Oct. 6, 2010
Notre Dame, Ind. –
Complete Release in PDF Format
THE WARRIOR COLLEGE HOCKEY ICE BREAKER TOURNAMENT
- Date/Site/Time: Fri., Oct. 8, 2010 - 5:30/8:30 p.m. (CT) - Scottrade Center (19,150) - St. Louis, Mo. Sun., Oct. 10, 2010 - Noon/3:00 p.m. (CT) - Scottrade Center (19,150) - St. Louis, Mo.
- The Teams: Notre Dame (13-17-8); Holy Cross (12-19-6); Boston University (18-17-3); Wisconsin (28-11-4).
- The Games: Friday - 5:30 p.m. (CT) - #17 Notre Dame vs. Holy Cross 8:30 p.m. (CT) - #14 Boston University vs. #13 Wisconsin Sunday - Noon. (CT) - Third-Place Game 3:00 p.m. (CT) - Championship Game
- 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: Both Notre Dame games will have live audio streaming at the Notre Dame website - www.und.com. Video: All four games of the tournament are available for video streaming at www.HockeyPrimetime.com. The cost is $9.95 for all four games.
A NEW SEASON IS UPON US: The Notre Dame Fighting Irish open the 2010-11 season on Friday, Oct. 8 at the Warrior College Hockey Ice Breaker Tournament in St. Louis, Mo. This is the 43rd season of the modern era of Notre Dame hockey and the Irish bring an all-time mark of 664-734-118 as a Division I program into the tournament. Notre Dame will face the Holy Cross Crusaders in the 5:30 p.m. (CT) game at the Scottrade Center, home of the NHLs St. Louis Blues. At 8:30 p.m. (CT), Boston University will face off against Wisconsin in the second game of the tourney. After an off day on Saturday (St. Louis faces Philadelphia in its home opener on Saturday night), the teams return to action on Sunday, October 10. The third-place game will be played at noon (CT) with the championship game set for 3:00 p.m. (CT).
IRISH TOURNEY INFORMATION: The Warrior College Hockey Ice Breaker Tournament is the 33rd in-season tournament that the Irish have participated in during the 43-year history of the program. In the previous 32 tournaments, Notre Dame owns a 26-34-4 all-time record. The Irish have finished first (eight times), second (six times), third (seven times) and fourth (11 times) in those tournaments. The Ice Breaker Tournament is the first in-season tourney for the Irish since last year’s Shillelagh Tournament, held Jan. 1-2, 2010, at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Ill. Notre Dame won that tournament with a 5-2 win over Colgate and then a 3-3 tie in the title game with North Dakota. The Irish got the win after winning the shootout, 2-1, in five rounds.
ICE BREAKER HISTORY: This is Notre Dame’s second appearance in the Ice Breaker Tournament as the Irish last appeared at the start of the 1999-2000 campaign. That tournament was held at the University of Denver where Notre Dame finished third overall. The Irish lost their opening game, 2-1, to Providence and the defeated Union College, 4-0, to take third place.
FOR OPENERS: Notre Dame enters its season opener with Holy Cross with an all-time record of 20-20-2 in season openers. The Irish are 16-22-4 all-time in season openers played away from home.
ST. LOUIS ALUMS: Five former Notre Dame players are products of the St. Louis area: The group includes Greg Rosenthal `79 (St. Louis), Kevin Markovitz `90 (St. Louis), Connor Dunlop `03 (St. Louis), Neil Komadoski `04 (Chesterfield) and Yan Stastny (St. Louis). Dunlop, Komadoski and Stastny all have fathers who played for the Blues.
ST. LOUIS BLUES’ NOTES: Five former Notre Dame players were drafted by the St. Louis Blues. The lone Irish player to be named All-America twice – defenseman Jack Brownschidle `77 – was a sixth round pick, 99th overall by the Blues in 1975. Former Irish volunteer assistant coach and forward Mike McNeill `88, was selected by the Blues in 1988 in the supplemental draft. Goaltender Wade Salzman `96 was an 11th round pick in 1993 and forward Steve Noble ’98 was selected in 1994 in the 8th round. Rounding out the list of draftees is defenseman Ian Cole, who was chosen in the first round, 18th overall by the Blues in 2007. Brownschidle played parts of seven seasons in St. Louis between 1977-84. Cole signed with the Blues following last year and is currently with their Peoria (AHL) farm team. Two other former Irish players – Yan Stastny and Neil Komadoski “04 were members of the St. Louis organization after starting with other NHL teams. Stastny played 50 games for the Blues over three seasons.
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 (Edina, Minn.) – joined senior Calle Ridderwall (Stockholm, Sweden) in finding the back of the net in the win. Fellow freshman center T.J. Tynan (Orland Park, Ill.) added three assists in the victory. Sophomore goaltender Mike Johnson (Verona, Wis.) 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.
NEXT FOR THE IRISH: Notre Dame opens the 2010-11 home schedule and the final full season of the 43-year old Joyce Center rink next weekend. The Irish play host to Lake Superior State in a Thursday-Friday, Oct. 14-15 series. Game time both nights is set for 7:35 p.m. The series is being played on Thursday and Friday due to Notre Dame hosting Western Michigan in football on Sat., Oct. 16.
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. 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. 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
A QUICK LOOK BACK: During the 2009-10 season, Notre Dame was 13-17-8 overall and was 9-12-7-2 in the CCHA, good for ninth place in the regular-season standings. The Irish were eliminated in the first round of the CCHA playoffs by Ohio State, two games to none. Holy Cross is coming off an `09-’10 season that saw the Crusaders go 12-19-6 overall and 10-13-5 in Atlantic Hockey. Holy Cross lost in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Hockey playoffs, two games to none at Sacred Heart. Boston University was 18-17-3 overall and 13-12-3 in Hockey East, good for a third-place tie. In the playoffs, the Terriers defeated Merrimack, two games to one, in the quarterfinals before falling to Maine in the semifinal game of the Hockey East Tournament. Wisconsin was 28-11-4 overall and 17-8-3 in the WCHA, finishing second in the regular season. In the post season, the Badgers finished third in the WCHA Tournament and advanced to the NCAA title game where they fell to Boston College, 5-0.
THE RANKINGS: Notre Dame comes into the Warrior Ice Breaker ranked 17th in the USCHO.com preseason rankings and is receiving votes in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine preseason poll. Holy Cross is not ranked in either poll. The Boston University Terriers open the season ranked 14th in both preseason polls while Wisconsin checks in at 13th in both sets of preseason rankings.
MILESTONES: Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson enters the weekend with a 298-117-47 record in 11 seasons as a Division I coach between Lake Superior State and Notre Dame. His .696 winning percentage is tops among active coaches and his 298 wins rank 13th. He now needs two wins to reach the 300-win mark in his career. In CCHA games, Jackson needs just three wins to reach 200 league victories as he is 197-80-44 in conference play.
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.
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 103 games and have a .671 winning percentage. The Irish are third in that time period in wins, trailing Michigan (114) and Miamiâ⒬ˆ(109). Notre Dame’s .675 winning percentage is also third behind Miami (.695) and Michigan (.688). Here are the top five teams by wins and winning percentage since 2006-07.
WINS WINNINGââ'¬Ë†.PCTMichigan 114 Miami (.695)Miami 109 Michigan (.688)Notre Dame 103 Notre Dame (.671)Boston College 101 Boston College (.664)North Dakota 101 RIT (.643)
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.
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.
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.
THEâ⒬ˆSWEDISHâ⒬ˆSNIPER: Senior left wing Calle Ridderwall has been Notre Dame’s top goal scorer over the last two seasons, scoring 17 and 19 goals respectively for a total of 36. Of his 36 goals, 22 have come on the power play. In `09-’10, Ridderwall’s 19 goals tied him for fourth in the CCHA and his 11 power-play tallies led the conference. In `08-’09, the Stockholm, Sweden native’s 17 goals tied him for fifth in the league and his 11 power-play goals tied him for second. His 22 career power-play goals tie him for 10th on Notre Dame’s all-time power play list.
FULLâ⒬ˆHOUSE: Notre Dame hockey games were a tough ticket during the 2009-10 season as the Irish had 14 sellouts in 18 home dates and averaged 2,765 fans per game. Since Dec. 13, 2008, the Irish have recorded sellouts in 23 of their last 27 home games. A sellout at the Joyce Center is 2,713 with 2,857 capacity with standing room. Twice during the 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.
HOMETOWNS: The 2010-11 Notre Dame hockey team features players from 11 states, two Canadian provinces and Sweden. Over the past 15 seasons, the Irish have had monogram winners from 26 different states and provinces – those listed below, plus: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Washington, Alberta, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Junior Calle Ridderwall (Stockholm) is the first Notre Dame hockey player from Sweden.
2009-10 NOTRE DAME HOCKEY – BY STATE, COUNTRY OR PROVINCE:
Michigan (4): Ben Ryan, Joe Rogers, Bryan Rust, Mike Voran
Illinois (4): Billy Maday, Sam Calabrese, Kevin Lind, T.J. Tynan
Minnesota (4): Ryan Guentzel, Brian Brooke, Nick Larson, Anders Lee
Wisconsin (3): Nick Condon, Mike Johnson, Jeff Costello
Ontario (2): Richard Ryan, Riley Sheahan
Pennsylvania (2): Patrick Gaul, Stephen Johns
Alaska (1): Steven Summerhays
British Columbia (1): Shayne Taker
Colorado (1): Sean Lorenz
Connecticut (1): Kevin Nugent
Indiana (1): Jared Beers
Iowa (1): David Gerths
Massachusetts (1): Joe Lavin
Sweden (1): Calle Ridderwall
PLAYING GAMES: Graduated center Kevin Deeth `10 finished his Notre Dame career as the program’s all-time leader in games played with 164 career games. That moved him ahead of Mark Van Guilder `08, who played in 163 consecutive games in his career. Two of Deeth’s classmates also finished their careers in the top 10 for games played. Kyle Lawson `10 tied for third all-time with Brock Sheahan `08, as both players played in 161 career games. Ryan Thang `10 tied for fifth with Erik Condra `09 as both played in 159 career games.
NHL DRAFTEES: The Irish have 10 players on the 2010-11 roster who have been selected in the National Hockey League’s Entry Draft. Leading the way is sophomore Riley Sheahan (St. Catharine’s, Ont.) who became Notre Dame’s third-ever, first-round pick last June when he was chosen 21st overall by the Detroit Red Wings. He joins former defenseman Ian Cole (2007 – St. Louis) who was selected 18th overall and former right wing Kyle Palmieri (2009 – Anaheim), the 26th pick overall. Sheahan was followed by freshman defenseman Stephen Johns (Wampum, Pa.), who went in the second round, 60th overall to the Chicago Black Hawks. One round later in the third round, with the 80th overall pick, freshman forward Bryan Rust (Novi, Mich.) was chosen by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Notre Dame’s final player selected in 2010 was defenseman Kevin Lind (Homer Glen, Ill.), who was picked in the sixth round, 177th overall by the Anaheim Ducks. Two other Irish freshman were selected in the 2009 draft. Left wing Jeff Costello (Milwaukee, Wis.) was chosen by the Ottawa Senators in the fifth round, 146th overall and six picks later, center Anders Lee (Edina, Minn.) was a New York Islanders’ choice in the sixth round, 152nd overall. The new group of draftees join sophomore left wing Nick Larson (Apple Valley, Minn.), a 2008 selection of the Calgary Flames in the fourth round, 108th overall; junior defenseman Sean Lorenz (Littleton, Colo.), a member of the 2008 draft class, by the Minnesota Wild in the fourth round, 115th overall and seniors Ben Ryan (Brighton, Mich.) and Joe Lavin (Shrewsbury, Mass.). Ryan was picked in the 2007 entry draft by Nashville in the fourth round with the 114th pick and Lavin was a Chicago Black Hawks choice in the fifth round, 126th overall
NEW HOME FOR THE IRISH: Construction on Notre Dame’s new, on-campus ice facility – The Compton Family Center – began in March of 2010 and is on pace to be finished for the Notre Dame hockey team to begin play there during the 2011-12 campaign.
On Sept. 11, 2010, a project blessing ceremony for the $50-million facility was held with many of the key benefactors in attendance. At the ceremony, Notre Dame director of athletics, Jack Swarbrick, announced that the building would be named the Compton Family Center in honor of the generous donation from Kevin and Gayla Compton and their family. The Comptons are part of the ownership group of the National Hockey League’s San Jose Sharks.
Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s President began the ceremony with a blessing of the site and offering of a prayer for the safety of those working on the project.
Irish head coach Jeff Jackson followed by talking about the original plans and how those plans changed to become the Compton Family Center.
“When I first came here, we were talking about a renovation in the Joyce Center,” said Jackson, now in his sixth season behind the Notre Dame bench.
“With Jack’s (Swarbrick) foresight and Tom [Nevala] and everyone involved in pushing for this to happen, waiting an additional year to have a new facility is something that is going to have a tremendous impact on the future of our program, and we’re very proud of that.”
Jackson also thanked the benefactors in attendance for their generosity towards the project.
Notre Dame’s head coach was followed by Irish junior Billy Maday (Burr Ridge, Ill.) who spoke for his teammates to the benefactors in attendance.
Swarbrick spoke last at the ceremony, and touched upon how important the Compton Family Center will be for the Michiana community.
“There’s a limit to how much the community can use our dormitories and our classrooms and our laboratories, but the athletic facilities can be a special point of contact,” Swarbrick said.
“I hope we win national championships with teams that train here and I hope we build new programs for our athletes and our students. But the ultimate success of this facility will be if we inspire a young boy or a young girl from the community to shoot higher, if we challenge them to be better people because they spend time on our campus. Then we’ve realized the potential of athletics at Notre Dame.”
The original announcement for the new building was made on Feb. 12, 2009 by Notre Dame executive vice-president John Affleck-Graves and Swarbrick after the University’s Board of Trustees approved the plan.
The Compton Family Center will house both the Charles “Lefty” Smith rink, within the new 5,000-person capacity, home of the Irish hockey team and a second sheet of ice (Olympic-sized) with limited seating availability. The majority of the general public arena seating will be of the chair-back variety.
The Compton Family Center also will include offices for the Notre Dame coaching staff, a state-of-the art locker room suite that includes both wet and dry locker rooms, meeting rooms, a sports medicine area that includes hot and cold hydrotherapy, cardio and weight rooms, a players’ lounge, equipment areas, video operations and a multi-purpose room that will be the location for weekly team Mass and serve as a study lounge and dining area.
The arena also will feature a balcony level with a 200-seat, Irish pub-themed club, multiple concession areas on both levels, spacious restrooms and a merchandise shop.
The Compton Family Center also will serve the Notre Dame and South Bend community as a place for the Irish Youth Hockey League (IYHL) and local figure skating groups to flourish. On campus it will become the home of club and interhall hockey, the figure skating club and intramural broomball, curling and physical education classes.
Multiple locker rooms also will be available for campus and community use of the facility.
Design and construction of the Compton Family Center are under the auspices of the Southfield, Mich., office of Barton Malow, a national design and construction services firm and their project partner Rossetti Architects, also of Southfield, Mich.
LEFTY’S RINK: When Notre Dame’s new ice hockey arena is built the new ice hockey rink will be named the Charles W. “Lefty” Smith, Jr., Rink, in honor of the first coach in the program’s history, Charles “Lefty” Smith. The announcement was made in April of 2008 at the team’s annual awards banquet.
The plans for naming the new ice surface in honor of Smith were made possible by the generosity of the John and Mary Jo Boler family of Inverness, Ill., and Sanibel Island, Fla., their daughter Jill Boler McCormack `84 and her husband, Dan; and their son Matthew Boler `88 and his wife, Christine. They were joined by the family of Frank `57 and Mary Beth O’Brien of Albany, N.Y., who have six children who all graduated from Notre Dame. Their late son, Frankie, played both lacrosse and hockey for the Irish from 1984-88.
Smith came to Notre Dame in 1968 to start the varsity hockey program and coached the Irish for 19 years, retiring in 1987 with 307 career victories. Under his tutelage, Notre Dame produced six All-Americans but most importantly, all 126 student-athletes who played for him completed their collegiate eligibility and earned college degrees.
Smith, who continues to work as the director of the Loftus Sports Center on campus, served two years as the president of the American Hockey Coaches Association. He was inducted into the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1992. He played an integral in bringing the International Special Olympics to Notre Dame in 1987.
Married for 57 years, Lefty, who lost his wife, Mickey on Nov. 9, 2009, is the father of seven living children, 16 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.