Feb. 14, 2009
Notre Dame, Ind. – Forwards Erik Condra and Justin White and defenseman Ian Cole each scored two goals as the Notre Dame offense erupted for nine goals on the way to a 9-5 victory over Northern Michigan on Friday night at a sold out Joyce Center. Garrett Regan, Ben Ryan and Calle Ridderwall had single goals for the Irish in the win.
Phil Fox scored twice for the Wildcats while Justin Florek, Ray Kaunisto and Tyler Gron tallied for Northern Michigan. Notre Dame had six power-play goals in the game.
The win improves the Irish to 22-5-3 overall and 16-4-3-3 in the CCHA, good for 38 points in the conference. Coupled with Miami’s win over Lake Superior State on Friday night, Notre Dame has a four-point lead over the RedHawks with five games left to play in the regular season. The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for Northern Michigan and dropped the Wildcats to 11-14-4 and 8-11-4-3 in the CCHA.
Notre Dame wasted little time getting on the scoreboard in this one as they took a 1-0 lead on a power play just 1:21 into the opening period as Regan deflected a shot by Kyle Lawson past Northern starter Brian Stewart for his sixth goal of the season.
The lead would go to 2-0 at 10:05 when Condra, who finished the night with five points (2g, 3a), deflected a Brett Blatchford pass over the pads of Stewart for his ninth goal of the year.
Condra would make it 3-0 just 1:51 later at 11:56 when he drilled a shot on the power play from the right hash mark over Stewart’s glove and under the cross bar for his 10th goal of the year. Cole and Lawson picked up assists on the goal. The goal sent Stewart to the Wildcat bench with Derek Janzen taking over between the pipes.
Northern Michigan broke through on Notre Dame goaltender Jordan Pearce at 14:17 when Kaunisto scored from in front, redirecting a pass from Gregor Hanson for his sixth of the season. Hanson would finish the game with four assists on the night.
Fox would get his first of two goals on the night at 19:46 when he was able to control a loose puck in the slot and whip it past Pearce for his eighth goal of the season to make it 3-2 at the first intermission.
The Irish would get off to a fast start again in the second period as Ryan took a feed from Condra at the Northern Michigan blue line and got past the Wildcat defense. The sophomore center snapped a shot from between the hash marks over Janzen’s right shoulder for a 4-2 Notre Dame lead.
Northern Michigan answered back with a pair of goals to not the game at 4-4 as Fox got his second of the night on the power play at 4:41 and Florek tied the game with his sixth of the season at 5:24.
Notre Dame would get the final goal of the second period at 9:24, taking the lead for good as White banged home the rebound of a Regan shot for his sixth of the season to make it 5-4.
The third period saw the Irish get four power-play goals as they took advantage of a five-minute major midway through the period, scoring three times.
The first power-play goal came just 54 seconds into the period with Cole scoring on a blast from the left point. With Regan parked in front, Cole took a pass from Condra, stepped around a Northern Michigan defender and fired the puck past Janzen for his fifth of the season to give Notre Dame the two-goal lead at 6-4.
The score would stay that way until the midway point of the period. Wildcat forward Mike Maltese was called for a hitting-from-behind penalty on Irish defenseman Luke Lucyk, giving Notre Dame a five-minute power play.
Ridderwall got the first man-advantage goal at 11:32 when he snapped a shot from the slot past Janzen for his 13th of the season to make it 7-4.
Cole notched his second of the night on another bomb from the left point at 12:42 for his sixth of the year and White closed out the scoring with his second goal at 14:07 to make it 9-4. The goal was White’s seventh of the season.
For the night, the Irish were 6-for-8 on the power play for the second time this season that they had six power-play goals in a game.
Gron closed out the scoring at 16:15 with his first goal of the season for the final of 9-5.
Notre Dame out shot the Wildcats, 33-22, in the game. Pearce finished with 17 saves in the game. Stewart had five saves in 11:56 while Janzen had 19 in 48:04 minutes of play.
Eight different Irish players had multiple-point games on the night. Condra had his five points while Cole had four points (2g, 2a). Ben Ryan (1g, 2a) and Kyle Lawson (three assists) had three-point games while Teddy Ruth (two assists), White, Dan Kissel (two assists) and Regan (1g, 1a) had two-point games.
**IRISH NOTES**
• The nine goals for Notre Dame marked the second time this season that the Irish had nine markers in one game. They had nine goals on Nov. 22, versus Bowling Green. The Irish were 6-for-12 on the power play that night.
• Ian Cole’s four-point night was a career best for the sophomore defenseman. He had three points one week ago in the 4-3 win at Ohio State.
• Erik Condra’s five-point game was the third of his career. With the five points, he took over the team lead in scoring with 10 goals and 19 assists for 29 points. For his career, he now has 45 goals and 104 assists for 149 career points. That moves him into 14th on Notre Dame’s all-time points list with the 104 assists ranking him ninth all-time.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - FNorthern Michigan (11-14-4/8-11-3-3) 2 2 1 - 5#2/#3 Notre Dame (22-5-3/16-4-3-3) 3 2 4 - 9
Scoring First Period: ND: Garrett Regan 6 (Kyle Lawson, Ian Cole), PPG, 1:21; ND: Erik Condra 9 (Brett Blatchford, Ben Ryan), 10:05; ND: Condra 10 (Cole, Lawson), PPG, 11:56; NMU: Ray Kaunisto 6 (Gregor Hanson), 14:17; NMU: Phil Fox 8 (Tim Hartung, Hanson), 19:46.
Penalties: NMU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Ben Ryan 8 (Condra, Dan Kissel), 1:22; NMU: Fox 9 (Mark Olver, Hanson), PPG, 4:41; NMU: Justin Florek 6 (Andrew Cherniwchan), 5:24; ND: Justin White 6 (Regan, Teddy Ruth), 9:41.
Penalties: NMU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Cole 5 (Lawson, Condra), PPG, 00:54; ND: Calle Ridderwall 13 (Kevin Deeth, Christiaan Minella), PPG, 11:32; ND: Cole 6 (B. Ryan, Condra), PPG, 12:42; ND: White 7 (Kissel, Ruth), PPG, 14:07; NMU: Tyler Gron 1 (Hartung, Hanson), 16:15.
Penalties: NMU: 3 for 17 minutes; ND: 4 for 8 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Northern Michigan 5 - 11 - 6 - 22Notre Dame 9 - 15 - 9 - 33
Goaltender Saves:NMU - Brian Stewart (11:56) 5 - x - x - 5 Derek Janzen (48:04) 1 - 13 - 5 - 19ND - Jordan Pearce (60:00) 3 - 9 - 5 - 17
Power Plays:NMU: 6 for 8ND: 1 for 4
Attendance: 2,882 (sellout)