Oct. 16, 2010
Notre Dame, Ind. – OFor the second night in a row, the Notre Dame hockey team got a balanced attack and steady goaltending to hand Lake Superior State a 4-2 loss in front of a sold-out Joyce Center on Friday night.
Senior center Ben Ryan and freshman linemate Anders Lee each had a goal and an assist while Calle Ridderwall and T.J. Tynan added single goals in the 4-2 win. Ryan and Lee’s linemate, Ryan Guentzel chipped in a pair of assists, as did freshman defenseman Kevin Lind to lead the Irish to the win and a sweep of the Lakers. Rick Schofield and Domenic Monardo each had a goal for Lake Superior.
The win was the second straight for the Irish who improved to 3-1-0 overall and 2-0-0 in CCHA play. The Lakers fell to 0-3-1 on the year and 0-2-0 in the conference. Notre Dame continues its four-game homestand on Saturday, Oct. 23 when top-ranked Boston College comes to town. The two teams will face off a 7:05 p.m. at the Joyce Center.
“We came out with a lot of energy tonight,” said head coach Jeff Jackson.
“I really liked our first period. It may have been the best period that we’ve played this season as far as doing a nice job managing the puck through the neutral zone and scoring a couple of nice goals.”
The Irish wasted little time getting on the scoreboard as they scored twice in the first 2:49 of the game to build a 2-0 lead.
Ridderwall started the Notre Dame attack when he scored his second goal in as many nights at the 2:04 mark of the first.
The senior left wing took a cross-rink pass from freshman Bryan Rust and snapped a shot past Lake Superior goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson for a 1-0 lead. Lind started the play with a long breakout pass to Rust in the neutral zone.
The lead would go to 2-0 just 45 seconds later when Tynan beat Mahoney-Wilson with a nice move in front at 2:49 for his second of the season.
Lind started the play in his own zone moving the puck from left to right to defensive partner Sam Calabrese. The sophomore banked a long pass of the left boards to Tynan who got behind the Lakers defense and raced in for the goal that made it 2-0.
As quick as the Irish scored twice, Lake Superior cut the lead in half just 33 seconds later at 3:22 when Schofield whipped a backhander from the slot through a screen and between Irish goaltender Mike Johnson’s pads for his third of the year.
Schofield won a draw in the left circle and pushed it to the left wing corner. Left wing Will Acton centered it to the Lakers’ captain and he turned it into a goal to make it a 2-1 game.
The score would stay that way until the 13:02 mark when the trio of Ben Ryan, Lee and Guentzel struck with a pretty passing play deep in the Lake Superior zone.
Guentzel moved it to the Lee on the right side of the goal and he got the defenseman and Mahoney-Wilson to commit to him and he moved it back to Ryan who redirected the pass for his first goal of the season to make it a 3-1 lead.
The Lakers battled back to score early in the second on a fluky play. Acton moved the puck to Monardo on right side and he fired a blast that hit the right post and came out in front where Acton was driving to the goal. The rebound went off the back of an Irish defenseman and preceded a group of four players that slid into the net.
The goal was reviewed with the replay showing it went in off an Irish defender, giving Monardo his second goal of the season while cutting Notre Dame’s lead to 3-2 just 44 seconds into the second period.
From there, the Irish nursed the lead, relying on the steady goaltending of Johnson who would finish with 26 saves in the game.
“Mike has the ability to be an outstanding college goalie and he knows the most important part of that is consistency,” said Jackson.
“He has to be as good as he was last night, which he was. That’s good for us and our future. If he can play a consistent game every night, then he can be an elite Division I college goalie.”
The lead would stay 3-1 until the Irish capitalized on their second power-play chance of the night at 11:06. This time Lee would get the goal with assists to Ryan and Guentzel.
Guentzel moved the puck from the right corner to Ryan in the left corner. The senior center waited for the defense to come to him before he floated a pass to Lee all alone in front. The big left wing wasted no time in firing it past Mahoney-Wilson for his fourth marker of the year and the final of 4-2.
The Lakers would have one last push as Guentzel was whistled for an elbowing penalty with 3:10 left in the game as they pulled their goaltender with less 2:00 minutes left to go on a 6-on-4. Again Johnson made the stops to hold off the visitors for the two-goal win.
On the night, Notre Dame out shot Lake Superior, 38-28. Mahoney-Wilson finished with 34 saves on the night.
** IRISH NOTES **
* Notre Dame’s win over Lake Superior runs the Irish unbeaten streak to 14 games (11-0-3) versus the Lakers since the middle of the 2005-06 season.
* The sell-out crowd of 2,857 was the 10th consecutive sellout for the Irish going back to the second half of 2009-10. Since Dec. 13, 2008, Notre Dame has had sellouts in 25 of its last 29 games.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - FLake Superior State (0-3-1/0-2-0) 1 1 0 - 2Notre Dame (3-1-0/2-0-0) 3 0 1 - 4
Scoring First Period: ND: Calle Ridderwall 2 (Bryan Rust, Kevin Lind), 2:04; ND: T.J. Tynan 2 (Sam Calabrese, Lind), 2:49; LSSU: Rick Schofield 3 (Will Acton), 3:22; ND: Ben Ryan 1 (Anders Lee, Ryan Guentzel), 13:02.
Penalties: LSSU: 0 for 0 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: LSSU: Domenic Monardo 2 (Acton), 00:44.
Penalties: LSSU: 1 for 2 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Lee 4 (B. Ryan, Guentzel), PPG, 11:08.
Penalties: LSSU: 1 for 2 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Lake Superior State 7 - 8 - 13 - 28Notre Dame 14 - 10 - 14 - 38
Goaltender Saves:LSSU: Brian Mahoney-Wilson (58:00) 11 - 10 - 13 - 34ND: Mike Johnson (60:00) 6 - 7 - 13 - 26
Power Plays:LSSU: 0 for 4ND: 1 for 2
Attendance: 2,853 (sellout)