Jan. 17, 2013
Notre Dame, Ind. –
– The Teams: #4/#5 Notre Dame (15-7-0/11-3-0-0) vs. Alaska (8-8-4/6-7-3-1)
– The Games: Friday, January 18, 2013 – Compton Family Ice Arena (5,022) – 7:35 p.m.
Saturday, January 19, 2013 – Compton Family Ice Arena (5,022) – 7:08 p.m.
– Broadcast Information: Radio: Notre Dame’s series versus Alaska will be broadcast live on Real Country 99.9 FM in South Bend. Darin Pritchett, the voice of the Irish, will call the action. Television: Saturday’s game will be televised live by CBS Sports Network. Ben Holden, Dave Starman and Shireen Saski will provide play-by-play and analysis.
– Internet: Audio/Video: Live audio streaming for the Alaska series is available on the Notre Dame website at UND.com free of charge. Live video streaming game of the Friday contest will be available on the Notre Dame website at UND.com free of charge. Statistics: Livestats can be found at ccha.com or collegehockeyinc.com. Twitter: Follow Irish hockey on Twitter at ND_hockey.
HOME SWEET HOME: Notre Dame returns home this weekend for the first time since Dec. 8 – a span of 41 days away from the Compton Family Ice Arena – to face the University of Alaska Nanooks in a weekend series. The two teams will meet at 7:35 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 18th and then again at 7:08 p.m. on Saturday, Jan.19th. When the weekend is over, Notre Dame will have played six games in 12 days, starting on Jan. 8 at Minnesota. The Irish are coming off a 4-2 loss at Bowling Green on Tuesday night, the fifth consecutive road game since Dec. 15. The Irish will enter the series with Alaska with a 15-7-0 overall record and an 11-3-0-0 mark in the CCHA. They are currently first in the conference standings with 33 points, one point ahead of second-place Miami with two games in hand. Those two games will be played this weekend as the RedHawks face Wisconsin in a non-league series. Notre Dame is ranked fourth in the nation in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll and fifth by USCHO.com. Alaska visits the Irish fresh off a two-game sweep at Michigan last weekend as the Nanooks won 5-4 and 4-1 at Ann Arbor. They are currently 8-8-4 overall and 6-7-3-1 in the CCHA, good for 22 points and seventh place. Alaska is one point behind sixth-place Lake Superior and just two behind fourth-place Ferris State and Lake Superior State in the conference race.
IRISH VERSUS NANOOKS: Notre Dame and Alaska meet for the final time in CCHA regular-season action this weekend. The two teams have met 57 times in the all-time series with the Irish holding a 30-23-4 advantage. Notre Dame is 18-9-1 in games played on home ice against the Nanooks. The two teams met four times last season with the Irish taking three of the four games. At the Compton Family Ice Arena, Notre Dame took a 5-4 and a 3-2 in overtime win on Nov. 11-12, 2011. Since the 2006-07 campaign, the Irish are 9-1-0 versus the Nanooks at home with the last Alaska win in Indiana coming on Jan. 15, 2011. Since the 2006-07 season, the Irish are 14-3-1 versus the Nanooks.
NEXT FOR THE IRISH: Notre Dame will wrap up its four-game homestand with a pair of games next weekend, Jan. 25-26, versus the Ferris State Bulldogs. Friday’s game has a 7:35 p.m. start time and will be broadcast by CBS Sports Network. Saturday’s game starts at 7:05 pm.
ROUGH START IN 2013: The Irish are off to a 1-3-0 start in the 2013 portion of the schedule with losses at Minnesota, Michigan State and Bowling Green. The current two-game losing streak is the longest for Notre Dame this season. The lone win was a 1-0 victory at Michigan State on Jan. 11. The Irish have been outscored in the four games, 12-5.
AFTER A FAST START: Notre Dame saw its school-record, nine-game CCHA winning streak snapped at Michigan State on Jan. 12. The previous longest CCHA win streak was eight games and occurred from Dec. 2 to Jan. 13, 2006-07 when that team won eight straight conference games. The 11-1-0-0 start in league play was the best start ever in the CCHA for the Irish.
LAST TIME OUT: Notre Dame traveled to Bowling Green on Jan. 15 for its second consecutive Tuesday night game and was handed a 4-2 loss at the hands of the Falcons. Ryan Peltoma, Dan DeSalvo, Ryan Carpenter and Bryce Williamson paced the Bowling Green attack as the Falcons overcame a 1-0 Irish lead in the win. Bryan Rust (Jr., Novi, Mich.) and T.J. Tynan (Jr., Orland Park, Ill.) scored for Notre Dame. For just the sixth time this season, the Irish were out shot in a game as Bowling Green had a 31-22 advantage. Rust gave Notre Dame a 1-0 lead at 16:44 of the first period when he deflected a Tynan shot past goaltender Andrew Hammond for his sixth of the year. The Falcons tied the game at 13:03 of the second when Peltoma ripped a one-timer from the left point past Irish goaltender Mike Johnson (Sr., Verona, Wis.) for his first goal of the season. Just 1:20 later at 14:23, DeSalvo put Bowling Green ahead to stay when he converted a centering feed from Ben Murphy to tuck a shot past Johnson to make it 2-1. The Falcon lead would go to 3-1 at 12:19 of the third when Carpenter scored the eventual game winnier with a wrister from the bottom of the left circle that Johnson got a piece of but couldn’t keep out of the net. The goal was Carpenter’s eighth of the season. Tynan gave Notre Dame hope with a power-play goal at 17:01 to cut the Bowling Green lead to 3-2. The junior center ripped a shot past Hammond from inside the left wing circle for his sixth of the year. Any Irish hopes were dashed just 35 seconds later when Williamson closed the scoring with a shot from the top of the right circle that got through Johnson’s pads for the 4-2 final score. Johnson finished with 27 saves on the night while Hammond stopped 20-of-22 in the game. The Irish were 1-for-4 on the power play while Bowling Green was 0-for-6.
SCORING FIRST: Notre Dame’s 4-2 loss at Bowling Green snapped the 13-0-0 record that the Irish had when they scored the first goal of the game. They are now 13-1-0 when they score first and 2-6-0 when opponents light the lamp first.
THE OTHER GUY: Senior goaltender Mike Johnson made his first start since Dec. 1 in the Jan. 15 game versus Bowling Green. The Verona, Wis., native was injured in that contest at the 14:23 mark of the second period with a 4-1 lead in a game the Irish would win, 6-1. Versus Bowling Green, Johnson made 27 saves in a 4-2 loss to the Falcons. For the year, he is now 2-1-0 with a 2.76 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage. For his career, he has appeared in 94 games, making 88 starts and is 41-34-12 with a 2.64 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage with two shutouts. His 41 wins make him just one of seven Notre Dame goaltenders to win 40 or more games in his career.
THE PUCK STOPS HERE: Notre Dame junior goaltender Steven Summerhays (Anchorage, Alaska) made 30 saves in the Jan. 11, 1-0 win, over Michigan State to record his third shutout of the season and the fifth of his career. He is the first Irish goaltender to record three shutouts in one season since Jordan Pearce `09 had eight in the 2008-09 season. Summerhays has recorded all five of his shutouts in his last 24 starts, dating back to Feb. 24 of last season. His first career shutout came versus Michigan State, a 2-0, 25-save performance on that date.
WORK HORSE: Dating back to last Feb. 24, Irish goaltender Steven Summerhays has played in 25 of the last 29 games, making 24 starts. During those 25 games, Summerhays is 16-8-0 with a 1.54 goals-against average, a .940 save percentage and five shutouts. His shutout win versus Western Michigan (4-0) on Nov. 4 was the 20th win of his Notre Dame career. He is now 28-18-1 for his career with a 2.20 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage. This season, Summerhays is tied for the CCHA lead in wins (13) and is second in goals-against average (1.61). He is fourth in save percentage (.935) and tied for the league lead with three shutouts.
STINGY DEFENSE: The Irish defense ranks among the stingiest in the nation as they have given up just 41 goals in 22 games to allow 1.86 goals per contest. That ties Notre Dame for second in the CCHA and for fourth in the nation. The Irish trail Quinnipiac (1.61), Miami (1.64) and Minnesota (1.82) in allowing the fewest goals. They are tied with Canisius and Western Michigan.
CAREER YEAR: Sophomore defenseman Robbie Russo (Westmont, Ill.) now has career highs in goals (5), assists (12), points (17) and power-play goals (4) this season and he has done it in just 22 games. As a freshman, Russo had four goals and 11 assists for 15 points in 40 games. He leads all CCHA defensemen in scoring this season with his 17 points. His four power-play goals are tops on the team. Nationally, his 17 points is the fifth-best total by a defenseman.
LEAGUE LEADER: Junior center Anders Lee (Edina, Minn.) scored Notre Dame’s only goal in the 4-1 loss to Michigan State on Jan. 12. The goal was his team-best and CCHA-leading 12th of the season. He now has 12 goals and seven assists for 19 points and is tied for third in the conference scoring race. His 12 goals tie him for fifth in the country in goal scoring.
SHORT-HANDED: Since giving up two power-play goals to Western Michigan on Nov. 2, Notre Dame is 60-for-64 (.938) killing penalties over the last 15 games. Only North Dakota (11/23), Michigan State (12/7), Bowling Green (12/15) and Michigan State (1/12) have managed to beat the Irish with the man advantage. Michigan State’s power-play goal on Jan. 12 was a five-on-three advantage. Since the start of 2013, the Irish have give up just one power-play goal in 22 chances (.955). Notre Dame held Minnesota’s eighth-ranked power play to an 0-for-6 night on Jan. 8. and Michigan State was 0-for-4 on Jan. 11 and 1-for-6 on Jan. 12. Bowling Gree was 0-for-6 on Jan. 15. For the year, the Irish are 84-for-92 for a .913 success rate. That is tops in the CCHA and third in the nation. Notre Dame also has scored three short-handed goals.
ODD FACT: Until Bowling Green scored a power-play goal against Notre Dame on Dec. 15, Notre Dame had given up all six opponent power-play goals at home. The Irish are 38-of-44 on the penalty kill at home for an 86.4% success rate. On the road and on neutral ice, Notre Dame is 46-of-48 killing penalties (95.8%).
30 OR MORE: Through the first 22 games of the 2012-13 season, Notre Dame has outshot its opposition in 16 of them, getting 30 or more shots in a game all 16 times. The Irish are averaging 31.5 shots per game to 25.2 for their opponents. The 41 shots against North Dakota on Nov. 24 was a season high for Notre Dame. The 20 shots that the Irish registered against Boston College was a season low. The Irish were outshot, 31-22, by Bowling Green on Jan. 15.
PUCKS TO THE NET: Through the first 22 games this season, Notre Dame has out shot the opposition 16 times and is 12-4-0 in those games. In games that opponents get more shots, the Irish are 3-3-0. For the year, Notre Dame is averaging 31.5 shots per game while the opposition is getting 25.2 per game.
HOBEY HOPEFULS: Three members of the Notre Dame roster are under consideration for the Hobey Baker Award. Centers Anders Lee and T.J. Tynan along with goaltender Steven Summerhays are among the 78 players listed on the Hobey Baker voting website. Fans can vote for their top players at hobeybakeraward.com, now through March 10. From there, a top 10 list will be announced. That list will be paired to the Hobey Hat Trick of three finalists on April 3 with the winner announced on April 12 at the NCAA Frozen Four in Pittsburgh, Pa.
WELCOME BACK: Notre Dame has added sophomore forward Garrett Peterson (Manhattan, Ill.) to the roster for the second half of the season. Peterson sat out the first semester for personal reasons. As a freshman during the 2011-12 season, the 5-11, 196-pound center/right wing played in 20 games with two goals and two assists for four points. He was whistled for eight penalties resulting in 24 minutes and led the Irish with a +6. Peterson saw his first action of the season on Jan. 15 at Bowling Green.
CLIMBING THE LADDER: Junior center T.J. Tynan reached the “Century” mark in scoring at Notre Dame on November 15th to become the 47th player in the program’s history to reach 100 points for his career. He is now 37th on the scoring list with 42 goals and 71 assists for 113 points in 104 career games. Next to join the list should be junior center Anders Lee who now has 53 goals and 44 assists for 97 points in 105 career games.
"Century Club"Name (Seasons) G A Pts1. Brian Walsh (1973-77) 89 145 2342. John Noble (1969-73) 81 145 2263. Eddie Bumbacco (1970-74) 103 117 2204. Ian Williams (1970-74) 92 119 211
31. Alex Pirus (1973-76) 57 66 123 John Schmidt (1978-82) 28 95 12333. Jeff Brownschidle (1977-81) 30 92 12234. Ryan Thang (2006-10) 57 58 11535. Kevin Deeth (2006-10) 35 79 114 Ray DeLorenzi (1971-74) 55 59 11437. T.J. Tynan (2009 - ) 42 71 11338. Aaron Gill (2000-04) 49 62 111 Connor Dunlop (1999-03) 25 86 11140. Jack Brownschidle (1973-77) 31 78 10941. Tim Reilly (1981-86) 43 65 10842. Billy Maday (2008-12) 45 60 105 Aniket Dhadphale (1995-99) 61 44 10544. Bob Thebeau (1982-86) 40 63 10345. Matt Hanzel (1985-89) 50 51 101 Kevin Hoene (1968-71) 50 51 10147. Paul Clarke (1973-77) 38 62 100-- Anders Lee (2009 -) 53 44 97
NO RUST HERE: Junior right wing Bryan Rust is off to the best start of his Notre Dame career. In 22 games this season, Rust ranks fourth in scoring with 16 points on six goals and 10 assists. He has two power-play goals and three of his goals have been game winners. Rust leads the team with a +14 rating and he is second on the team with 60 shots on goal. As a sophomore, Rust had five goals and six assist for 11 points. His best season was his freshman campaign when he had six goals and 13 assists for 19 points.
USA-USA-USA: Freshman left wing Mario Lucia (Plymouth, Minn.) spent his Christmas break in Ufa, Russia as a member of the gold-medal winning United States World Junior Team. He is the 16th Notre Dame player to be selected to play in the championships and joins current teammates defenseman Stephen Johns (Jr., Wampum, Pa.) and center T.J. Tynan (Jr., Orland Park, Ill.) who were members of the 2012 team that finished seventh in Calgary, Alta. Lucia became the second Irish player to win a gold medal and the fifth to earn a medal since the tournament started in 1977. He joins Kyle Palmieri as a gold medal winner (Palmieri won gold in 2010) and Palmieri (bronze in 2011), Kyle Lawson `10 (bronze in 2007) and Ben Simon `00 (silver in 1997) as all-time medal winners. Lucia finished with one assist for one point in the seven games.
TURNING ON THE POWER: After going the first 13 games of the season with just seven power-play goals in seven different games, the Notre Dame power play has now scored power-play markers in six of the last nine. The Irish were 2-for-6 on Nov. 30 and 2-for-5 on Dec. 1 for a 4-for-11 mark (36.4%) versus Lake Superior State. They added a 2-for-5 night versus Michigan State on Dec. 7 before going 0-for-5 in the Dec. 8 game. On Dec. 15, the Irish were 2-for-3 on the power play against Bowling Green. Against Minnesota (Jan. 8), the Irish were 0-for-4 on the night and then scored one power-play goal in four chances versus Michigan State on Jan. 11. The Irish again scored with the power play versus Bowling Green on Jan. 15. Over the last nine games, Notre Dame is 10-for-40 (25.0%). On the season, the Irish are 17-for-99 with the man advantage and are scoring at a 17.2% clip.
MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME: Freshman left wing Mario Lucia (Plymouth, Minn.) missed the first nine games of the 2012-13 season with a broken leg that was suffered on Aug. 29 in preseason training. He returned to the lineup on Nov. 15 at Michigan and in 13 games back in action, he has scored five goals with five assists for 10 points. Three of his goals have come on the power play. He was named the CCHA Rookie of the Week twice in December and was the Rookie of the Month for December.
PLAYER OF THE MONTH: Notre Dame junior center T.J. Tynan was named the CCHA Warrior Player of the Month for the month of December. In four games, Tynan helped the Irish to a 4-0-0 record by scoring three goals with four assists for seven points. He scored one power-play goal and had a pair of game winners while being +4 for the month. Tynan scored at least one point in each game and had three games with two or more points. On the season, he is now tied for second on the team in scoring with five goals and 10 assists for 15 points in 18 games.
ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Notre Dame freshman left wing Mario Lucia was named the CCHA Gongshow Rookie of the Month for the month of December. The 6-3, 193-pound forward helped the Irish to a 4-0-0 month by scoring three goals with four assists for seven points. Two of his goals came on the power play and he was +4 over the four games. During November, Lucia recorded his first multiple-goal game (2 goals versus Lake Superior on Dec. 1) and had three multiple-point games overall. He was twice named the CCHA Gongshow Rookie of the Week (Dec. 3 and Dec. 10). In nine games this season, Lucia has five goals and five assists for 10 points and is tied for the team lead with three power-play goals.
VETERANS: The 2012-13 Notre Dame team is a definitely a veteran unit. Looking at the Irish roster, there are currently eight players that have played 100 or more games in their careers. Three others have played 91 or more games and, barring injury, should play in their 100th games this season.
VERSUS WCHA: Notre Dame’s game against Minnesota on Jan. 8 was the sixth game this season that the Irish played against teams from the WCHA. They finished their six games with a 3-3-0 mark. Notre Dame opened the year with a 3-2 win over Nebraska Omaha in the championship game of the Ice Breaker Tournament (Oct. 13). The Irish then started their home schedule with two games against Minnesota Duluth (Oct. 18-19), splitting those contests, losing 3-1, and then taking a 4-1 decision. Notre Dame picked up another split versus North Dakota (Nov. 23-24), losing the first night, 2-1, before taking the second game, 5-2. The Irish closed out the WCHA portion of the schedule with a 4-1 loss at Minnesota on Jan. 8.
BROOM TIME: Notre Dame’s sweep of Michigan State on Dec. 7-8 was the second consecutive home sweep for the Irish this season and the fourth overall. The last time that Notre Dame swept back-to-back series was during the 2010-11 season when the Irish swept Bowling Green at home on Feb. 11-12, 2011 and then won two at Ferris State the following weekend (Feb. 18-19). The last time that Notre Dame had four sweeps in a season came in that 2010-11 season when the Irish had five series sweeps.
SHARING THE WEALTH: In Notre Dame’s 5-1 win over Michigan State on Dec. 8, the Irish got goals from all four lines with the fourth line leading the way with a pair of goals. Through the first 22 games of the 2012-13 season, 16 different Notre Dame players have scored the team’s 63 goals with Anders Lee leading the way with 12. Bryan Rust, T.J. Tynan and Jeff Costello are next with six goals. Nineteen of the team’s 22 skaters have scored at least one point with Lee leading the way with 19 points Tynan follows with 18. Eight different players have scored game-winning goals for the Irish with Tynan and Rust leading the way with three.
MULTIPLE-GOAL GAMES: The Irish have turned in four multiple-goal games this season with Mario Lucia joining the list with his first career, two-goal game in the win over Lake Superior State (Dec. 1). Left wing Jeff Costello recorded the first multiple-goal game of his Notre Dame career in the 5-2 win over North Dakota (Nov. 24). Anders Lee recorded his second multiple-goal game this season in the same contest versus North Dakota and now has 10 games with two or more goals in his Irish hockey career.
FATHER, LIKE SON: With the addition of freshman Mario Lucia to the Notre Dame roster in 2012-13, the Irish now have three sons who have followed in their father’s footsteps to play hockey at Notre Dame. Mario, follows his father, Don Lucia `81, who was a defenseman for the Irish from 1977-81. He is the head hockey coach at Minnesota. Current teammate, Kevin Nugent followed his dad – Kevin Nugent, Sr., `78 who played at Notre Dame from 1974-78 and was a teammate of Lucia’s for one season. The third father-son duo is goaltender Rory Walsh `06 who played for the Irish from 2002-06. He was the first to follow his dad – Brian Walsh `77, who played for the Irish from 1973-77 and was a teammate of Nugent’s for three seasons (1974-77).
BRIGHT KIDS: University of Notre Dame athletic programs again rank as the best in the country in graduation rates, based on Graduation Success Rate (GSR) figures released by the NCAA — including first-place ratings in the sports of football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and ice hockey. Among the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision institutions, Notre Dame had the highest percentage of its sports with 100 percent scores (for the seventh time in eight years), with a .863 figure (19 of 22). In hockey, Notre Dame achieved a 100 GSR rating, to rank first (tied with Bowling Green) among Division I-A football-playing institutions. Here are the FBS institutions with scores of 65 or higher in that category:
Score Institution100 Notre Dame, Bowling Green96 U.S. Air Force Academy94 Michigan85 U.S. Military Academy, Boston College, Connecticut83 Miami (Ohio)73 Western Michigan65 Michigan State
The four-year GSR data is based upon the entering classes from 2002 to 2005. In addition to men’s and women’s basketball and hockey, other Notre Dame programs recording 100 GSR scores in the 2012 listings were baseball, men’s cross country/track, women’s cross country/track, men’s fencing, women’s fencing, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s lacrosse, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, women’s softball, men’s swimming, women’s swimming, women’s tennis and women’s volleyball.
TWO-TIMER: Freshman left wing Mario Lucia was selected as the CCHA Gongshow Rookie of the week in each of the last two weeks (Dec. 2 and Dec. 9). This past weekend, Lucia had a goal and two assists for four shots on goal and was +1 in a sweep of Michigan State. In each game of the series, the big left wing set up game-winning goals for the Irish. For the week ending Dec. 2, Lucia scored three goals in the two-game series with Lake Superior State, getting two of the goals via the power play. In the 3-2 win on Nov. 30, Lucia scored a second-period power-play goal to put the Irish in front, 2-0. He had four shots on goal and was -1 for the game. In the 6-1 victory on Dec. 1, the former Penticton Vee of the BCHL, scored two goals. The first came at 14:48 of the first period and gave Notre Dame a 3-0 lead. He added a second-period, power-play goal to give the Irish a 5-1 lead.