Oct. 16, 2001
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- The Games: Notre Dame Fighting Irish (0-2-0/0-0-0) at Ohio State Buckeyes (0-0-0/0-0-0)
- Date/Site/Times: Saturday, Oct. 20, 2001 – Value City Arena (17,500) – Game time is 5:05 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 21, 2001 – Value City Arena (17,500) – Game time is 4:05 p.m.
- Broadcast Information: The game can be heard live on WHLY Radio (1620) with Dave Mager calling the action. The broadcast can also be heard via the internet at www.und.com.
ROAD TRIP: The Irish take to the road this week for a pair of CCHA league contests at Ohio State on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 20-21. Saturday’s game will start at 5:05 p.m. and Sunday’s contest will have a 4:05 p.m. faceoff time. The Irish will be looking to put one in the win column after dropping a pair of home games to Union College on Oct. 11-12 by 2-1 and 7-4 scores at the Joyce Center. Ohio State has not yet played a regular season game. The Buckeyes dropped their lone exhibition game to the USA Under-18 team by a 4-3 score on Oct. 13. OSU had three power play goals in that game – two by sophomore R.J. Umberger and one by freshman J.B. Bittner.
THE SERIES: Notre Dame and Ohio State have met 39 times in the all-time series with the Irish having a 20-15-4 edge. At Ohio State, the Irish are 9-9-3 in 21 games. Since Notre Dame returned to the CCHA beginning with the 1992-93 season, the Irish are 13-11-3 versus the Buckeyes. In Columbus in that time span, Notre Dame is 5-6-2. At the Value City Arena, Notre Dame has won once in four tries (1-3). Last season, the Irish failed to pick up a win against Ohio State, going 0-3-1 in four meetings. The lone tie came at the Joyce Center, a 2-2 thriller on Jan. 20. Ohio State won both games at the Value City Arena by 5-2 and 5-3 scores on Feb. 2-3. Notre Dame is just 1-6-0 in its last seven games in Columbus going back to the 1997-98 season. The last Irish win in Ohio came on Feb. 5, 2000, a 2-1 overtime victory.
HEAD COACH DAVE POULIN: Irish head coach Dave Poulin enters his seventh season behind the Notre Dame bench. He is now 81-123-29 (.410) and a 57-90-26 (.405) record in league play. Versus Ohio State, Poulin-coached teams are 5-11-2.
SCOUTING OHIO STATE: For more information on the Ohio State Buckeyes, check their website at www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com.
UNION UPDATE: The Irish dropped a pair to Union College in the Dutchmen’s first trip to the Joyce Center. On Thursday night, Union scored a pair of second period goals and held on for the 2-1 win. Senior David Inman (Toronto, Ont.) scored the lone Irish goal at 19:09 of the third period with goaltender Morgan Cey (Fr., Wilkie, Sask.) pulled in favor of the sixth attacker. For the game, each team had 30 shots on goal with Cey making 28 saves in his collegiate debut and Union’s Brandon Snee stopping 29. On Friday night, the Irish jumped out to their first lead of the season as defenseman Tom Galvin (So., Miller Place, N.Y.) banked a shot from along the right wing boards and near the goal line off Snee and into the goal at 11:41 of the first period. Union’s Jordy Federko evened the score at 5:03 of the second period. Inman scored his second goal in as many nights, notching a power play tally at 7:19. Union tied the game at 2-2 when Doug Christiansen scored on the power play at 8:23. The Irish took the lead back at 3:41 of the third period when sophomore Rob Globke (West Bloomfield, Mich.) was pulled down from behind on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot. The high scoring forward beat Snee with a nice move to make it 3-2 for his first goal of the season. Again Union came back. Less that two-and-a-half minutes later Jeff Hutchins scored and the Dutchmen took the lead at 7:14 when Kris Goodjohn scored shorthanded. Globke answered back with a shorthanded goal of his own to tie the game 4-4. Union went on to score the next three goals, to hand the Irish the 7-4 loss. Notre Dame outshot Union 30-23 in the game. Snee made 26 saves, while Morgan Cey made 16 for the Irish.
INJURY UPDATE: Left wing Sam Cornelius (Sr., Eden Prairie, Minn.) is out indefinitely with a cracked bone in his left wrist.
PENALTY SHOTS: Notre Dame sophomore Rob Globke scored on a penalty shot in the 7-4 loss to Union College. The talented forward was pulled down at 3:41 of the third period on a breakaway and was awarded the shot by referee Steve McInchak. Globke was able to pull Union’s Brandon Snee down and slide the puck from his backhand past the diving Snee. The penalty shot was the first for an Irish player since Feb. 5, 1998 when Brian Urick was stopped by Ohio State’s Jeff Maund. The last penalty shot the Irish had to face came on March 13, 1999 when Matt Eisler stopped Michigan’s Bill Muckalt in a CCHA playoff game.
FIVE-GOAL PERIOD: Union College exploded for five third-period goals in the 7-4 win over the Irish on Oct. 12. The last time the Irish surrendered five goals in a period was on Nov. 20, 1998 when Western Michigan scored five goals in the third period of a 9-5 Notre Dame victory. That happened 107 games ago.
FIRST TIMER: Goaltender Morgan Cey became the first Irish freshman goaltender to start the season opener since Greg Louder (1990-94) did it on Oct. 23, 1990. Louder made 36 saves in a 7-2 loss at the University of Minnesota. Cey made 28 saves in a 2-1 loss to Union College on Oct. 11. Louder went on to start all 33 games of his freshman year, playing all but 30 minutes while turning in a 16-15-2 record.
SPECIAL TEAMS: The Irish were just 1-for-16 on the power play in the two losses to Union. Notre Dame was 0-for-5 in the opener and 1-for-11 on Friday night. Several of those power play chances were short due to other penalties called. David Inman scored the lone Irish power play goal in the 7-4 loss while also giving up one shorthanded goal. The Irish killed 12 of 14 Union power plays on the weekend, including nine straight in the season opener. Union scored two power play goals on five chances in Friday’s 7-4 loss. Notre Dame scored a shorthanded goal of its own when Rob Globke got the first shorty of his career.
GOALS FOR GLOBKE: Sophomore center Rob Globke tied for the team lead in goals scored last season with 17. He picked up where he left off as a freshman with his four-point weekend versus Union College. Globke scored a pair of goals and added two assists in the series. His three-point game on Oct. 12 equalled a career high for him for goals (2) and points (3) in a game. Globke scored once on a penalty shot and once shorthanded in the game.
INMAN ACTION: With a goal in each of Notre Dame’s first two games this season, David Inman now has 36 goals for his career. He came into the 2001-02 season as Notre Dame’s top returning career scorer and now has 36 goals and 23 assists for 59 points in his career. His goal on Oct. 12 versus Union came on the power play. Inman has now scored 15 career power play goals.
PERANI CUP STANDINGS: The CCHA has reached an agreement with Perani’s Hockey World to sponsor the league’s “Three Stars of the Game” at games this season. Members of the media are asked to select the game’s three stars for which points are accumulated – 1st Star gets three points, 2nd Star gets two and 3rd Star gets one.
UNDERGRADUATE ASSISTANT COACH: Senior Brett Henning (Huntington, N.Y.) has been named an undergraduate assistant coach with the Notre Dame hockey team. Henning was a three-year regular for the Irish but was forced to retire from hockey after suffering a neck injury last September. A center iceman, Henning played in 89 games for the Irish with eight goals and 15 assists for 23 points. He recorded 30 penalties for 60 minutes and had four power play goals and one game winner.
NICE START: Freshman goaltender Morgan Cey got his Notre Dame career off to a solid start in his rookie debut Thursday night. Cey made 28 saves in the 2-1 loss to Union, giving up just two second-period goals. The Wilkie, Sask., native held the Irish in the game in the first period by making 13 saves and then stopped two breakaway’s late in the third peiod as the Irish made their comeback.
FOR OPENERS: Notre Dame’s 2-1 season opening loss to Union College on Oct. 11 gives the Irish an all-time record in season openers of 17-18-0 in the 35 years of hockey during the modern era at Notre Dame. Notre Dame is 0-3 in its last three season openers with the last win coming on Oct. 2, 1998, a 2-1 win over Wisconsin in the first game played at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis. Notre Dame is also 20-15 in its first 35 home openers. The Irish opened with a win at home last season, a 2-1 overtime win versus Wayne State.
PRESEASON ACTION: Notre Dame got its first three goals from defensemen and behind the goaltending of freshman Morgan Cey (Wilkie, Sask.) took a 4-2 win over the University of Toronto on Oct. 5 at the Joyce Center. After falling behind, 1-0, the Irish got goals from T.J. Mathieson (So., Clarksville, Md.), Brett Lebda (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Tom Galvin (So., Miller Place, N.Y.) to take a 3-1 lead into the second intermission. Toronto cut the lead to 3-2 midway through the third period, but Yan Stastny (Fr., St. Louis, Mo.) scored an insurance goal with just under three minutes left for the 4-2 win. The Irish outshot Toronto, 53-21 in the game. Cey made 19 saves to pick up the win in goal.
NEW FACE: Freshman forward Ryan Mundt (Edgartown, Mass.) has been added to the Irish roster for the 2001-02 season. The 5-7, 150-pound Mundt played last season at Martha’s Vineyard High School where he led the team in scoring with 36 goals and 37 assists for 73 points. He is that school’s all-time leading scorer. He made the team after trying out in the preseason.
ALL-Rookie Team: Sophomore Brett Lebda (Buffalo Grove, Ill.), Notre Dame’s slick skating defensemen tied for third in scoring for the Irish with seven goals and 19 assists, good for 26 points, the most by an Irish freshmen since defenseman Mark Eaton had 29 points during the 1997-98 season. Lebda led all CCHA freshmen defensemen in scoring and was fifth among all league blue liners. He was the first Irish player selected to the all-rookie team since David Inman (1998-99). Forwards Aaron Gill and Rob Globke were honorable mention selections.
Academic All-Americans: Notre Dame is the nation’s only Division I hockey program to produce a Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-American during each of the past five seasons (as part of the fall-winter at-large program). Dan Carlson kept the streak going in 2000-01 by earning third team honors with a 3.49 gpa and a double major in finance and computer applications. He joins two-time selection Steve Noble who took second-team honors in 1996-97 and first-team honors in ’97-’98, goaltender Forrest Karr who was a second teamer in ’98-’99 and left wing Andy Jurkowski who was a third team selection in 1999-2000.
Bloodlines: Four current members of the Notre Dame hockey program – senior forward Jon Maruk, junior center Connor Dunlop, sophomore defenseman Neil Komadoski and freshman forward Yan Stastny – hold a unique connection, as each of their fathers enjoyed a lengthy career in the National Hockey League.
Dennis Maruk played 14 NHL seasons-with the California Golden Seals (’75-’76), Cleveland Barons (’76-’78), Minnesota North Stars (’78-’79, ’83-’88) andthe Washington Capitols (’78-’83)-and finished as the NHL’s fourth-leading scorer in 1982 (60G-76A) while compiling 878 career points (356G-522A) in 888 games.
Blake Dunlop played 11 seasons in pro hockey (’73-’84), including NHL stints with the Minnesota North Stars (’73-’77), Philadelphia Flyers (’77-’79), St. Louis Blues (’79-’84) and Detroit Red Wings (’83-’84), while totaling 130G-274A in 550 career NHL games.
Neil Komadoski, Sr., played eight NHL seasons as a defenseman with the Los Angeles Kings (’72-’78) and the St. Louis Blues (’77-’80), totaling 16G-76A and 632 penalty minutes in 501 career games.
Rounding out the quartet is Peter Stastny who played 15 seasons in the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques (’80-’90), the New Jersey Devils (’90-’93) and the St. Louis Blues (’93-’95) is currently the 23rd all-time scorer in league history with 450 goals, 789 assists and 1,239 points in 997 games. A six-time NHL all-star, Stastny is the highest scoring European-born player in NHL history and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998. The 1981 NHL rookie-of-the-year, Stastny is currently a special assignment scout for the St. Louis Blues and will serve as general manager for the 2002 Czech Olympic team.
Notre Dame’s NHL connection doesn’t stop there. Senior Brett Henning who suffered a career-ending neck injury last season is the son of former NHL player and coach Lorne Henning who played nine seasons with the New York Islanders (’72-’81) and has been involved in coaching over the last 15 years. An original member of the Islanders, Henning compiled 73 goals and 111 assists as a forward over his 543-game career and played a major role in a four-year Stanley Cup dynasty (’80-’83). Henning served as an assistant with the Islanders from ’80-84 and ’87-’94, as head coach for the Minnesota North Stars (’85-’87) and the Islanders (’94-’95), and as a Chicago Blackhawks assistant from ’95-’98 before returning in ’98-’99 to the Islanders, as associate coach.
Freshman forward Alexander “Newsy” Lalonde also has NHL lineage as he is a distant relative of NHL pioneer and Hall of Famer, Edouard “Newsy” Lalonde. Lalonde played for the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Americans between 1917 and 1927 for a total of six seasons in which he scored 124 goals and 41 assists for 165 points in 99 games.
CCHA ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM: Notre Dame 2001 graduate and two-time team MVP, left wing Dan Carlson (Edina, Minn.) was named to the prestigious eight-player CCHA All-Academic Team for 2000-01, making Notre Dame the CCHA’s only school to produce an All-Academic honoree each of the last six seasons. Carlson led the Irish in scoring for the second consecutive season (17-25-42) and was also an honorable mention all-CCHA selection. A six-time Dean’s List student, Carlson graduated from Notre Dame with a 3.49 cumulative grade point average and a double major in finance and computer applications. Notre Dame has produced eight previous first team CCHA All-Academic selections since rejoining the CCHA in ’92-’93: Curtis Janicke and Carl Picconatto (’92-’93), Garry Gruber (’95-’96), Steve Noble (’96-’97, ’97-’98), Forrest Karr and Aniket Dhadphale (’98-’99) and Andy Jurkowski (99′-’00). During that nine-year span, only Western Michigan (10) has produced more CCHA All-Academic selections than Notre Dame’s nine.
CENTURY MEN: Left wing Dan Carlson became the fourth Notre Dame hockey player to reach 100 points for his career in the last four seasons. He finished his career with 50 goals and 82 assists for 132 career points, good for 20th on the school’s all-time scoring list. The Edina, Minn., native joins right wing Brian Urick (57G-69A) and left wing Aniket Dhadphale (61G-44A) who each reached 100 points in the 1998-99 season and center Ben Simon (44G-86A) who reached the milestone in 1999-2000. Carlson is just the fifth Notre Dame player to score over 100 points in his career since the Irish returned to the CCHA in ’92-’93. Only center Jamie Ling (1992-96) has scored more points (51-102-153) than Carlson over the past nine seasons. David Inman is the Irish player with the best chance to reach 100 points this season. The senior forward has 36 goals and 23 assists for 59 points in his career.
Closing The Deal: Notre Dame continued its success in games that the Irish took the lead into the third period. Notre Dame heads into the 2001-02 season having gone unbeaten in its last 50 games when holding the lead at the second intermission (42-0-8, including 7-0-3 in 2000-01). The last time the Irish lost after holding a second-intermission lead was Jan. 9, 1998, in the second of three games at Alaska-Fairbanks. UAF’s Sean Fraser tied the game (2-2) with a power-play goal in the third minute of the final period before Chris Kirwan converted a breakaway with 0:45 left in overtime. The Irish also are 27-4-5 since the 1998-99 season when leading after one period of play (17-3-3 over the past three seasons).
FAN FAVORITES: Notre Dame played in front of three of the top 20 crowds ever to watch Irish hockey during the 2000-01 season. Notre Dame opened the season on Oct. 7 in the Hall of Fame Classic at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., in front of 18,064 – the sixth biggest crowd in the history of the program. A weekend series at Ohio State’s Schottenstein Center Feb. 2-3 produced crowds of 12,354 and 10,451, the 14th and 19th largest crowds ever to watch Notre Dame hockey. The largest crowd ever to see the Irish play a hockey game was 21,347 on Dec. 29, 1982 when Notre Dame faced Michigan in the Great Lakes Invitational at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena. The largest regular season crowd to ever see the Irish was on January 29, 1993 when 20,247 fans saw Notre Dame play Michigan at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich.
HOMETOWNS: The 2001-02 Notre Dame hockey team features players from nine states and three Canadian provinces – Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan. In the six-year tenure of head coach Dave Poulin, the Notre Dame hockey letterwinners have hailed from 20 different states and provinces – those listed below, plus: Alaska, British Columbia, Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Prince Edward Island and Quebec.
IRON MEN: Right wing Ryan Dolder finished his Notre Dame career having played in 103 consecutive games including all 42 games in 1999-00 and all 39 this season. Teammate Dan Carlson is the only other Irish player to have played in every game over the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 seasons. He finished his career playing in 101 consecutive games. In his career, Carlson played in 158 of a possible 160 games. The only two he missed came while playing at the World Junior Championships in 1998-99. The longest current consecutive game streak belongs to sophomore Brett Lebda who played in all 39 games last season.
Midwest Magic: Notre Dame continues to reap the benefits of the rapidly-improving youth hockey programs in the lower Midwest (namely Illinois andMissouri), as one-third of the current roster includes players from Illinois (6) or Missouri (3). Four of those players also are products of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program (NTDP): junior right wing Michael Chin (Urbana, Ill.), junior center Connor Dunlop (St. Louis, Mo.) and freshmen defensemen Brett Lebda (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Neil Komadoski (Chesterfield, Mo.). Junior defenseman Evan Nielsen (Evanston, Ill.) was invited to join the NTDP but returned for his senior year at The Taft School.
Notre Dame’s other Illinois natives include two of the team’s top returning goaltenders – senior Jeremiah Kimento (Palos Hills) and junior Tony Zasowski (Darien) – plus freshman defenseman Joe Zurenko (Arlington Heights). Joining Dunlop and Komadoski from the St. Louis area is freshman forward Yan Stastny (St. Louis). Prior to 1995, the Notre Dame hockey program had produced just eight total letterwinners from Illinois and two from Missouri.
PATRIOTIC GROUP: Notre Dame’s current roster includes nine players who have past experience with USA Hockey, as members of the National Team Development Program (NTDP) and/or the National Junior Team. Notre Dame and the University of Minnesota currently have the most NTDP alums (9) with Michigan State in third with seven. That group includes senior forward Brett Henning, four members of the junior class – right wings Michael Chin and John Wroblewski, center Connor Dunlop and defenseman Paul Harris – plus three sophomores: right wing Rob Globke and defensemen Neil Komadoski and Brett Lebda (pictured above). Joining the list of NTDP alum on the Irish roster is freshman defenseman Derek Smith who was a member of the team in 2000-01.
Senior center David Inman played with the USA at the 1999-2000 World Juniors. Dunlop has played the last two years as a member of Team USA at the World Juniors, serving as team captain in ’00-’01. He was joined on that team by Globke, who made his first appearance with the national team. Globke and Lebda made the cut at the 2001 USA Hockey Summer Evaluation Camp and played in the Summer Challenge in August. Both are candidates for the 2001-02 Junior National Team.
THE PUCK STOPS HERE: All three Notre Dame goaltenders made career highs in saves during the 2000-01 season. Tony Zasowski made 40 saves twice on the season. The first came on Jan. 28 when the junior stopped 40 of 43 shots by the Yale Bulldogs in a 4-3 Notre Dame win. Less than three weeks later, Zasowski did it again, this time making 40 saves in Notre Dame’s 4-4 tie at Michigan. The 40 saves were the most by an Irish goaltender since Matt Eisler made 44 in a 3-1 loss to Michigan on Feb. 17, 1997. Senior Jeremiah Kimento turned in his career best 35-save game in a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Nebraska-Omaha on Dec. 19, 2000. Kyle Kolquist, who graduated following the 2000-01 campaign turned in his career best performance over two periods when he made 33 saves in 40 minutes in a 4-1 Irish loss at Lake Superior State on Dec. 2, 2000.
WHISTLED DOWN: Two members of the 2000-01 Irish set surpassed the Notre Dame record for penalty minutes in a season. Brett Lebda (39 penalties for 109 minutes) and Neil Komadoski (45 penalties for 104 minutes) passed the previous single season mark of 104 minutes set by Brett Bruininks (44 penalties for 104 minutes) during the 1994-95 season and Brent Chapman (46 penalties for 104 minutes) in 1985-86. Komadoski was four penalties off the school record for penalties in a season (49 – held by Steve Ely and set in 1984-85).
WINNERS: Two of the newest members of the Notre Dame hockey team were members of national champion teams during the 2000-01 season. Forwards Yan Stastny and Brad Wanchulak were members of junior hockey national championship teams in the United States and Canada. Stastny played for the USHL’s Omaha Lancers while Wanchulak played for the Camrose Kodiaks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. Stastny scored six goals and added six assists in 12 postseason games as Omaha won the USHL’s Clark Cup as league champions and then followed by winning the Gold Cup as champions of junior hockey in the U.S. Wanchulak also played a key role in helping Camrose to the Canadian national title. He was the AJHL playoff Most Valuable Player helping the Kodiaks to the AJHL title. In the Royal Bank Cup, which brings together the champions of all the Canadian junior leagues, Wanchulak scored the winning goal in the championship game versus Flin Flon.