Senior defenseman Joe Lavin and the Irish defense will face top-ranked Boston College at the Joyce Center on Oct. 23.

Irish Get Set To Play Host To Top-Ranked Boston College On Saturday

Oct. 20, 2010

Notre Dame, Ind. –

Complete Release in PDF FormatGet Acrobat Reader

– Date/Site/Time: Sat., Oct. 23, 2010 – 7:05 p.m. – Joyce Center (2,713) – Notre Dame, Ind..

– The Teams: rv/#17 Notre Dame (3-1-0/2-0-0) vs. #1/#1 Boston College (3-0-0/1-0-0)

– Broadcast Information: Radio: Notre Dame hockey can be heard live on Cat Country 99.9 FM in South Bend. Darin Pritchett, the voice of the Irish will call the action.

– Internet Broadcast: Audio: The Notre Dame-Boston College game will have live audio streaming at the Notre Dame website – www.und.com. Video: Saturday’s game versus Boston College will have live video streaming at www.und.com. Statistics: Gametracker will be available at und.com.

IRISH VERSUS EAGLES: Notre Dame and defending national champion, Boston College, meet for the 30th time in the all-time series at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday, October 23rd at the Joyce Center. The Irish are off to a 3-1-0 start this season and are 2-0-0 in CCHA play after sweeping Lake Superior State, by a pair of 4-2 verdicts, last weekend at the Joyce Center. The top-ranked Eagles bring a 3-0-0 mark into the Joyce Center after sweeping the sixth-ranked Denver Pioneers by 6-2 and 3-0 scores in Denver Oct. 15-16. For both teams this is the only game each team will play this weekend. Notre Dame is receiving votes in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll and is ranked 17th in the USCHO.com poll. Boston College is ranked first in both polls, being the unanimous No. 1 team in the USA Today poll while getting 49 of the 50 first-place votes in the USCHO.com poll. Saturday’s game can be viewed via live streaming on the Notre Dame website at und.com and is free of charge. Following the single game this weekend with the Eagles, Notre Dame returns to CCHA action next week with a home-and-home series versus Western Michigan. The two teams will play a 7:35 p.m. game at the Joyce Center on Friday, Oct. 29 and then close the series at 7:35 p.m. on Sat., Oct. 30 at Lawson Arena in Kalamazoo, Mich.

THE ALL-TIME SERIES: Boston College leads the all-time series with a 16-11-2 record in the first 29 meetings. At Notre Dame, the Eagles are 7-2-1 versus the Irish. Last season, the two schools met at the Joyce Center with Boston College taking a 3-2 win. Ben Ryan’s (Sr., Brighton, Mich.) goal just 11 seconds into the third period tied the game at 2-2. BC’s Joe Whitney got the eventual game winner when he deflected a shot by Carl Sneep past Brad Phillips with less than nine minutes left in the game for the 3-2 win. Boston College has won two of the last three meetings in the series, including the 2008 national championship game, while Notre Dame has four wins in the last six games dating back to 2003-04.

300 AND COUNTING: Thursday night’s (Oct. 14) 4-2 win over Lake Superior State was the 300th of Irish head coach Jeff Jackson’s career. He added the 301st on Friday night with another 4-2 victory win over the Lakers. In this his 12th season as a Division I head coach, Jackson is 301-118-47 for a .696 winning percentage. Jackson spent six years at Lake Superior State (1990-96) where he recorded 182 victories. He took over at Notre Dame in 2005 and has won 119 with the Irish. His .696 winning percentage is tops among active coaches and his 301 wins rank 13th. In CCHA games, Jackson needs just one more win to reach 200 league victories as he is 199-80-44 in conference play.

LAKE SUPERIOR RECAP: Thursday, Oct. 14: Notre Dame got single goals from freshman David Gerths (Ankeny, Iowa), senior Calle Ridderwall (Stockholm, Sweden), junior Billy Maday (Burr Ridge, Ill.) and freshman Mike Voran (Livonia, Mich.) to hand Lake Superior State a 4-2 loss on Thursday night at the Joyce Center. Zach Trotman and Will Acton scored for the Lakers. Notre Dame goaltender Mike Johnson stopped 26-of-28 shots he faced to pick up his second win of the year. Gerths gave the Irish a 1-0 lead just 3:45 into the first period. That goal was answered by Trotman who got his third of the year at 7:35 and the first period ended, 1-1. The Irish made it 2-0 in the second period when Ridderwall scored on the power play at 2:37. Acton scored a power-play goal of his own at 4:57 and the game was tied, 2-2. Notre Dame retook the lead at 11:29 of the second period with a short-handed goal scored by Maday off a brilliant set up by sophomore Riley Sheahan (St. Catharine’s, Ont.) for a 3-2 advantage. Voran then closed the scoring at 9:34 of the third off a nifty set up by Jeff Costello (Fr., Milwaukee, Wis.) for the final of 4-2. Notre Dame out shot Lake Superior, 34-28. Brian Mahoney-Wilson had 30 saves in the loss. The Lakers were 1-for-8 on the power play while the Irish were 1-fo-4.

Friday, Oct. 15: Notre Dame got first-period goals from Calle Ridderwall, T.J. Tynan (Fr., Orland Park, Ill.) and Ben Ryan to build a 3-1 lead after one period on the way to a second, 4-2 win, over Lake Superior State. Anders Lee (Fr., Edina, Minn.) closed out the Irish scoring with a third-period goal. Rick Schofield and Domenic Monardo scored for the Lakers. Notre Dame got off to a fast start as Ridderwall and Tynan made it 2-0 by the 2:49 mark of the opening stanza. Ridderwall got his second of the year at 2:00 and Tynan scored his second of the season just 49 seconds later for the two-goal margin. Schofield cut that lead in half at 3:22 but Ryan combined with linemates Ryan Guentzel (Sr., Woodbury, Minn.) and Lee for a tic-tac-toe passing play at 13:02 for the 3-1 lead. Monardo scored the lone goal of the second period for Lake Superior just 44 seconds into the period before Lee closed the scoring at 11:06 of the final stanza. Notre Dame out shot the Lakers, 38-28, in the game. Sophomore goaltender Mike Johnson (Verona, Wis.) made 26 saves for the Irish to pick up his third win of the season. Brian Mahoney-Wilson had 34 stops for the Lakers. The Irish were 1-for-2 on the power play while Lake Superior was 0-for-4.

HOME OPENERS: Thursday’s (Oct. 14) 4-2 win over Lake Superior State gives Notre Dame an all-time record of 24-18-1 in home openers at the Joyce Center. With the win on Oct. 8 against Holy Cross, Notre Dame is now 21-20-2 in season-opening games.

HAVING THEIR NUMBER: With the sweep of Lake Superior State, Notre Dame is now unbeaten in its last 14 games (11-0-3) against the Lakers. The last Irish loss to Lake Superior State came on Dec. 17, 2005, a 4-0 win at the Joyce Center.

IRISH WINS VERSUS NO. 1: Notre Dame is no stranger to facing the No. 1 team in the nation. Last season, the Irish played twice against No. 1 when they played a pair against Miami on Dec. 4-5, in Oxford, Ohio, losing both games, 1-0 and 4-0. The last time Notre Dame knocked off a No. 1 team was on April 10, 2008, a 5-4 win over Michigan in the NCAA semifinals. The Irish own three wins over Boston College when the Eagles were ranked No. 1 with the last one coming on Oct. 21, 2006, a 7-1 win at Boston College. Here’s a list of previous Irish wins versus top-ranked teams.

 4/10/08 - vs. Michigan, 5-4 ot (at Frozen Four)10/9/07 - at Miami, 2-110/21/06 - vs. Boston College, 7-110/22/04 - vs. Boston College, 3-210/23/03 - at Boston College, 1-01/3/99 - at North Dakota, 4-311/20/78 - at Minnesota, 3-21/13/78 - vs. Denver, 5-31/18/74 - vs. Michigan Tech, 7-12/24/73 - vs. Wisconsin, 4-32/23/73 - vs. Wisconsin, 8-5

PLAYING SHORT-HANDED: Through the first four games of the 2010-11 season, Notre Dame has been very successful killing penalties. The Irish have killed 21-of-22 opponent power-play chances for a 95.5% success rate. While giving up just one power-play goal in four games, Notre Dame already has scored three short-handed goals on the season. In 2009-10, the Irish had just four short-handed goals in 38 games. To date, Joe Lavin (Holy Cross), Bryan Rust (Boston University) and Billy Maday (Lake Superior State) have scored short-handed for the Irish.

FAST START: Notre Dame freshman left wing Anders Lee (Edina, Minn.) knows how to get his career off to a fast start. The 6-3, 218-pounder scored a goal on his first shot in the 6-3 win over Holy Cross, just 1:58 into the first period. He went on to record two more goals for a hat trick in his first-ever collegiate game. Lee then added an assist in the 5-4 loss to Boston University in the championship game of the Warrior Ice Breaker Tournament. For his efforts, Anders Lee was named the CCHA rookie of the week for the week ending Oct. 10. He joins John Noble `73 as the only other freshman to score three goals in his first game as Noble did the trick on Nov. 15, 1969 in an 8-3 win over Windsor. He joins recent Irish players – Billy Maday, Christiaan Minella `10 and Tim Wallace `06 – as freshmen who scored on their first shot on goal. Lee added a goal and an assist in the Oct. 15 win over Lake Superior State and through the first four games of the season, is tied for the Notre Dame team lead in scoring with four goals and two assists for six points.

THEâ⒬ˆSPECIALIST: Senior left wing Calle Ridderwall scored his first two goals of the season, getting one each in the series against Lake Superior State. It is no surprise that his first goal on Oct. 14 came on the power play. Over the last two-plus seasons, Ridderwall has now scored 38 goals (17 in `08-’09, 19 in `09-’10 and two this year) with 23 of them coming on the power play (11 in `08-’09, 11 in `09-’10 and one this year). His 19 goals last year tied him for fourth in the CCHA in scoring while his 11 power-play goals led the conference. His 23 power-play goals at Notre Dame rank him 10th on the all-time power-play list.

LOWE’S SENIOR CLASS AWARD: Senior left wing Calle Ridderwall is one of 20 Division I hockey players to be selected as a candidate for the 2010-11 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. The award is presented annually to an NCAA Division I student-athlete in 10 sports based on achievement’s in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition. CLASS is an acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School and the award focuses and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. This is the fifth year that Lowe’s has sponsored an award for hockey. In 2006-07, former Irish goaltender David Brown `07 won the Senior CLASS Award while in 2007-08, Mark Van Guilder `08 and in 2008-09, Jordan Pearce `09 and Erik Condra `09 were among the top 10 finalists. Team captain Ryan Thang `10 was the team’s nominee last season.

CAREER BESTS: With three assists in the season opener versus Holy Cross, senior Ben Ryan equaled his career best for points in a game while setting his personal best with the three assists. Linemate Ryan Guentzel had career highs with three assists and three points in the win over Holy Cross. Their line, with freshman Anders Lee, accounted for three goals, six assists and nine points in the 6-3 win over Holy Cross. Through four games this season, Guentzel, is tied for the team lead in scoring with six points, all on assists to equal his point output from last season.

FULLâ⒬ˆHOUSE: With sell-out crowds of 2,989 and 2,857 in the first two home games last week against Lake Superior State, Notre Dame has now recorded 10 consecutive home sell outs since Nov. 28, 2009. The Irish have had sell outs in 16 of the team’s last 20 home games and last year averaged 2,765 fans per game. Since Dec. 13, 2008, the Irish have recorded sellouts in 25 of their last 29 home games. A sellout at the Joyce Center is 2,713 with 2,857 capacity with standing room. Twice during the `09-’10 season – Jan. 15 vs. Michigan State and Jan. 29 against Nebraska-Omaha – 3,007 fans jammed into the Joyce Center. Prior to that number, the largest crowd to see an Irish hockey game was 3,310 on March of 1995 when Notre Dame play Illinois-Chicago. The following season, new seating was installed and capacity was reconfigured.

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: Notre Dame’s 12-man freshman class continues to make strides in the early part of the 2010-11 season. Through the first four games, the group has accounted for 10 goals and 12 assists for 22 points this season. The Irish have scored 18 goals with 34 assists for the year. Against Lake Superior State, freshman right wing Mike Voran scored his first career goal and multiple-point game with an assist in the 4-2 win on Oct. 14. Linemates David Gerths (goal) and Jeff Costello (assist) added their first career goal and points. In the Oct. 15 win, T.J. Tynan picked up his second goal of the season while Anders Lee had his second multiple-point game (1g, 1a) and defenseman Kevin Lind (2 assists) had the first two-point game of his career.

IRISH GOALTENDERS: Sophomore goaltender Mike Johnson is the elder statesmen of the Notre Dame goaltending corps, having played in 29 games last season. Johnson made 28 starts and was 10-13-5 overall with a 2.60 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage. He recorded a pair of shutouts and was selected to the CCHA all-rookie team for 2009-10. This season, Johnson is 3-0-0 with a 2.34 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage. Behind Johnson are a pair of freshmen – Steven Summerhays (Anchorage, Alaska) and Joe Rogers (Marysville, Mich.). Summerhays joined the Irish after playing the last two seasons with the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers. In `09-’10, Summerhays was a first team all-USHL selection and the USHL goaltender of the year after going 31-2-3 with a 2.17 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage. This season with the Irish, Summerhays is 0-1-0 with a 5.08 goals-against average and a .792 save percentage. Rogers joins the Notre Dame roster after playing last season in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) with the Albert Lea Thunder. Rogers was 13-19-2 with a 3.97 goals-against average and a .891 save percentage.

STREAK STOPPED: With freshman Steven Summerhays (Anchorage, Alaska) making the start against Boston University in the championship game of the Warrior Ice Breaker Classic, sophomore puckstopper Mike Johnson saw his streak of starts stopped at 13. Johnson had started every game in the Notre Dame goal since Jan. 22, 2010.

BEST OFâ⒬ˆTHEâ⒬ˆBEST: Over the past four seasons, the Notre Dame hockey program ranks among the top five programs in the country. Since the start of the 2006-07 season, the Irish have won 106 games and have a .676 winning percentage. The Irish are third in that time period in wins, trailing Michigan (116) and Miamiâ⒬ˆ(111). Notre Dame’s .676 winning percentage is also third behind Miami (.694) and Michigan (.690). Here are the top five teams by wins and winning percentage since 2006-07.

WINS                     WINNINGââ'¬Ë†.PCTMichigan  (116)          Miami (.694)Miami  (111)             Michigan (.690)Notre Dame  (106)        Notre Dame (.676)Boston College  (104)    Boston College (.670)North Dakota  (104)      North Dakota (.645)

FRESH START: Sophomore defenseman Sam Calabrese (Park Ridge, Ill.) had a freshman season that he would love to forget. The product of the USA Under-18 Team, Calabrese played in just three games, registering no points. Last Dec. 4, on the first shift of his third game, he suffered a broken leg at Miami that sidelined him for most of the season. This year, in four games, he has two assists and leads the team with a +5 rating.

TURNING ON THE POWER: After scoring just once on their first 11 power-play chances, Notre Dame’s power play was 2-for-6 versus Lake Superior State last week. For the year, the Irish are now 3-for-17 for a 17.6% success rate. Through the first four games, Notre Dame has as many short-handed goals (3) as the Irish do power-play goals (3).

PRESEASON EXHIBITION: Notre Dame opened the season with an exhibition game versus the University of Guelph on Oct. 3. The Irish won that game, 5-3. Four freshmen – David Gerths (Ankeny, Iowa), Mike Voran (Livonia, Mich.), Jeff Costello (Milwaukee, Wis.) and Anders Lee – joined senior Calle Ridderwall in finding the back of the net in the win. Fellow freshman center T.J. Tynan added three assists in the victory. Sophomore goaltender Mike Johnson picked up the win by making 29 saves on the night as Notre Dame out shot Guelph by a 37-32 margin. Costello picked up the game-winning goal as his wrist shot at 7:20 of the third period broke a 3-3 tie. Lee added an insurance goal on a breakaway at 18:46 for the final score of 5-3.

CAPTAINS: Four members of the Irish senior class will serve as captains for the 2010-11 season. Defenseman Joe Lavin (Shrewsbury, Mass.) will wear the “C” for Jeff Jackson’s squad this year. His three assistant captains will be Calle Ridderwall (Stockholm, Sweden), Ben Ryan (Brighton, Mich.) and Ryan Guentzel (Woodbury, Minn.). For all four players, this is their first time as captains at Notreâ⒬ˆDame.

CAN’T TELL THE PLAYERS WITHOUT A SCORECARD: The Notre Dame hockey team that takes the ice this weekend will be much different than last season’s 13-17-8 team as 13 players from that team are gone and 12 freshmen will take their place. Seven players – seniors Brett Blatchford, Kevin Deeth, Dan Kissel, Kyle Lawson, Christiaan Minella, Tom O’Brien and Ryan Thang – have graduated. Three players – defensemen Ian Cole and Teddy Ruth along with forward Kyle Palmieri – signed with the NHL teams that drafted them. Cole (St. Louis) and Ruth (Columbus) left after their junior seasons while Palmieri (Anaheim) left after his freshman year. Three are no longer with the team. Junior goaltender Brad Phillips is currently with the Rio Grande Killer Bees of the Central Hockey League. Sophomore left wing Kyle Murphy returned to junior hockey for more playing time and is with the Vernon Vipers of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). The third player, defenseman Eric Ringel has retired from hockey after a concussion and the concussion symptoms that occurred last season. He was not cleared to play by doctors and will serve as an undergraduate student assistant coach. The 12 freshmen include two goaltenders, four defensemen and six forwards.

EXTRA HOCKEY: During the `09-’10 season, the Irish were involved in nine overtime contests, finishing 1-0-8 in those games. The eight ties equaled a Notre Dame record set during the 1999-2000 season. All eight ties in `09-’10 went to a shootout where the Irish were 3-5 in those games. The lone overtime win came on Nov. 27, 2009 versus Bowling Green (2-1) and was the first for the Irish since Feb. 20, 2009 at Nebraska-Omaha, a 4-3 win. Notre Dame is now 3-0-11 in overtime since its last overtime loss, a 2-1 decision to Miami on March 21, 2008, in the CCHA semifinal game.

FAMILY GUYS: Three members of the Notre Dame hockey team – sophomore forwards Kevin Nugent (New Canaan, Conn.) and Riley Sheahan (St. Catharine’s, Ont.) and freshman goaltender Joe Rogers (Marysville, Mich.) – have family ties to the Irish hockey program. Nugent’s father, Kevin Nugent, Sr. `78 was a member of the Notre Dame hockey team from 1974-78. During his career he played in 131 games, scoring 54 goals with 75 assists for 129 career points. His son becomes the second Irish player to follow his father to Notre Dame. He joins Rory Walsh `06 who followed his father, Brian Walsh `77 who was a teammate of Nugent, Sr. Sheahan is a second cousin of former Irish defenseman Brock Sheahan `08 who played for the Irish from 2004-08. Rogers is a cousin of former Notre Dame defenseman Tony Bonadio `83 is a Port Huron, Mich., native. Bonadio played in 79 games between 1980-83, scoring one goal with nine assists for 10 points.