Nov. 18, 2010
Notre Dame, Ind. –
Complete Release in PDF Format
– Date/Site/Time: Fri.-Sat., Nov. 19-20, 2010 – 7:35/5:05 p.m. – Joyce Center (2,713) – Notre Dame, Ind.
– The Teams: #11/#11 Notre Dame (7-3-1/5-2-1-1) vs. rv/#17 Michigan State (4-3-3/2-3-1-0)
– 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 with the pregame show beginning 20 minutes before the opening face off.
– Internet Broadcast: Audio: Both games of the Notre Dame-Michigan State series will have live audio streaming at the Notre Dame website – und.com. Video: Both games will have live video streaming available for free at und.com. Statistics: Gametracker will be available at both team’s websites – und.com and msuspartans.com.
HOME AGAIN: Notre Dame returns home for a weekend series for the first time since Oct. 29 when the Irish faced Western Michigan. This weekend, Nov. 19-20, Notre Dame will play host to Michigan State at the Joyce Center. Friday’s game will start at 7:35 p.m. with Saturday having a 5:05 p.m. start. Notre Dame brings a 7-3-1 overall record and a 5-2-1-1 mark in the CCHA into the weekend series. The Irish have 17 points in conference play and are currently in first place, one point ahead of second place Michigan. Notre Dame closed out its five-game road swing last weekend in Ann Arbor, Mich., versus the Wolverines, splitting the two games with a 3-1 win and a 5-3 loss. In the five games away from home, tthe Irish were 2-2-1. Michigan State visits the Joyce Center with a 4-3-3 overall record and is 2-3-1-0 in the CCHA, good for seven points with two games in hand on the Irish. The Spartans split a series with Ohio State last weekend, dropping a 4-3 overtime decision on Nov. 12 before shutting out the Buckeyes, 4-0, in the Nov. 13 contest. Following this weekend’s series, Notre Dame will play four straight on the road as the Irish travel to North Dakota on Nov. 26-27 and then visit Miami on Dec. 3-4.
IRISH VERSUS SPARTANS: Notre Dame and Michigan State meet for the 107th and 108th times in the all-time series this weekend. The Spartans hold a 59-36-11 advantage in the series. At the Joyce Center, Michigan State is 21-20-7 in 48 games versus the Irish. The 11 ties in the series are the most for Notre Dame versus any opponent in the program’s 43-year history. The two teams met four times last season with the Irish going 2-0-2 versus the Spartans. The teams split the two ties with MSU winning one shootout and the Irish the other. At the Joyce Center, Notre Dame was 1-0 with the other “home” game played at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Ft. Wayne. The Irish won that contest, 5-2. Notre Dame is 3-0-1 versus Michigan State in the last four games at the Joyce Center. The last time the Spartans won in South Bend was Feb. 3, 2006, a 3-2 win.
CCHA ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Notre Dame freshman center T.J. Tynan (Orland Park, Ill.) was named the CCHA rookie of the week for the second consecutive week after his play in the Michigan series. Tynan had a goal and two assists in the series, including two points in the 5-3 loss on Nov. 13. He currently leads all CCHA rookies in scoring (5g, 8a, 13 pts.).
THE RANKINGS: For the third consecutive week, Notre Dame is ranked 11th in both the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll and the USCHO.com poll. Michigan State is receiving votes in the USA Today poll and is 17th in the USCHO.com rankings.
TOUGH SCHEDULE: Notre Dame is now in the toughest part of its schedule to date. Including last week’s games at Michigan, the Irish play four consecutive weeks versus nationally ranked teams with three of those weekends on the road. The Wolverines were ranked #9/#8 when the teams met last weekend in Ann Arbor, Mich. Based on this week’s rankings, the Irish face rv/#17 Michigan State at home this week, travel next week to #7/#8 North Dakota (Nov. 26-27) and then go to Oxford, Ohio on Dec. 3-4 to face #6/#6 Miami.
MICHIGAN RECAP: Friday, Nov. 12 – Notre Dame scored twice in the third period to snap a 1-1 tie on the way to a 3-1 win over Michigan at Yost Arena. Freshman defenseman Kevin Lind (Homer Glen, Ill.) scored just 1:35 into the final period for the game winner and senior Calle Ridderwall (Stockholm, Sweden) added an insurance goal at 10:48 for the win. Nick Larson (So., Apple Valley, Minn.) got the Irish on the scoreboard first at 3:01 of the first period only to see Carl Hagelin tie the game on a breakaway goal just nine seconds later at 3:10. From there, goaltenders Mike Johnson (So., Verona, Wis.) for the Irish and Shawn Hunwick for Michigan held their respective opposition at bay until Lind’s third-period marker. Johnson finished the night with 28 saves while Hunwick had 30. The Irish did not have a power-play chance in the game while Michigan was 0-2 with the man advantage. The Wolverines were not called for one penalty in the game.
Saturday, Nov. 13 – The Michigan Wolverines scored three times in the second period to wipe out a 2-1 Notre Dame lead on the way to a 5-3 Irish victory for a split of the series. Freshmen Anders Lee (Edina, Minn.) and T.J. Tynan each had a goal and an assist in the loss for the Irish. Defenseman Joe Lavin (Sr., Shrewsbury, Mass.) scored the third goal of the game for Notre Dame. Six different Wolverines scored in the game with A.J. Treais, Matt Rust, Chad Langlais, Carl Hagelin and Greg Pateryn pacing the Michigan attack. Tynan and Lee scored in the first period for the 2-1 score. In the second, the Wolverines tied the game on Rust’s goal at 10:28 and Langlais scored 28 seconds later at 10:56 for a 3-2 advantage. Lavin evened the score at 13:58 but Michigan would go ahead to stay at 16:27 on Hagelin’s goal for the 4-3 lead. Pateryn added an insurance goal at 12:20 of the third for the final of 5-3. Notre Dame out shot the Wolverines, 37-33, in the game. Mike Johnson finished with 28 saves while Bryan Hogan had 34 stops in the Michigan goal. The Irish were 0-for-3 on the power play while UM was 0-for-2. The Wolverines did not have a penalty called against them until 6:09 remained in the game and then had three consecutive penalties called to be shorthanded for five of the final six minutes of the game.
POWER LESS: In Friday’s 3-1 win over Michigan (Nov. 12), Notre Dame did not have one power-play chance in the game. That marked the first time in seven seasons – since March 5, 2004 – a span of 258 games – that the Irish did not have a power-play opportunity in a game. In the weekend series at Michigan, the Irish did not get their first power-play on the weekend until there was 6:09 left in the third period, a span of 113:51 over the two games without a power play. In the final six minutes of Saturday’s game, the Irish did get three straight power plays.
STREAK ENDS: Senior right wing Ryan Guentzel (Woodbury, Minn.) saw his team-high and personal-best point streak come to an end after seven games (1g, 9a, 10 pts) on Sat., Nov. 13 at Michigan. Guentzel had his streak start on Oct. 15 versus Lake Superior State. Freshman T.J. Tynan has the longest current streak for the Irish as he has scored points in four straight games (3g, 4a).
LATE ADDITIONS: Center T.J. Tynan’s fast start (5g, 8a) in the first 11 games has been a key to the 7-3-1 start for the Irish. The 5-8, 156-pound center has moved in to become one of the team’s quarterbacks on the power play. The Orland Park, Ill., native wasn’t even supposed to be on this year’s team. Even though he signed a national letter-of-intent in Nov. of 2009, Tynan was going to defer and play another year with the Des Moines Buccaneers in the USHL where he was the Bucs’ leading scorer in `09-’10 and a member of the USHL’s all-rookie team. When Kyle Palmieri decided to sign with the Anaheim Ducks in early August, the call went out to Tynan and he joined the Irish roster. Freshman defenseman Kevin Lind (Homer Glen, Ill.) also signed a letter-of-intent in Nov. of `09 and was going to be playing this season with Tri-Cities in the USHL. He was asked to join the team in mid-August after Jarred Tinordi opted to play in the OHL. The 6-3, 221-pound Lind has played in all 11 games and tops the defensemen in scoring with six points (one goal, five assists), and leads the team with a +8.
ANOTHER MILESTONE: Notre Dame’s Oct. 30, 3-2 win over Western Michigan was the 200th CCHA win for Irish coach Jeff Jackson. Now in his 12th season at the Division I level, Jackson is 202-82-45 in his career in CCHA play in six seasons at Lake Superior State (1990-96) and six seasons at Notre Dame. Earlier in October (Oct. 14 vs. Lake Superior State), Jackson won his 300th career game as a Division I coach. His all-time record stands at 305-120-48 for a .696 winning percentage.
FAST START: Senior right wing Ryan Guentzel leads the Irish in scoring after 11 games with 14 points, scoring one goal and adding a career-high 13 assists. He had a seven-game point streak snapped at Michigan on Nov. 13 after getting one assist in the Nov. 12, 3-1, win. Guentzel scored his only goal of the season on Nov. 6 versus Bowling Green. The goal was Guentzel’s first since March 13, 2009 when he scored in a CCHA playoff game versus Nebraska-Omaha and snapped a 47-game, goal- less streak. Guentzel is coming off a junior year that saw him score just six points, all assists, in 36 games for the Irish. His previous best season was 2008-09 when he had four goals and seven assists for 11 points. He is currently third in the CCHA in scoring with 14 points and third in the conference in assists with 13.
FAST FRESHMEN: Freshmen T.J. Tynan and Anders Lee come into the series with Michigan State ranked 1-2 among rookies in the CCHA in scoring. Tynan has five goals and eight assists for 13 points while Lee has eight goals and three assists for 11 points. Lee’s eight goals are tops among CCHA freshmen. Defensemen Kevin Lind is fourth among CCHA rookie defensemen with six points (1g, 5a).
HOMETOWN HERO: Freshman defenseman Jared Beers (Mishawaka, Ind.) has worked his way into the Notre Dame lineup and doesn’t seem to want to come out. In five games this season, including the last three consecutively, Beers has four assists for four points and is +2 for the year. He picked up his first career points on Nov. 6 versus Bowling Green with a two-point night. Beers joins Mike McNeill `84-’88 (South Bend), Tommy Smith `88-89 (South Bend) and Carey Nemeth’93-’94 (Granger) as local players to play for the Irish. Beers played two seasons at Culver Academy and then saw action in the NAHL with the Kenai River Brown Bears (2008-09) and the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders in the USHL in 2009-10.
SO YOU KNOW: In recent years, when Notre Dame played Michigan and Michigan State, the Irish and Wolverines and Spartans would play home-and-home series. The teams were able to do that because of 12 teams in the league and each having a travel partner that they could split series with and still have the same amount of home and road games. With Nebraska-Omaha leaving the conference and the league becoming an 11-team conference, the teams no longer have a travel partner to split series, thus no home-and-home series for the Irish with Michigan and Michigan State.
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: Notre Dame’s freshmen class has played a key role in the 7-3-1 start for the Irish. In the series versus Michigan, nine of the 12 rookies saw action as only defenseman Shayne Taker (Surrey, B.C.) and goaltenders Steven Summerhays (Anchorage, Alaska) and Joe Rogers (Marysville, Mich.) did not play. The freshmen had 11 points (3g, 8a) in the series versus the Wolverines. In the first 11 games of this season, the freshman class has accounted for 23 of the team’s 39 goals (58.9%), 30 of the 72 assists (41.6%) and 53 of team’s 111 points this season (47.7%). Summerhays has two of the team’s seven wins in goal. For the year, only Rogers has yet to play in any games.
PLAYING SHORT-HANDED: Through the first 11 games of the 2010-11 season, Notre Dame has been very successful killing penalties. The Irish have killed 44-of-49 opponent power-play chances for an 89.8% success rate. While giving up just five power-play goals in 11 games, Notre Dame already has scored three short-handed markers 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.
THEâ⒬ˆSPECIALIST: Senior left wing Calle Ridderwall is second on the team in goals with six through the first 11 games this season and tied for the team lead in power-play goals with three. He has led Notre Dame in goals in each of the last two seasons, getting 17 in 2008-09 and 19 last season in 2009-10. Over the last two-plus seasons, Ridderwall has scored 42 goals with 25 of them coming via the power play. Last season, his 11 power-play goals led the CCHA. Ridderwall had 11 power-play goals in `08-’09 to match last season’s total and has two this year. His 25 power-play goals move him into a tie for sixth on Notre Dame’s all-time power-play goal list with Aniket Dhadphale `99, Tim Kuehl `90 and Kirt Bjork `83, all of whom had 25 man-advantage goals in their careers. For his career, Ridderwall has 47 goals and 27 assists for 74 career points in 128 games. He continued his strong play versus Michigan as he had his eighth career goal in 12 games against the Wolverines (10 pts.).
POWER SHORTAGE: The Irish were 0-for-3 on the power play in the series with Michigan and are now 3-for-23 over the last four games (13.0%). In 11 games this season, Notre Dame is 8-for-61 (13.1%). The Nov. 6 game at Bowling Green marked the first time this season that the Irish scored two power-play goals in one game.
FAST START: Notre Dame freshman left wing Anders Lee 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 (Oct. 8), 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 11 games of the season, he leads the team with eight goals, is tied for the top spot with three power-play goals and is fourth in points with 11 (8g, 3a). He was named the CCHA rookie of the month for October.
THE PUCK STOPS HERE: Sophomore goaltender Mike Johnson made both starts in the series at Michigan, going 1-1 with a 3.00 goals-against average while stopping 51 of 57 shots for a .895 save percentage. In the previous two series versus Bowling Green and Western Michigan, Johnson split playing time with freshman goaltender Steven Summerhays. Johnson, who started the season with a personal-best five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1), is now 5-2-1 on the year with a 2.38 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage. As a freshman, Johnson took CCHA all-rookie team honors, playing in 29 games in `09-’10, going 10-13-5 with a 2.60 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage. Summerhays is now 2-1-0 with a 3.36 goals-against average and a .828 save percentage. He owns wins over Bowling Green and Western Michigan while his lone loss came to Boston University on Oct. 10. 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. Joining Summerhays and Johnson in the Notre Dame goaltending corps is freshman Joe Rogers (Marysville, Mich.) who has yet to play this season. 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.