to 17-6-0 overall and 10-3-0 in conference action. Northern Michigan improves to 9-11-1 on the season and is now 6-9-0 in CCHA play.
The Wildcats scored the lone goal of the first period when Butcher notched his third of the season at the 10:31 mark.
With a delayed penalty coming up on the Notre Dame, Northern Michigan got their goaltender off the ice in favor of a sixth attacker while the Wildcats controlled the puck in the Irish zone. Defenseman Blake Cosgrove fired a shot from the left point that Butcher got his stick on and deflected past Pearce for the goal.
The Irish would fall behind 2-0 in the second period via an Olver power-play goal at 6:30. Olver’s goal marked the fifth power-play goal surrendered by Notre Dame in the last three games after giving up just seven in the first 20 games of the year.
Jared Brown moved the puck from the left wing boards to Olver who was all alone at the top of the right circle. The freshman center one-timed a blast over Pearce’s glove for his sixth goal of the season to give the Wildcats the 2-0 lead.
Notre Dame finally broke through on Stewart in the Wildcat goal when Kissel notched his sixth goal of the season at the 10:34 mark.
Defenseman Kyle Lawson took a pass from Justin White and carried the puck behind the Wildcat goal. The sophomore blue liner found Kissel cutting in from the left circle where he lifted a shot between Stewart’s glove and the left post to cut the lead to 2-1. With the goal, Kissel equaled his career best in goals, equaling his freshman total set in 2006-07.
The one-goal loss for Notre Dame was the second of the year and drops the Irish to 6-2 in one-goal contests. They are now 7-3-0 on the road.
Notre Dame will look to get back on the winning track on Saturday night when the teams close out the two-game series at the Berry Events Center. Game time is 7:35 p.m. Saturday’s game will be televised live by Comcast Local and is available in the South Bend area on Comcast Cable Channel 3.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#6/#6 Notre Dame (17-6-0/10-3-0) 0 1 0 - 1No. Michigan (9-11-1/6-9-0) 1 1 0 - 2
Scoring
First Period: NMU: Matt Butcher 3 (Blake Cosgrove, Billy Smith), 10:31.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; NMU: 2 for 4 minutes.
Second Period: NMU: Mark Olver 6 (Jared Brown, Matt Siddall), PPG, 6:30; ND: Dan Kissel 6 (Kyle Lawson, Justin White), 10:34.
Penalties: ND: 3 for 6 minutes; NMU: 4 for 8 minutes.
Third Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; NMU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 5 - 7 - 7 - 19No. Michigan 9 - 8 - 4 - 21
Goaltender Saves:ND - Jordan Pearce (58:39) 8 - 7 - 4 - 19NMU - Brian Stewart (59:54) 5 - 6 - 7 - 18
Power Plays:ND: 0 for 5NMU: 1 for 3
Attendance: 1,894