Jan. 8, 2005
Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. – Lake Superior’s Jeff Rainville scored on a rebound 56 seconds into overtime to cap a Lakers’ late game rally as they pulled out a 2-1 overtime win Saturday night at Taffy Abel Arena.
Rainville’s goal came when he slid a shot under Morgan Cey off a feed from Nathan Ward in front of the Irish goal for the victory.
The Lakers had tied the game with just 38 seconds left in regulation as Matt Restoule deflected Kory Scoran’s shot from the left point past Cey to tie the game 1-1 after pulling goaltender Jeff Jakaitis in favor of a sixth attacker.
The loss drops the Irish to 5-11-5 on the year and 3-9-4 in the CCHA. The Lakers improve to 7-11-2 overall and 6-6-2 in league play.
The Irish goal-scoring struggles continued as they poured 42 shots on goal, but could dent Jakaitis just once in the Lakers’ goal on the night.
The Irish have now scored just five goals in the four games played in the 2005 portion of the schedule and are 1-2-1 over that span.
After a scoreless first period that saw Notre Dame fire 18 shots at the Laker goal, the Irish finally broke through on goaltender Jeff Jakaitis for the first goal of the game at 16:55 of the second period on defenseman Chris Trick’s first goal of the season.
Defenseman Noah Babin moved the puck through center to Cory McLean carried the puck down the left side and fired a shot that went wide. The senior center was able to track down the rebound in the right corner. As he skated the puck out of the corner, he found Trick at the top of the right circle. Trick’s quick wrist shot beat Jakaitis low to the ice inside the left post.
For the night, the Irish out shot Lake Superior by a 42-31 margin. Jakaitis finished with 41 saves for the Lakers while Cey had 29 saves for the Irish.
The loss was the first of Cey’s career versus Lake Superior State as he is now 6-1-1 versus the Lakers over the last four seasons.
Both teams were 0-for-5 on the power play.
Notre Dame returns home next weekend for a pair of games with the ninth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes on Jan. 14-15 at the Joyce Center. Friday’s game begins at 7:35 p.m. and Saturday’s face off is set for 7:05 p.m.
IRISH NOTES:
** The Irish were without the services of sophomore right wing Matt Williams-Kovacs and junior center Matt Amado for the game. Williams-Kovacs suffered a broken right wrist in the first period of Friday’s game. Amado suffered a concussion in the third period of Friday’s game.
** Junior center Tim Wallace played in his 100th consecutive game for the Irish. He has not missed a game in his career. The Notre Dame record for consecutive games played is 114 and was set by defenseman Evan Nielsen ’03 as he did not miss a game from early in his sophomore year through the end of his senior season.
** The Irish are 8-2-2 in the last 12 meetings with Lake Superior State.
** The loss was the first of the year for the Irish in overtime. Notre Dame is now 1-1-5 in games that go to the extra five minutes. The loss was also the second one-goal loss for Notre Dame this season. The Irish are 5-2 in one-goal games this year.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 OT – F
Notre Dame (5-11-5/3-9-4) 0 1 0 0 – 1
Lake Superior (7-11-2/6-6-2) 0 0 1 1 – 2
Scoring
First Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; LSSU: 3 for 6 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Chris Trick 1 (Cory McLean, Noah Babin), 16:55.
Penalties: ND: 3 for 6 minutes; LSSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Third Period: LSSU: Matt Restoule 5 (Kory Scoran, Jon Booras), 19:22.
Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; LSSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Overtime: LSSU: Jeff Rainville 5 (Nathan Ward, Derek Smith), :56.
Penalties: ND 0 for 0 minutes; LSSU: 0 for 0 minutes.
Shots On Goal:
Notre Dame 18 – 16 – 8 – 0 – 42
Lake Superior State 7 – 13 – 10 – 1 – 31
Goaltender Saves:
ND – Morgan Cey (60:56) 7 – 13 – 9 – 0 – 29
LSSU – Jeff Jakaitis (60:20) 18 – 15 – 8 – 0 – 41
Power Plays:
ND: 0 for 5
LSSU: 0 for 5
Attendance: 2,172