Oct. 24, 2008
Notre Dame, Ind. – Freshman goaltender Cody Riechard stopped all 29 shots he faced and Miami got goals from Pat Cannone and Gary Steffes to lead the RedHawks to a 2-0 shutout of Notre Dame at the Joyce Center on Friday night.
The 2-0 loss was the first shutout loss for the Irish at home since March 4, 2006 when Notre Dame lost a 1-0 decision to Alaska in game two of the CCHA playoffs.
The loss evened the Irish record at 2-2-0 overall and drops them to 0-1-0-0 in the CCHA. Miami is now 2-1-2 on the year and 2-0-1-0 in conference play. The two teams will meet in the series finale on Saturday night at the Joyce Center at 7:05 p.m.
“They (Miami) played a great game. They played a smart game, a relentless game,” said Irish head coach Jeff Jackson following the game.
“They didn’t give up a lot. We had some decent chances, but we never got a whole lot of traffic in front of the net.”
Irish turnovers led to both RedHawk goals as they got one in the first and one in the second for all the scoring.
Miami got the only goal it would need at 5:05 of the first period when Cannone and linemate Andy Miele combined on a two-on-one with Cannone getting his third goal of the young season.
Miele grabbed a loose puck at the Irish blue line and moved in with Cannone on goaltender Jordan Pearce. Cannone broke past the defenseman and Miele slid the puck to him as he moved in on Pearce and beat the Notre Dame goaltender low to his glove side.
Almost one period later at 5:02 of the second stanza, the RedHawks would make it 2-0. This time Miele took a loose puck off the boards and slid it to Steffes all alone in the right wing circle. The junior right wing one-timed a blast past Pearce for his fourth goal of the season and the final scoring on the night.
“The two goals had nothing to do with Jordan (Pearce),” said Jackson.
“The first one came after we made two passes off a shinpad and then off a skate. That was directly a result of our lack of intensity with the puck. The second also came off a turnover. After talking about making good decisions with the puck, both goals and some of their other chances were the result of us being a little too loose with the puck.”
Notre Dame had its chances on the night as the Irish out shot Miami by a 29-23 margin. The Irish also went 0-for-8 on the power play, getting 15 shots with the man advantage but couldn’t get the puck behind Reichard who recorded his first career shutout in just his third collegiate start.
“I think that it goes deeper than not scoring on the power play,” said Jackson.
“There were a lot of little things that had to do with us not scoring on the power play or five-on-five. I thought that they played with more physical intensity, with more of a sense of desperation than we did and that would show up on the power play.”
The shutout was the third consecutive shutout at the Joyce Center as the Irish blanked Sacred Heart, 3-0 and 7-0, last weekend. The Irish were shutout twice last season with both coming on the road.
** IRISH NOTES **
• The shutout snapped junior center Kevin Deeth’s five-game scoring streak that extended back to last season and the Frozen Four. He had three goals and four assists for seven points in his streak.
• Combined, the two teams were 0-for-11 on the power play. The two teams came into the weekend having surrendered just two power-play goals each this season.
• With the win, Miami has now won three straight in the series. The victory was the RedHawks first at the Joyce Center since the 2005-06 season.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#10/#10 Miami (2-1-2/2-0-1-0) 1 1 0 - 2#8/#8 Notre Dame (2-2-0/0-1-0-0) 0 0 0 - 0
Scoring
First Period: MU: Pat Cannone 3 (Andy Miele), 5:05.
Penalties: MU: 3 for 6 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: MU: Gary Steffes 4 (Miele), 5:02.
Penalties: MU: 5 for 10 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: MU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Miami 10 - 6 - 7 - 23Notre Dame 11 - 10 - 8 - 29
Goaltender Saves:MU - Cody Riechard (60:00) 11 - 10 - 8 - 29ND - Jordan Pearce (58:38) 9 - 5 - 7 - 23
Power Plays:MU: 0 for 3ND: 0 for 8
Attendance: 2,192