Oct. 3, 2010
Notre Dame, Ind. – Four freshmen – David Gerths, Mike Voran, Jeff Costello and Anders Lee – joined senior Calle Ridderwall in finding the back of the net on Sunday evening to lead Notre Dame to a 5-3 exhibition win over the University of Guelph. A fifth freshman, center T.J. Tynan, set up three of the goals as the Irish opened their final season at the Joyce Center with a preseason victory.
Jon-Thomas Macdonald, Kenneth Peroff and Thomas Kiriakou scored single goals for the Gryphons who are now 3-3-0 on the year. Guelph is located 62 miles west of Toronto, Ont., with the University of Guelph playing in the West Division of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA).
The win gives Notre Dame a 1-0-0 record in the preseason as the Irish now prepare to open the regular season at the Warrior College Hockey Icebreaker Tournament in St. Louis, Mo., on Friday, Oct. 8. Notre Dame will square off at 5:30 p.m. (CT) versus Holy Cross at the Scottrade Center, home of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. The second game of the tournament is at 8:30 p.m. (CT) between Boston University and Wisconsin. The third-place and championship games will be played at noon and 3:00 p.m. (CT) respectively on Sunday, Oct. 10.
With one game under their belts, Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson was cautiously optimistic about his young hockey team.
“Our veterans are the key to this team’s success, but with so many freshmen, if we don’t get production from those young kids, we aren’t going to be a very good team,” said Jackon following the game.
“I know that they are all capable and that bodes well for us and our future. They are already figuring things out but we still have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks.”
The Irish built a 2-0 lead early in the first period on the strength of a goal off a delayed penalty and a power-play marker off that penalty. This year if a penalty is called and a team scores on the delayed call the penalty will be enforced and give the team a power-play chance.
With a hitting-from-behind call coming on Guelph’s Zachary Lillie, Tynan went to work to set up Billy Maday for a shot from the slot. Gryphons’ goaltender Andrew Loverock was there to make the initial stop, but Gerths tucked the rebound home from the top of the crease at 6:45 for a 1-0 lead.
Just 1:20 later on the resulting power play, Voran got the score, poking in a Tynan centering bid from the right boards. Fellow freshman Jeff Costello also added an assist.
The score remained that way until the waning seconds of the opening period when some tough work from Macdonald in front of the Notre Dame goal cut the lead to 2-1.
Matt Lyall fired a shot from the slot that Irish goaltender Mike Johnson stopped but couldn’t control the rebound. Macdonald battled through traffic in front and managed to poke the puck under Johnson as the horn went off. The referees went to video replay and concluded that the goal beat the buzzer, giving Macdonald a goal at 19:59.
The score remained 2-1 until the 14:00 mark of the second period when the Gryphons capitalized on their first power-play attempt. Peroff, a defenseman, carried the puck from his own zone across the Irish blue line and deep into the zone before flipping a backhander past Johnson for an unassisted power-play goal and a 2-2 tie.
Ridderwall, Notre Dame’s leading scorer in 2009-10 put the Irish back on top at 17:39 with a set up from sophomore Riley Sheahan to send the Irish to the second intermission with a 3-2 advantage. Notre Dame out shot Guelph, 18-6, in the middle stanza.
Guelph tied the game at 3-3, just 31 seconds into the third when Kiriakou teamed with Edward Gale on a 2-on-1 short-handed bid and beat Johnson from the top of the crease to even the score.
From there, the young guns took over. Costello picked up his second point of the night when linemate Ryan Guentzel sprung him on a nice breakout pass down the right side. The freshman from Milwaukee, Wis., teamed with Tynan on a 2-on-1, using the 5-8 center as a decoy before snapping a wrist shot from the top of the right circle past Loverock for a 4-3 lead.
Lee put the game away at 18:46 when freshman defenseman Shayne Taker went tape-to-tape from his own blue line to the Guelph blue line to send Lee in on a breakaway. The United States Hockey League’s top goal scorer in `09-’10 with 35 tucked it between Loverock’s pads for the 5-3 final score.
“I saw some chemistry between some guys tonight,” said Jackson.
“I’m starting to see some things that work – power-play combination-wise, line combination-wise. I thought Mike (Johnson) played well in goal and some of our young defensemen stepped up and showed me some things too. There were positives personnel-wise, but tactically, we’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s early in the season.”
On the night, the Irish out shot Guelph by a 37-32 margin. Johnson finished with 29 saves while Loverock had 32. Notre Dame was 1-for-4 on the power play while the Gryphons were 1-for-2.
** IRISH NOTES **
* Notre Dame and the University of Guelph have met once before in a preseason game on Oct. 13, 1995 at the Joyce Center. The Irish lost that game, 2-1, with the lone goal coming from Jamie Ling ’96.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - FUniversity of Guelph (3-3-0) 1 1 1 - 3Notre Dame (1-0-0) 2 1 2 - 5
Scoring First Period: ND: David Gerths (T.J. Tynan, Billy Maday), EX, 6:45; Mike Voran (Tynan, Jeff Costello), PPG, 8:05; UG: Jon-thomas Macdonald (Matthew Lyall), 19:59.
Penalties: UG: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 0 for 0 minutes.
Second Period: UG: Kenneth Peroff (unassisted), PPG, 14:00; ND: Calle Ridderwall (Riley Sheahan), 17:39.
Penalties: UG: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Third Period: UG: Thomas Kiriakou (Edward Gale), SHG, 00:31; ND: Costello (Tynan, Ryan Guentzel), 7:20; ND: Anders Lee (Shayne Taker), 18:46.
Penalties: UG: 1 for 2 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Shots On Goal:University of Guelph 13 - 6 - 13 - 32Notre Dame 11 - 18 - 8 - 37
Goaltender Saves:UG: Andrew Loverock (59:26) 9 - 17 - 6 - 32ND: Mike Johnson (59:56) 12 - 5 - 12 - 29
Power Plays:UG: 1 for 2ND: 1 for 4
Attendance: 2,107