Feb. 8, 2012
Notre Dame, Ind. –
– The Games: #9/#9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (16-11-3/11-8-3-0) vs. #5/#6 Ferris State Bulldogs (18-8-4/12-6-4-1)
– Date/Site/Time: Friday, February 10, 2012 – Compton Family Ice Arena (5,022) – 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, February 11, 2012 – Ewigleben Arena (2,493) – 7:08 p.m.
– Broadcast Information: Radio: Notre Dame hockey can be heard live on Real Country 99.9 FM, starting with the pre-game show 20 minutes before the opening face off. Darin Pritchett will call the action for the Irish. Television: Saturday’s game at Ferris State will be televised by Comcast and can be seen on Comcast Channel 3 on South Bend Comcast Cable with Matt Shepard, Sean Ritchlin and Rob Otto calling the action.
– Internet: Audio/Video: Notre Dame will provide live video streaming for Friday night’s game against Ferris State free of charge on the Notre Dame website at UND.com. Saturday’s game will have live audio on the Notre Dame website at UND.com. Twitter: Follow the Irish hockey team on Twitter at ND_hockey.
SIX TO GO: Notre Dame and Ferris State meet this weekend in a home-and-home CCHA series. On Friday, February 10, the two teams meet at the Compton Family Ice Arena for a 7:05 p.m. contest. The following night, Saturday, Feb. 11, the teams meet in game two of the series at Ewigleben Arena in Big Rapids, Mich. Game time is 7:08 p.m. with the game being televised by Comcast with Matt Shepard, Sean Ritchlin and Rob Otto calling the action. Both teams have a great deal on the line this weekend as Ferris State enters the series in first place in the CCHA with a five-point lead on fourth-place Notre Dame. Both teams have six conference games remaining in the regular season. The Irish are coming off a split with Bowling Green and are 16-11-3 overall and 11-8-3-0 in the CCHA, good for 36 points and a fourth-place tie with Miami and Ohio State and two games in hand on both teams. Ferris State is coming off a tie and a win at Northern Michigan and is 18-8-4 for the year and 12-6-4-1 in conference play. The Bulldogs lead second-place Western Michigan (39) by two points and third-place Michigan (38) by three points in the race for the regular-season title.
IRISH VERSUS BULLDOGS: Notre Dame and Ferris State meet for the second time this season in a home-and-home series. In December, the Bulldogs took a 4-1 home victory on Dec. 9 and the Irish returned the favor on Dec. 10, winning 4-1 at the Compton Family Ice Arena. The teams have met 71 times in the all-time series with Ferris State leading, 40-25-6. At Notre Dame, the Bulldogs are 23-13-4 while at Ferris State, they are 15-12-2 against the Irish. Since the 2007-08 CCHA playoffs, Notre Dame is 7-3-0 against Ferris State. The last time the Irish won in Big Rapids was Feb. 19, 2011, a 5-2 win and they are 0-1 since. The last time the Bulldogs won at Notre Dame was Jan. 10, 2010, a 4-2 win at the Joyce Center. They are 0-1 since then.
NEXT UP FOR THE IRISH: Following the series with Ferris State, Notre Dame continues its three-game road trip as the Irish travel to Oxford, Ohio to face the Miami RedHawks on Feb. 17-18. Friday night’s game will be televised by CBS Sports Network and start at 7:35 p.m. Saturday’s game has a 7:05 p.m. start time. This is the first meeting of the year between the two teams.
RANKINGS: Notre Dame enters the series with Ferris State ranked ninth in both the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll and the USCHO.com poll. The Irish have been ranked in both polls all 18 weeks of the 2011-12 season. Ferris State is ranked fifth in the USA Today poll and sixth by the USCHO.com poll this week.
WILD FINISH: The race for first in the CCHA is wild and crazy this season as just six points separate the top eight teams. In the span of one weekend, the standings can be shuffled quickly. As of Monday, Feb. 6, here are the standings with the team’s points and games played to date.
PTS GP1. Ferris State 41 222. Western Michigan 39 223. Michigan 38 224. Notre Dame 36 22 Miami 36 24 Ohio State 36 247. Michigan State 35 22 Lake Superior 35 229. Northern Michigan 30 22
BOWLING GREEN RECAP: Friday, Feb. 3 – Junior left wing Nick Larson (Apple Valley, Minn.) deflected a David Gerth’s (So., Ankeny, Iowa) shot past Bowling Green goaltender Andrew Hammond early in the third period to snap a 1-1 tie and give Notre Dame a 2-1 win over Bowling Green at the Compton Family Ice Arena. T.J. Tynan opened the scoring in the first period and Bowling Green’s Ted Pletsch answered in the second for the only other goals on the night. The teams traded 22 shots in the opening period with the Irish having a 12-10 edge. They also scored the only goal with T.J. Tynan cashing in at the 14:55 mark for his 12th goal of the season. Bowling Green showed its grit and tenacity in the second period as the Falcons netted the only goal of the period with Pletsch doing the honors at 18:19 to send the game to the intermission tied 1-1. The Irish got the game winner in the third off the hard work of the Larson – Gerths – Mike Voran (So., Livonia, Mich.) line that had several good chances during the game. Defenseman Stephen Johns (So., Wampum, Pa.) moved the puck ahead to Gerths who carried it into the Bowling Green zone. He pulled up near the right circle and fired a shot at Hammond in the BG net. Before it ever got to him, Larson flashed in front and got his stick on the puck deflecting it up under the cross bar for his fifth goal of the season and second in as many games to give the Irish the lead, 2-1. From there it was up to Mike Johnson (Jr., Verona, Wis) and the Irish defense as they held Bowling Green to six shots in the third with the junior goalkeeper stopping all six on his way to a 24-save night. Hammond finished with 25 stops in the game.
Saturday, Feb. 4 – Bowling Green freshman center Ryan Carpenter scored twice in the third period to wipe out a 2-1 Notre Dame lead to give the Falcons a 3-2 win over the Irish on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 5,022 at the Compton Family Ice Arena. Notre Dame took the 2-1 lead on power-play goals by defensemen Robbie Russo (Westmont, Ill.) and Stephen Johns. Camden Wojtala had Bowling Green’s first goal of the night. The Irish dominated play early in the opening period and had out shot the Falcons, 7-1, when they finally broke through on goaltender Andrew Hammond on the power play as Russo scored off a face off at 10:28 in the Bowling Green zone. T.J. Tynan won the draw in the right circle back to Anders Lee at the top of the circle. Lee quickly moved it to the left point to Russo who drilled a shot that beat Hammond over his glove and into the upper right corner for the fourth goal of his rookie season. Bowling Green tied the game at 17:07 on Wojtala’s seventh goal of the year. The sophomore center snapped a shot from the slot that beat Irish goaltender Steven Summerhays (So., Anchorage, Alaska) through the five hole to even the score at 1-1. Notre Dame took a 2-1 lead in the second period on a power-play goal by Johns who beat Hammond through his pads with a shot from the right point. Carpenter got his first of goal of the third period at 5:17 when he combined with defenseman Jake Sloat on a two-on-one. Sloat went wide down the right side and found Carpenter alone in front and the freshman fired it into a wide open net for his seventh goal of the season to tie things at 2-2. With time running down in the third, the Falcons took the lead at 18:22 when Carpenter scored off a scramble in the slot, wristing a shot past Summerhays to give Bowling Green the 3-2 advantage. The goal was his eighth of the season. The Falcons out shot the Irish, 24-22, in the game. Hammond finished with 20 saves while Summerhays made 21.
STREAK STOPPED: Bowling Green’s 3-2 win on Feb. 4 at the Compton Family Ice Arena snapped a 13-game Notre Dame unbeaten streak (12-0-1) versus the Falcons at home. The last time the Irish had lost to Bowling Green on home ice came on Jan. 29, 2005. The loss also snapped a six-game Irish winning streak in the series. Notre Dame had not lost to the Falcons since Nov. 5, 2010, a 3-2 loss at the BGSU Ice Arena.
THIRD-PERIOD LEADS: The Irish entered last Saturday’s game with Bowling Green owning a 12-1-1 record when leading after two periods of play. Ryan Carpenter changed that as his two goals in the third period for the Falcons wiped out a 2-1 Notre Dame lead and gave Bowling Green a 3-2 win. The Irish are now 12-2-1 when leading after two periods.
ROLLER COASTER RIDE: The 2011-12 season has been a series of ups and downs for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. After starting the season with a 2-2-0 mark after the first four games, the Irish went on an 11-game unbeaten streak (8-0-3) from Oct. 21 through Nov. 25. Notre Dame then lost its next four games from Nov. 26 through Dec. 9. The season took an upturn on Dec. 10 as the Irish won the first of three in a row against ranked teams (Ferris State, Boston University and Minnesota) through Jan. 7. That was followed by back-to-back losses on Jan. 13-14 to Western Michigan. Since the losses to Western, the Irish own series splits against Michigan, at Alaska and at home against Bowling Green.
SLOW STARTS: The Irish will be looking for a way to kickstart their offense the remainder of the season. In 16 of the team’s 30 games to date, Notre Dame has surrendered the first goal of the game. In those games, the Irish are now 7-8-1. When they score first, Notre Dame is 9-3-2 on the season.
CLASS OF THE CLASS: Notre Dame senior defenseman Sean Lorenz (Littleton, Colo.) has selected as one of 10 finalists for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award that honors student athletes who excel both on and off the ice and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. Lorenz is a three-time monogram winner for the Irish and serves as one of Notre Dame’s alternate captains in 2011-12. He is coming off a career year as a junior (2010-11) for the Irish where he played in 44 games with career highs in goal (4), assists (11) and points (15) while being +33 on the year. He also was the CCHA defensive, defenseman of the year and the winner of Notre Dame’s William Donald Nyrop Award as the team’s top defenseman. Lorenz This season, Lorenz is second among Irish defensemen in scoring with three goals and 10 assists for 13 points and two game-winning goals. The Irish have had six players in the six-year history of the award make the list of 10 finalists. Former Notre Dame goaltender David Brown `07 won the award in 2007.
BACK ON TRACK: Junior goaltender Mike Johnson snapped a personal five-game losing streak with the 4-2 win on Jan. 28 against Alaska. The win was the first for Johnson since Nov. 25, when he took a 4-1 victory at Lake Superior State. With his win on Friday night (Feb. 3), Johnson now has a two-game winning streak. Prior to his five-game losing streak, Johnson had a personal-best 10-game unbeaten streak (7-0-3) from Oct. 14 to Nov. 25. For the season, Johnson is now 9-6-3 with a 2.54 goals-against average and a .890 save percentage. He needs just one more win to become the seventh goaltender in Notre Dame history to win 40 games in his career.
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: Freshman right wing Austin Wuthrich (Anchorage, Alaska) leads Notre Dame rookies in scoring with seven goals and nine assists for 16 points. That ties him for seventh in the CCHA among freshman scorers. Rookie defenseman Robbie Russo is right behind him with four goals and 10 assists for 14 points. That ties him for 12th among CCHA rookies in scoring and makes him the top scoring rookie defenseman in the CCHA this season. He also is tied for seventh in the CCHA among power-play scorers with four goals and seven assists for 11 points. Wuthrich was recently ranked 73rd among North American skaters in the NHL Central Scouting’s mid-term rankings. Wuthrich is also the answer to a Notre Dame trivial pursuit question – Who scored the last goal in the Joyce Center? Austin Wuthrich at 18:35 of the third period on Oct. 15.
CENTURY CLUB: Two members of the Notre Dame roster are inching their ways closer to the 100-point marks in career scoring. Senior forward Billy Maday (Burr Ridge, Ill.) and sophomore center T.J. Tynan are both over the 90-point marks in their careers. Maday needs just two more points to reach the “Century Mark,” as he now has 41 goals and 57 assists for 98 career points in 143 games. Maday now has eight goals and 12 assists for 20 points on the year, his fourth season with 20 or more points for the Irish. Tynan is in a hurry to get to the 100-point mark as he has his 35 goals and 57 assists for 92 points in just 73 career games. He leads Notre Dame in scoring this season with 12 goals and 26 assists for 38 points.
"Century Club" Name (Seasons) G A Pts1. Brian Walsh (1973-77) 89 145 2342. John Noble (1969-73) 81 145 2263. Eddie Bumbacco (1970-74) 103 117 220
40. Tim Reilly (1981-86) 43 65 10841. Aniket Dhadphale (1995-99) 61 44 10542. Bob Thebeau (1982-86) 40 63 10343. Kevin Hoene (1968-71) 50 51 101 Matt Hanzel (1985-89) 50 51 10145. Paul Clarke (1973-77) 38 62 100 -- Billy Maday (2008- ) 41 57 98 -- T.J. Tynan (2010- ) 35 57 92
IRISH VERSUS TOP-RANKED TEAMS: With a split against Michigan (Jan. 20-21) Notre Dame improved to 8-6-3 versus ranked teams overall during the 2011-12 season. Here’s how the Irish stack up against the top six teams in this week’s USA Today poll (6-2-0):
1. Minnesota (1-0)2. Boston University (1-0)3. Minnesota-Duluth (1-1)4. Boston College (1-0)5. Ferris State (1-1)6. Michigan (1-1)
Versus ranked teams this season, the Irish are 6-3-1 at home and 2-3-2 on the road. In 2010-11, the Irish played 24 games versus nationally ranked teams and finished 11-9-4 for the year.
GOOD FOR GERTHS: With assists in each game of the series against Bowling Green, center David Gerths (So., Ankeny, Iowa) snapped a 33-game point-scoring drought, notching his first two points of the season. Prior to Friday’s assist, Gerths last scored on Feb. 19, 2011 when he had a goal and an assist versus Ferris State.
HOBEY BAKER CANDIDATES: Notre Dame sophomores Anders Lee and T.J. Tynan are on the list of 77 players that have been nominated for the 2012 Hobey Baker Award. Fan voting for the award has begun at hobeybakeraward.com and will continue through March 1st. Lee leads the Irish in goals this season and is second on the team in scoring with 14 lamplighters and 15 assists for 29 points 30 games. Tynan is the top scorer on the Notre Dame roster with 12 goals and 26 assists for 38 points and leads the CCHA in scoring and is tied for seventh in the national scoring race. ON A ROLL: Center T.J. Tynan has not missed a beat since returning from the World Junior Championships. Since Dec. 10, he has scored 13 points (5g, 8a), picking up points in nine of his last 10 games. Michigan stopped his five-game point streak on Jan. 21, so he started another and now has points in four straight (3g, 2a). Tynan leads Notre Dame and the CCHA in scoring with 12 goals and 26 assists for 38 points.
THE PLAYMAKER: Sophomore left wing Anders Lee, Notre Dame’s top goal scorer has become the team’s playmaker in the last five games. Lee, who leads the Irish with 14 goals, has picked up seven assists over the last five games and is now second in team scoring with 14 goals and 15 assists for 29 points and ranks third in the CCHA in points. Lee has gone nine games without a goal, last scoring on Dec. 31 when he scored twice against Boston University.
HOT HANDS: The Irish line of Anders Lee, T.J. Tynan and Austin Wuthrich has had the hot hand as of late for the Irish. In the last five games, the trio has accounted for five goals and 11 assists for 16 points. Lee has a five-game point streak (0-7-7) while Tynan has scored points in four straight games (3-2-5). Wuthrich has points in four of his last five games (2-24).
SPECIAL TEAMS STRUGGLES: What a difference a few weeks makes. Going into the series with Western Michigan two weeks ago (Jan. 13-14), Notre Dame had the CCHA’s top power play and was on a roll killing penalties. Since then, the Irish special teams have fallen on hard times. Over the last eight games, Notre Dame is just 5-for-33 (15.2%) on the power play and is 22-for-30 (73.3%) on the penalty kill. For the season, Notre Dame is 29-for-145 (20.0%) on the power play and has killed 91-of-112 power plays for a 81.2% success rate.
SAM CAN: Junior defenseman Sam Calabrese (Park Ridge, Ill.) is quietly having another strong season on the Notre Dame blue line. Through the first 30 games of the season, Calabrese leads all Irish defensemen in scoring with three goals and 12 assists for 15 points. The 12 assists equals a career high set as a sophomore in his first season playing full time. He led Notre Dame defensemen in scoring in 2010-11 when he had six goals and 12 assists for 18 point.
HOCKEY HUMANITARIAN AWARD: Senior defenseman Sean Lorenz was one of 23 nominees on the national level for the College Hockey Humanitarian Award, presented by BNY Wealth Management, but did not make it to the list of finalists announced at the end of January. The award is presented every year to college hockey’s finest citizen for their contributions to society in all areas. This is the 17th year for the Hockey Humanitarian Award that will be presented in a special ceremony on Friday, April 6th at the 2012 NCAA Men’s Frozen Four in Tampa, Fla. Lorenz is in his fourth season as a regular on the Notre Dame blue line and is in his first season as one of the team captains. He is currently second on the team in scoring among defensemen with three goals and 10 assists for 13 points with a power-play goal and two game winners in 26 games. For his career, he enters this weekend’s games with Alaska having played in 143 career games with nine goals and 25 assists for 34 points. As a junior, Lorenz was selected as the CCHA Defensive Defenseman of the Year and was Notre Dame’s winner of the William Donald Nyrop Award as the team’s top defenseman. Throughout his career, Lorenz has been heavily involved in Notre Dame’s community service projects and as a senior he is the team’s liaison to Notre Dame’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) that plans service work within the Notre Dame and local community for student athletes. That committee also works to initiate change within the athletic department to improve the student-athlete experience and relations in the community. For four years, the Littleton, Colo., native has has participated in the annual Buddy Walk for kids with Down’s syndrome and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation walk. For the past three years, Lorenz and his teammates have worked with the South Bend Robinson Center, working with inner-city kids, teaching them how to play hockey. This year, the team has set up a program with Life Work’s Dream Teams to visit area schools to talk to kids about setting goals and striving for their dreams and adopted a local family for Christmas. The team also spends time with the Irish Youth Hockey League (IYHL), assisting with clinics and working with the younger kids in teaching them the finer points of the game of hockey. Off the ice, Lorenz has a 3.412 grade-point average in finance in the Mendoza College of Business and had a Dean’s List semester in the spring of 2011 when he turned in a 3.80 grade point for the semester.
ROAD DOGS: Following Notre Dame’s visit to frigid Alaska, the Irish are 6-5-3 on the road this season. In CCHA contests, the Irish are 4-4-3 away from the Compton Family Ice Arena. Notre Dame’s three non-league road games came at Minnesota- Duluth (a split) and at Minnesota (a win).
HOME SWEET HOME: Notre Dame is now 9-5-0 in its first 14 games at the new Compton Family Ice Arena and 10-6-0 on home ice this season. In the 14 games played at the Compton Family Ice Arena this season, Notre Dame has played in front of eight sellout crowds of 5,022. In the 14 games at the CFIA to date, the Irish have drawn 67,874 for an average of 4,848 per game.