Feb. 8, 2009
Columbus, Ohio – Second-period goals by John Albert, Shane Sims and Tyler Stefishen and a 32-save performance by goaltender Dustin Carlson led the Ohio State Buckeyes to a 4-1 win over Notre Dame on Sunday afternoon at Value City Arena.
The three goals wiped out a 1-0 Irish lead as Christiaan Minella scored the lone Notre Dame goal on the afternoon. Mathieu Picard closed the scoring with an empty-net goal for Ohio State. Freshman Zac Dalpe had three assists in the game for Ohio State.
The loss gave the Irish a weekend split with the Buckeyes after Notre Dame rallied on Friday night for a 4-3 overtime win. It also snapped a 12-game Irish road unbeaten streak (11-0-1) as they had not lost a road game since the season-opener at Denver on Oct. 11. Notre Dame is now 11-2-1 away from the Joyce Center.
Second-ranked Notre Dame is now 21-5-3 overall and 15-4-3-3 in the CCHA, good for 36 points in the standings. The Irish lead second-place Miami by four points with six games left to play in the regular season. With the weekend split and the results around the conference this weekend, Notre Dame has clinched a first-round bye in the CCHA playoffs and will host a best-of-three, second-round series at the Joyce Center on the weekend of March 13-15.
With the win, Ohio State is now 18-9-3 overall and 11-8-3-3 in the league for 28 points.
Sunday’s game started with a scoreless first period as each team had 11 shots but failed to score in the opening 20 minutes.
Minella broke the scoreless tie with a power-play goal at 7:44 of the second period, his sixth goal of the season and the fourth power-play tally for the Irish on the weekend.
Freshman Billy Maday moved the puck from the right point to the slot to Kevin Deeth who fired a wrist shot at Carlson in the OSU goal. The Buckeye goaltender made the initial save but Minella banged away at the rebound, jamming the puck into the net for the 1-0 lead.
The Irish didn’t get to enjoy the lead for too long as Ohio State answered back with three goals in the period with Albert tying the game at 1-1 just 39 seconds later at 8:23.
Dalpe got a shot off from the left circle that Pearce kicked to the right side of the goal. Albert was there to flip the puck past the diving Irish goaltender for his 10th of the season.
The Buckeyes took the lead at the 17:00 mark on a power-play tally by Sims. The big defenseman hammered a shot from the left point through a screen past Pearce to make it 2-1. The goal was Sims fourth of the year with Dalpe and Albert setting up the score.
The lead would go to 3-1 just 1:35 later when Stefishen scored on a rebound at 18:35. Again Dalpe was in the middle of the play as his shot from the slot was stopped by Pearce with the rebound going to Stefishen. The goal was the fifth of the season for the freshman left wing.
The Irish fired 10 shots at Carlson in the third but could not put the puck past the sophomore net minder. With just over two minutes left in the final period, Notre Dame pulled Jordan Pearce in goal for a sixth attacker only to see the Buckeyes score into an empty net as Picard took a pass from Sergio Somma and fired from center ice into the empty cage for his fifth of the season at 17:57 for the 4-1 final.
In the game, Notre Dame out shot Ohio State, 33-30. Pearce finished with 26 saves in the game in picking up just his fifth loss of the season.
The Irish were 1-for-6 on the power play after going 3-for-5 on Friday night. The Buckeyes were 1-for-4 with the man advantage.
Notre Dame returns home for a weekend series against Northern Michigan at the Joyce Center on Fri.-Sat., Feb. 13-14. Game time on Friday night is 8:05 p.m. with Saturday’s game starting at 7:05 p.m.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#2/#2 Notre Dame (21-5-3/15-4-3-3) 0 1 0 - 1#15/#15 Ohio State (18-9-3/11-8-3-3) 0 3 1 - 4
Scoring
First Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; OSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Christiaan Minella 6 (Kevin Deeth, Billy Maday), PPG, 7:44; OSU: John Albert 10 (Zac Dalpe, Taylor Stefishen), 8:23; OSU: Shane Sims 4 (Dalpe, Albert), PPG, 17:00; OSU: Stefishen 3 (Dalpe, Albert), 18:35.
Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; OSU: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: OSU: Mathieu Picard 5 (Sergio Somma), ENG, 17:57.
Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; OSU: 3 for 6 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 11 - 12 - 10 - 33Ohio State 11 - 12 - 7 - 30
Goaltender Saves:ND - Jordan Pearce (59:29) 11 - 9 - 6 - 26OSU - Dustin Carlson (60:00) 11 - 11 - 10 - 32
Power Plays:ND: 1 for 6
OSU: 1 for 4
Attendance: 6,031