Jan. 30, 2010
Notre Dame, Ind. – Nebraska-Omaha snapped a 2-1 Notre Dame lead with four unanswered goals on the way to a 5-3 win over the Irish on Friday night in front of a sellout crowd of 3,007 at the Joyce Center.
Senior captain Jeric Agosto led the Mavericks offensively with two goals and an assist for a three-point game. Matt Ambroz, Dan Swanson and John Kemp had single goals as Nebraska-Omaha derailed Notre Dame’s bid to move closer to fourth place in the CCHA standings.
The Irish scored all three goals on the power play with Ben Ryan, Kyle Palmieri and Brett Blatchford all lighting the lamp on eight tries with the man advantage.
The loss dropped Notre Dame into a seventh-place tie with Ohio State as the Irish fell to 11-11-7 overall and 7-8-6-2 in the CCHA, for 29 points. That puts them one behind Nebraska-Omaha as the Mavericks improve to 13-11-5 on the year and 9-10-2-1 for 30 points in conference play. The UNO win snapped a six-game Irish winning streak versus the visiting Mavericks. The loss also dropped the Irish to 6-7-3 at the Joyce Center, just a year after going 13-3-2 on home ice.
“I was really disappointed tonight,” said Irish head coach Jeff Jackson following the game.
“The last couple of Fridays we’ve been really sharp and tonight we were flat. We weren’t as energized as we have been the last two Fridays for whatever reason.”
Jackson also was quick to credit Nebraska-Omaha and the game the Mavericks played.
“I thought they played a very patient game and took advantage of mistakes that we made with the puck. That’s what it boiled down to,” said Jackson.
“I thought Omaha did a nice job of being patient, especially in the neutral zone. They forced some turnovers that led to scoring chances and goals against. We have to do a better job managing the puck.”
The Irish jumped out to a 1-0 lead as they scored the only goal of the first period. The goal came off a face off in the left wing circle with Ben Ryan whipping a wrist shot inside the left post over Jeremie Dupont’s glove hand at 15:18.
Ryan won the faceoff back to defenseman Joe Lavin, who had two assists in the game. Lavin returned it to Ryan on the left wing boards. The junior center moved towards the face-off dot and fired a quick wrist shot past Dupont for his seventh goal of the season and the first power-play goal of the night.
The Mavericks tied the game at 1-1 at the 2:52 mark of the second stanza as Agosto got his first goal of the night off a scramble in front of Irish goaltender Mike Johnson. Defenseman Kyle Ensign fired a shot from the right point that went wide of the goal and came out the other side. Agosto pushed it in front where Dan Swanson got a shot off that Johnson stopped only to see Agosto tuck the rebound in for his 12th goal of the year.
Notre Dame answered back with its second power-play goal of the night that came just as a penalty to Nick Von Bokern was coming to an end.
Ryan moved the puck from the left boards back to Lavin at the left point. The junior defenseman fired a shot that was deflected in front of the goal and then rolled through the crease where Palmieri jumped on it and tucked it inside the right post at 6:03 for his sixth goal of the season and a 2-1 Irish lead.
From there though, the Mavericks took over the game. With the Irish killing a penalty, somehow right wing Matt Ambroz got behind the Irish defense and defenseman Eddie DelGrosso fired a pass from his own goal line to the junior at the Notre Dame blue line. Ambroz raced in on Johnson and snapped a shot past him for his eighth goal of the year at 8:13 to tie the game at 2-2.
Swanson put the Mavericks ahead to stay at 17:07 of the middle period when he swatted the rebound of a shot by Agosto past Johnson for his third goal of the year, giving Nebraska-Omaha the 3-2 lead.
“That power play goal, you can’t let a 150-foot pass create a breakaway, that just shouldn’t happen,” said Jackson.
“We had some breakdowns individually that led to scoring chances and some bad turnovers that led to goals.”
Nebraska-Omaha would tack on two more goals to build the lead to 5-2 in the third period.
Agosto closed out his two-goal night at 11:31 of the third when John Kemp intercepted an errant Notre Dame drop pass inside the Maverick blue line and fed it ahead to Agosto who beat the Irish defense and whipped a shot over Johnson for his 13th goal of the year.
With 1:31 left on the clock, Jackson pulled his goaltender for a sixth attacker but Kemp would add an unassisted empty net goal 19:00 for a 5-2 lead. The goal was Kemp’s fourth of the season.
The Irish finally answered back 25 seconds later as Blatchford scored on the power play with Notre Dame playing six-on-four as Johnson was off for a sixth attacker. The senior defenseman one-timed a shot from the bottom of the right faceoff circle past Jeremie Dupont at 19:25 for his second goal of the season. Ryan Thang and Kyle Lawson picked up assists on the play.
For the night, the two teams each had 34 shots on goal. Dupont finished with 31 saves while Johnson had 29 on the night.
Game two of the important weekend series will be played on Saturday night at the Joyce Center at 8:05 p.m. The game will be televised live by CBS College Sports.
IRISH NOTES:
* On Saturday night, the Irish players will be “giving the shirts off their backs,” following the game. Since last Friday, the commemorative jersey that Notre Dame will wear in just the two games of the series have been available for bidding in an auction with the proceeds going to benefit the Wounded Warriors Project. Fans can bid on the jerseys at und.com/auctions until 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night. Following the game, fans in attendance that have the winning bids will receive their jerseys on the ice.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - FNebraska-Omaha (13-11-5/9-10-2-1) 0 3 2 - 5Notre Dame (11-11-7/7-8-6-2) 1 1 1 - 3
Scoring
First Period: ND: Ben Ryan 7 (Joe Lavin), PPG, 15:18.
Penalties: UNO: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Second Period: UNO: Jeric Agosto 12 (Dan Swanson, Kyle Ensign), 2:52; ND: Kyle Palmieri 6 (Lavin, Ryan), PPG, 6:03; UNO: Matt Ambroz 8 (Eddie DelGrosso, Jeremie Dupont), PPG, 8:13; UNO: Swanson 3 (Agosto, John Kemp), 17:07.
Penalties: UNO: 4 for 8 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Third Period: UNO: Agosto 13 (Kemp), 11:31; UNO: Kemp 4 (unassisted), ENG, 19:00; ND: Brett Blatchford 2 (Ryan Thang, Kyle Lawson), PPG, EX, 19:25.
Penalties: UNO: 3 for 14 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Nebraska-Omaha 9 - 13 - 12 - 34Notre Dame 4 - 19 - 11 - 34
Goaltender Saves:UNO: Jeremie Dupont (60:00) 3 - 18 - 10 - 31ND: Mike Johnson (58:24) 9 - 10 - 10 - 29
Power Plays:UNO: 1 for 4ND: 3 for 8
Attendance: 3,007