Oct. 20, 2007
Notre Dame, Ind. – Third-period goals by Anthony Maiani and Tom May snapped a 1-1 tie to give the fifth-ranked Denver Pioneers a 3-1 win over 11th-ranked Notre Dame on Friday night in front of a sellout crowd of 2,763 at the Joyce Center.
Denver’s Chris Nutini scored a first period goal and the Irish got a power-play goal from Ryan Thang in the second to even the score after two periods of play.
The loss drops the Irish to 2-2 on the young season as the earned a split with the Pioneers, winning 4-3 on Thursday night. Denver improves to 3-1 on the season.
For the fourth game this season, the Irish came out sluggish in the opening period as the Pioneers dominated play on the way to an 11-1 shot advantage in the period. Only the strong play of Irish goaltender Jordan Pearce kept the Irish in the game as he made 10 of his 25 saves in the opening period.
The lone goal to get past Pearce came at 15:55 when Chris Nutini scored his first goal of the year off a nice set up by sophomore Rhett Rakhshani.
“That’s the fourth straight game this season that we’ve come out flat to start the game,” said head coach Jeff Jackson. “I’m not sure why, but it hurts us to fall behind early and have to come back. That was our strength last season, getting ahead early. It’s something we have to get worked out.
One area where the Irish have started strong is on the power play where they scored their sixth man-advantage goal of the year in the second period.
Ryan Thang picked up his third goal of the season, second on the power play when he beat Peter Mannino at 10:55 to even the score at 1-1. Erik Condra and Kyle Lawson assisted on the goal.
“(Erik) Condra did a nice job sneaking down backdoor and I walked right in and got a good shot off,” explained Thang on his goal.
The score would remain 1-1 until the 12:24 mark of the third period when Maiani followed the play and fired a rebound past Pearce for his second goal of the year.
Rakhshani broke down the slot with Maiani trailing and got a low, hard shot on goal that Pearce steered aside. The rebound went right to Maiani’s stick and he buried it to give the Pioneers the one-goal lead.
The Irish pressed for the last seven-plus minutes, but Mannino held them off the scoreboard.
With 1:19 left on the clock, Notre Dame took a timeout and pulled Pearce in favor of a sixth attacker. As time wound down, defenseman Andrew Thomas broke up a play inside the Denver blue line. Brock Trotter chipped the puck off the left-wing boards and when Condra stumbled going back for the puck, May got to it first and found the open net for his first goal of the year at 19:43.
On the night, Denver out shot Notre Dame by a 28-20 margin. Pearce finished with 25 saves in the game while Mannino stopped 19 in picking up the win.
Notre Dame continues its busy streak of early season games as they will play their third game in six nights on Tuesday, October 23, when the Irish travel to Bowling Green to open the CCHA schedule against the Bowling Green Falcons. That game will start at 7:05 p.m.
** IRISH NOTES **
• The Irish have now played three of their first four games this season against ranked teams. They are 1-2-0 in those games, having lost to No. 14 Wisconsin and No. 5 Denver while beating the Pioneers for the win.
• Sophomore Stewart Carlin (Jeannette, Pa.) played in his first career game against the Pioneers while fellow sophomore Dan Kissel (Crestwood, Ill.) saw his first action of the season after coming back from an injury.
• Irish special teams had a great weekend against the Pioneers, killing off 11 consecutive penalties while going 3-for-9 on the power play, Notre Dame has now killed 16 straight penalties over the last three games and has given up just one power-play goal in 19 chances (.947). The Irish have scored at least one power-play goal in all four games this season and are 6-for-24 (.250) on the year with the man advantage.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#5/#5 Denver (3-1-0) 1 0 2 - 3#11/#11 Notre Dame (2-2-0) 0 1 0 - 1
ScoringFirst Period: DU: Chris Nutini 1 (Rhett Rakhshani), 15:55.Penalties: DU: 1 for 2 minutes; ND: 3 for 6 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Ryan Thang 3 (Erik Condra, Kyle Lawson), PPG, 10:55.Penalties: DU: 5 for 10 minutes; ND: 3 for 6 minutes.
Third Period: DU: Anthony Maiani 2 (Rakhshani, Patrick Mullen), 12:24; DU: Tom May 1 (Brock Trotter, Andrew Thomas), ENG, 19:43.Penalties: DU: 1 for 2 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Denver 11 - 8 - 9 - 28Notre Dame 1 - 9 - 10 - 20
Goaltender Saves:DU - Peter Mannino (60:00) 1 - 8 - 10 - 19ND - Jordan Pearce (58:58) 10 - 8 - 7 - 25
Power Plays:DU: 0 for 6ND: 1 for 5
Attendance: 2,763 (sellout)