Jan. 23, 2004
Marquette, Mich. – For the third consecutive week, the Notre Dame hockey team opened a weekend series with an overtime game. For the second time in those three games, the final results went in favor of the opposition. On Friday night, it was Northern Michigan that handed the Irish a disappointing 4-3 loss at the Berry Events Center.
Freshman center Darin Olver scored with 45 seconds left in the extra stanza to give the Wildcats the 4-3 margin of victory.
Olver, who had three points on the night, got the game winner off a scramble in front of the Irish goal. Defenseman Nathan Oystrick’s shot from the right point made it through a screen in front to the Notre Dame goal where Morgan Cey made the first stop. The rebound squirted out to Olver on the left side of the goal who managed to get it past the sprawling Irish goaltender for his ninth goal of the season.
The loss drops the Irish to 12-8-3 overall and 8-7-2 in the CCHA. Northern Michigan improves to 11-11-1 on the season and 9-10-0 in league play.
Rob Globke paced the Notre Dame attack with two goals and Aaron Gill added a goal and an assist in the game. The duo of Globke and Gill has scored seven of the last eight goals scored by the Irish over the last three games.
Northern Michigan got the only goal of the first period as Jamie Milam scored on the power play at 10:26.
Olver, the Wildcats top scorer, found Dirk Southern in the right-wing circle. Southern’s shot was stopped by Cey with the rebound going to the left side of the goal. Milam, who had crashed the net on Southern’s shot fired the rebound past Cey for his eighth goal of the season.
Both teams got their offenses cranked up in the second period, a period that featured plenty of end-to-end action and two goals for each team.
The Irish scored the first two goals of the second period as Gill and Globke each scored less than four minutes apart in the second period to give Notre Dame a 2-1 lead.
Gill got his ninth of the year at 9:17 with the help of some tenacious fore-checking by Cory McLean. Defenseman Chris Trick carried the puck into the Wildcat zone and flipped it into the left wing corner, where McLean tracked it down. Two centering attempts were blocked, but McLean kept the puck alive until he found Gill cutting down the slot. The Notre Dame captain rifled a wrist shot over Craig Kowalski’s glove to tie the game at 1-1.
Globke got into the scoring act at 12:46 when he ripped a shot from the high slot past Kowalski to put the Irish in the lead. Gill and Josh Sciba got helpers on the goal, Globke’s 14th of the year.
The 2-1 Irish lead was short-lived though as Northern Michigan tied the game just 19 seconds later when Oystrick crashed the net from the left point and lifted the rebound of an Alan Swanson shot over Cey for his fourth of the season to tie the game 2-2 at 13:05.
The Wildcats would go into the second intermission with a 3-2 lead as right wing Pat Bateman scored his third of the season at 18:28. Defenseman Bobby Selden carried the puck through center ice and deep into the Irish zone where he found Bateman coming down the right wing. Bateman beat Cey through a maze of sticks and skates in front to give Northern Michigan the 3-2 lead.
The Irish got the game-tying goal at 6:29 of the third period as Globke got his second goal of the night and team-best 15th goal of the season when he crashed the net and jammed the puck under Kowalski for his 15th goal of the season. Mike Walsh and Jason Paige got assists on the goal.
The overtime game was the fifth of the season for Notre Dame and they fall to 0-2-3 in extra time. The last time the Irish won in overtime during the regular season was Jan. 25, 2002 at Miami. Since that win, the Irish are 1-3-9 in overtime. The lone win came in the postseason as the Irish won at Nebraska-Omaha in the CCHA playoffs. The Irish were out shot in the game by a 32-24 margin. Cey finished the night with 28 saves while Kowalski had 21 on the night. The Irish were 0-for-5 on the power play while Northern was 1-for-5 with the man-advantage.
Notre Dame and Northern Michigan close out the two-game series on Saturday night. Game time at the Berry Events Center is 7:35 p.m.
IRISH NOTES:
** Rob Globke now has four goals in his last two games for the Irish. He set his career high last season with 21.
** Notre Dame’s power play was shut down, going 0-for-5 on the night, after scoring in six straight games and 15 of the last 16 contests.
** Aaron Gill now has seven multiple-point games this season. Globke has eight multiple-point games this season and five games with two or more goals.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 OT F
Notre Dame (12-8-3/8-7-2) 0 2 1 0 3
No. Michigan (11-11-1/9-10-0) 1 2 0 1 4
Scoring
First Period: NMU: Jamie Milam 8 (Dirk Southern, Darin Olver), PPG, 10:26.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; NMU: 2 for 4 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Aaron Gill 9 (Cory McLean, Chris Trick), 9:17; ND: Rob Globke 14 (A. Gill, Josh Sciba), 12:46; NMU: Nathan Oystrick 4 (Alan Swanson, Kevin Gardner), 13:05; NMU: Pat Bateman 3 (Olver, Bobby Selden), 18:28.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; NMU: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Globke 15 (Mike Walsh, Jason Paige), 6:29.
Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; NMU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Overtime: NMU: Olver 9 (Oystrick, Southern), 4:15.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; NMU: 0 for 0 minutes.
Shots On Goal:
Notre Dame 4 – 13 – 6 – 1 – 24
No. Michigan 7 – 11 – 11 – 3 – 32
Goaltender Saves:
ND – Morgan Cey (64:15) 6 – 9 – 11 – 2 – 28
NMU – Craig Kowalski (64:15) 4 – 11 – 5 – 1 – 21
Power Plays:
ND: 0-5
NMU: 1-5
Attendance: 3,427