Senior center Christian Hanson scored his second goal of the season in the 3-2 loss to Miami.

Irish Get Weekend Split At Northern Michigan With A 2-1 Win

Jan. 6, 2008

Final Stats

Marquette, Mich. – A tough, stingy defense, some timely scoring and solid goaltending was Notre Dame’s recipe for success on Saturday night as the Irish handed Northern Michigan a 2-1 loss at the Berry Events Center.

The Irish limited the Wildcats to just 17 shots in the game and got second-period goals from Kevin Deeth and Christian Hanson in the victory. Freshman goaltender Brad Phillips made 16 saves to win his fourth game of the season. Jared Brown scored the lone goal for Northern Michigan.

The win gives Notre Dame a weekend split versus the Wildcats and improves the Irish to 18-6-0 on the season and 11-3-0 in CCHA play. Northern Michigan goes to 9-12-1 overall and 6-10-0 in conference play. The Irish win coupled with a Miami win over Bowling Green and Michigan being idle, moves Notre Dame into a three-way tie for first in the CCHA along with Miami and Michigan with 22 points each. The Wolverines have two games in hand.

The first 20 minutes resulted in a scoreless tie even though the Irish had a 13-3 edge in shots on goal.

It took Northern Michigan almost nine minutes to get its first shot on goal while Notre Dame had nine before the Wildcats got on the shot chart. Erik Condra had the best Irish best scoring chance when he got ahead of the Northern defense on a short-handed chance but was pulled down at 9:15.

Phillips had to come up big with 3:30 left in the first when he stopped Wildcat leading scorer, Nick Sirota, on a breakaway to preserve the scoreless first period.

Notre Dame finally broke through on goaltender Brian Stewart, taking its first lead of the weekend at 11:59 of the second period.

Condra carried the puck down the left side and as he cut to the middle lost control. Deeth picked up the loose puck and drove to the goal, where Stewart was waiting. Instead of shooting, Deeth carried behind the net and came around the right side, tucking the puck inside the post and Stewart’s pads for his fourth goal of the season and a 1-0 Notre Dame lead.

The lead would go to 2-0 at 15:34 on some crisp passing in the Northern Michigan zone. Evan Rankin made a cross rink pass to Dan Kissel coming down the left side. Kissel then slid a perfect pass in front as Hanson came across the front of the goal. The junior center redirected the pass behind Stewart for his career-best seventh goal of the season.

The Wildcats wasted little time getting back into the game in the third period. Brown was able to poke a loose puck past Phillips just one minute into the period, making it a 2-1 game. The goal was Brown’s fourth of the season.

The Irish had a 10-9 edge in shots in the period and Phillips came up big with 1:00 left in the game as Northern pulled its goaltender. Brown got a wide-open shot from the slot and the freshman made the pad save to preserve the win.

Notre Dame out shot Northern Michigan, 32-17, in the game. Stewart finished with 30 saves in the Wildcat goal. Neither team could score on the power play as the Irish were 0-for-4 and Northern Michigan was 0-for-3.

The Irish return to action next weekend when they face the Michigan State Spartans in a home-and-home series. On Friday, Jan. 11, the teams will meet at Munn Arena in East Lansing in a 7:35 p.m. game. The return game will be played on Sunday, Jan. 13 at 4:05 p.m. at the Joyce Center in South Bend, Ind.

IRISH NOTES:

** Starting with Saturday’s game at Northern Michigan, the Irish will play five straight games on television. The Northern game was televised by Comcast Local; Friday’s game at Michigan State can be seen on Fox Sports Detroit with Sunday’s on College Sports Television (CSTV). The following week, the game at Michigan also will be on CSTV while the Jan. 19 game at the Palace of Auburn Hills will be shown on Comcast Local.

** The trio of Dan Kissel, Christian Hanson and Evan Rankin have come together to form a productive line for head coach Jeff Jackson. Over the last five games, the threesome have combined for eight goals and 11 assists for 19 points. Kissel has three goals and four assists, Hanson checks in with three goals and three assists and Rankin has two goals and four assists.

** Freshman goaltender Brad Phillips has started his career with four straight wins for Notre Dame. In those four games, he has given up just three goals (0.75 goals-against average) and has a .958 save percentage with one shutout.

GAME SUMMARY                          1    2    3 -  F#6/#6 Notre Dame (18-6-0/11-3-0)      0    2    0 -  2No. Michigan  (9-12-1/6-10-0)         0    0    1 -  1

Scoring First Period: No Scoring.

Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; NMU: 1 for 2 minutes.

Second Period: ND: Kevin Deeth 4 (Erik Condra), 11:59; ND: Christian Hanson 7 (Dan Kissel, Evan Rankin), 15:34.

Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; NMU: 1 for 2 minutes.

Third Period: NMU: Jared Brown 4 (Erik Gustafson, Matt Siddall), 1:00.

Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; NMU: 2 for 4 minutes.

Shots On Goal: Notre Dame 13 – 9 – 10 – 32 No. Michigan 3 – 5 – 9 – 17

Goaltender Saves: ND – Brad Phillips (59:57) 3 – 5 – 8 – 16 NMU – Brian Stewart (58:40) 13 – 7 – 10 – 30

Power Plays: ND: 0 for 4

NMU: 0 for 3

Attendance: 2,253