Oct. 30, 2004
Notre Dame, Ind. – Freshman right wing Mike Santorelli scored twice and senior goaltender Tuomas Tarkki stopped 29 of 30 Notre Dame shots to lead the 15th-ranked Northern Michigan Wildcats to a 4-1 win over the Irish Saturday night at the Joyce Center. Matt Siddall and Zach Tarkir also scored for the Wildcats while Jason Paige scored the lone Notre Dame goal of the night.
The loss drops the Irish to 1-4-2 on the year and 0-3-1 in CCHA play while the Wildcats improve to 4-1-1 overall and 3-0-1 in league action.
Northern out shot the Irish 14-8 in the opening period and benefited from a nice bounce and a long pass to score the lone goal of the first period.
With the Irish on the attack, Tarkki stopped a point-blank shot by Irish forward Mark Van Guilder. The rebound went to Geoff Waugh who lifted the puck over the Irish defensemen at the blue line to center ice where Siddall tracked it down and raced in to beat Notre Dame goaltender David Brown for his second goal of the season at 16:57 for a 1-0 Wildcat lead.
“We struggled in the first period to get it going so to go into the intermission down 1-0 was good for us,” said Irish head coach Dave Poulin.
“They got a good bounce and were able to pop it in for the only goal. David (Brown) kept us in the game in the first period.”
The Irish came out in the second period and took the play to the Wildcats, but couldn’t get the puck past Tarkki as they out shot the Wildcats 12-6 in the middle stanza.
“We played much better in the second period, we moved the puck well, but he (Tarkki) made some key stops. That’s the first time we’ve seen him. He has a unique style. It’s very effective for him.”
Northern Michigan took advantage of their lone power play in the period to take a 2-0 lead at 9:10 of the period. Darin Olver, Andrew Sarauer and Zach Tarkir moved the puck around the perimeter with Tarkir scoring through a screen on a long blast from the blue line for his first goal of the season.
The Irish answered back with a power play of their own at 12:06 to cut the lead to 2-1. Defenseman Wes O’Neill moved the puck through center to right wing Michael Bartlett who carried the puck deep into the right wing corner. The sophomore forward found Jason Paige all alone in the slot and he drilled a shot through Tarkki’s pads for his first goal of the season.
Santorelli then got into the act with the goal that broke Notre Dame’s back at 18:11. With the face off to the left of Tarkki, Cory McLean won the draw back towards Mike Walsh. The puck slid past Walsh and Santorelli and Andrew Contois broke out on a two-on-one. Santorelli beat Brown off a pass from Contois for his fourth goal of the season.
“That third goal killed us,” said Poulin. “It came on a play we work off the faceoff. Cory (McLean) won the draw and we didn’t get to the puck. They were off to the races.”
Santorelli closed out the scoring at 8:50 of the third period on a power-play goal for his second of the night and fifth of the year for the final score of 4-1.
On the night, the Wildcats were 2-for-5 on the power play while the Irish were 1-for-5. Northern Michigan out shot Notre Dame, 31-30, in the game. Brown finished with 27 saves in the game as his record fell to 0-3-0 on the season.
Despite the loss, Poulin believes his young team can turn things around.
“I really like my hockey team. I know we can be a tough and tenacious kind of team. We’re going to have to work to score goals, we know that. We’ve just got to find the way to win these close ones. We got beat by a pretty good hockey team tonight,” said the Irish head coach.
Notre Dame will look to get back on the winning track next Thursday, Nov. 4 when the Irish travel to Bowling Green for a rare Thursday night game at 7:05 p.m.. The Falcons then return the visit when they play at the Joyce Center the following night in a 7:35 p.m. contest.
SCORING SUMMARY
Northern Michigan (4-1-1/3-0-1) 1 2 1 – 4
Notre Dame (1-4-2/0-3-1) 0 1 0 – 1
Scoring
First Period: NMU: Matt Siddall 2 (Geoff Waugh, Tuomas Tarkki), 16:57.
Penalties: NMU: 5 for 10 minutes; ND: 4 for 8 minutes.
Second Period: NMU: Zach Tarkir 1 (Darin Olver, Andrew Sarauer), PPG, 9:10; ND: Jason Paige 1 (Michael Bartlett, Wes O’Neill), PPG, 12:06; NMU: Mike Santorelli 4 (Andrew Contois, Dirk Southern), 18:11.
Penalties: NMU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: NMU: Santorelli 5 (Pat Bateman, Southern), PPG, 8:50.
Penalties: NMU: 1 for 2 minutes; ND: 2 for 15 minutes.
Shots On Goal:
Northern Michigan 14 – 6 – 11 – 31
Notre Dame 8 – 12 – 10 – 30
Goaltender Saves:
Northern Michigan – Tuomas Tarkki (60:00) 8 – 11 – 10 – 29
Notre Dame – David Brown (60:00) 13 – 4 – 10 – 27
Power Plays: NMU: 2 for 5; ND: 1 for 5
Attendance: 1,734