Jan. 4, 2006
Notre Dame, Ind. –
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• The Series: Notre Dame (6-11-1/4-7-1) at Nebraska-Omaha (11-9-0/5-7-0)
• Date/Site/Times: Fri.-Sat., Jan. 6-7, 2005 – 7:05 p.m. (CST) – Qwest Center (14,700)
• Broadcast Information: Radio: Notre Dame hockey can be heard live on ESPN Radio 1580, South Bend’s SportsCenter. Mike Lockert, “the voice of Irish hockey” will bring you all the play-by-play action.
• Internet Broadcast: At the Notre Dame website – www.und.com.
SECOND HALF STARTS: The Notre Dame Fighting Irish begin the second half of the 2005-06 season this weekend when they travel to Omaha, Neb., for a pair of CCHA games versus the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks on Jan. 6-7 at the Qwest Center. The two-game series will be the first action for the Irish since a 4-3 win over Lake Superior State on Dec. 18 at the Joyce Center. That victory gave Notre Dame a 3-3-0 mark for the month of December, the first .500 month for the Irish since November of 2004. The Irish come into the series at Nebraska-Omaha with a 6-11-1 overall record and a 4-7-1 mark in CCHA play. Notre Dame has won three of its last five games, picking up series splits with Western Michigan, Minnesota State and Lake Superior in December. The Irish won their last outing before the Christmas break, a 4-3 victory at home versus Lake Superior State. The trip to Omaha begins a month that will see Notre Dame play six of eight games away from the Joyce Center as the Irish will play at Northern Michigan and Ohio State during the month while playing host to Miami on Jan. 13-14. Nebraska-Omaha comes into the series with an 11-9-0 record and a 5-7-0 ledger in the CCHA. The Mavericks have played three times since the Christmas holidays, winning twice at home versus Alabama-Huntsville (8-5) and Yale (3-2 in ot) on Dec. 29 and 31. They also traveled to Minnesota State on Jan. 2 where they dropped a 5-2 decision on Tuesday night. Both teams will be in action next weekend as the Irish host No. 2 ranked Miami at the Joyce Center and Nebraska-Omaha travels to Ohio State on Jan. 13-14.
IRISH VERSUS MAVERICKS: Notre Dame and Nebraska-Omaha meet for the 18th and 19th times in the all-time series this weekend with the Mavericks holding an 8-7-2 record in the first 17 meetings. In Omaha, the series is tied at 4-4-1 with the Irish making their first-ever appearances at the Qwest Center. The two teams met twice last year in South Bend, Ind., with the teams tying the opening game, 1-1 in overtime, before Nebraska-Omaha won the second game, 6-3. Notre Dame’s last win in Omaha came on Jan. 3, 2003, a 5-3 Irish win at the Auditorium.
BETTER THAN A YEAR AGO: With the 4-3 win over Lake Superior State on Dec. 18, Notre Dame finished the first half of the season with more wins (6) and CCHA wins (4) than the Irish had all last season. After 18 games this season, the Irish are 6-11-1 after being 4-10-4 a year ago. After 12 CCHA games this season, Notre Dame is 4-7-1 while last year, the Irish were 2-7-3 in league play.
ENDING ON A STRONG NOTE: Senior right wing Tim Wallace (Anchorage, Alaska) finished his first half with a three-point game (2g, 1a) in the 4-3 win over Lake Superior State to take CCHA offensive player of the week honors. Wallace now has career highs in goals (8), points (15) and power-play goals (3) this season.
LAST TIME OUT FOR THE IRISH: It will be 19 days since the Irish last played a game when they take the ice versus Nebraska-Omaha on Jan. 6. They are coming off a split of a weekend series at home versus Lake Superior State. On Sunday, Dec. 18, Tim Wallace scored two goals and added an assist and defenseman Noah Babin (Jr., Palm Beach Garden, Fla.) added a goal and two assists to lead the Irish to a 4-3 win over Lake Superior State. Senior left wing Mike Walsh (Northville, Mich.) picked up the game winner on a third-period power-play goal for the win. Junior goaltender David Brown (Stoney Creek, Ont.) made 24 saves to pick up the win for the Irish. Wallace staked Notre Dame to a 2-0 lead in the first period with a goal just 41 seconds into the game and a power-play marker at 14:35. Babin’s second-period power-play goal would give the Irish a 3-0 lead before Trent Campbell cut the lead to 3-1 at 14:09 of the second for the Lakers. Walsh returned the lead to three goals at 2:46 of the third before Mike Adamek and Nathan Ward (extra attacker) cut the lead to 4-3. The Irish out shot the Lakers 31-27 in the game and were 3-for-7 on the power play. Lake Superior failed to score on four power-play chances of their own. In Saturday’s 4-0 shutout win, Lake Superior State scored three power-play goals and goaltender Jeff Jakaitis stopped all 14 Notre Dame shots he faced in the Laker victory. Derek A. Smith, Colin Nicholson and Alex Dunn scored power-play goals and Mike Adamek added a third-period, even-strength goal in the win. Lake Superior out shot the Irish, 30-14 in the game. David Brown made 26 saves for the Irish. The Lakers were 3-for-8 on the power play while the Irish were 0-for-4.
THE LAST TIME: The 4-0 shutout loss to Lake Superior on Dec. 17 marked the second time this season that the Irish were shut out in a game. Notre Dame was also shutout, 3-0, on Nov. 19 at Miami.
CLUTCH SCORER: With his game-winning goal versus Lake Superior State, Irish left wing Mike Walsh has now scored seven game-winning goals in his career among his 19 career goals. He needs just two more game winners to break into the all-time top 10 at Notre Dame.
Name GWG1. Rob Globke (2000-04) 13 Brian Urick (1995-99) 13 Dave Poulin (1978-82) 134. David Bankoske (1988-93) 125. Paul Regan (1969-73) 116. Tim Kuehl (1986-90) 10 Tom Mooney (1984-88) 10 Greg Meredith (1976-80) 109. Dan Carlson (1997-01) 9 Kirt Bjork (1979-83) 9 -- Mike Walsh (2001-Present) 7
GETTING ON THE BOARD: Notre Dame’s four-goal outburst in the 4-3 win over Lake Superior State marked the first time the Irish had scored that many goals in a game since a Nov. 11, 4-2 win over Bowling Green (a span of nine games).
ALUMNI NOTES: Two former Notre Dame hockey players were busy during the Christmas holidays. Morgan Cey `05, who is currently a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning organization and playing in Johnstown of the ECHL was selected to play for Team Canada in the 2005 Spengler Cup Tournament in Davos, Switzerland. Cey, who saw limited playing time, collected a silver medal as Canada finished second in the tournament. Former Irish scoring standout Rob Globke `04 saw his hockey dream come true as he made his NHL debut with the Florida Panthers on Dec. 28 in a 6-4 win over Boston. Globke was recalled from the Rochester Americans of the AHL on Dec. 27. He is scoreless in three games with the Panthers.
DOWNTOWN David Brown: Notre Dame goaltender David Brown comes into the series with Nebraska-Omaha having played in 11 consecutive games (10 starts). In those 11 games, Brown is 4-5-1 with a 2.58 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage. During December, Brown was 3-2-0 with a 2.07 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage as he helped the Irish to their first .500 month since November of 2004. Included in his six games in December was a 3-0, 24-save shutout of Western Michigan on Dec. 3, the fifth of Brown’s career. For the season, Brown is 4-8-1 overall in 14 appearances with a 3.16 goals-against average and a .895 save percentage. Eighteen of the 41 goals that he has surrendered have been power-play goals.
NOAH KNOWS: Defenseman Noah Babin’s three-point game (1g, 2a) was a career-high for the junior defenseman. For the season, Babin now has two goals and seven assists for nine points. His seven assists are also a career high for Babin, surpassing last year’s mark of six.
NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: Freshman right wing Erik Condra (Livonia, Mich.) leads the Irish in scoring (3g, 13a, 16 pts.) after the first 18 games this season. He is currently tied for third in the CCHA among rookie scorers with Ferris State’s Dan Riedel and trails Michigan’s Jack Johnson and Andrew Cogliano. So far this season, Condra has recorded three, three-point games. His last came on Dec. 6 in a 3-2 Irish win at Minnesota State. Condra scored the first Irish goal of the game (ppg) and then got the game winner on the deflection of a Chris Trick (Sr., Troy, Mich.) shot with nine seconds left. In between, he assisted on Josh Sciba’s (Jr., Westland, Mich.) second-period power-play goal. His other three-point games came at Denver (10/22) and versus Bowling Green (11/11). He had three assists in both of those games. His two-goal game against Minnesota State was the first multiple-goal game of his career.
CONDRA NAMED CCHA ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Notre Dame freshman right wing Erik Condra was named the CCHA rookie of the week for the week ending Dec. 11. The speedy right wing collected two goals and two assists in two games versus Minnesota State. On Dec. 6, Condra had two goals and an assist versus the Mavericks, scoring the game-winning goal with nine seconds left in the 3-2 win. On Dec. 10, he helped set up Notre Dame’s only goal in the 2-1 loss.
WALLY’S WORLD: Senior right wing Tim Wallace is having a career-year for the Irish in 2005-06. He already has career highs in goals (8), points (15) and power-play goals (3) in the first 18 games of the season. He is just two assists off his career high in that category (9, set last season). His personal-best five-game point streak (3-4-7) was snapped in the 3-0 shutout at Miami on Nov. 19. The senior right wing has three two-point games on the year and one game with three points (2g, 1a) – a career high. He has a pair of two-goal games to his credit – Oct. 28 vs. Princeton and Dec. 18 vs. Lake Superior – giving him three for his career. The third came on March 14, 2004 in the first round of the CCHA playoffs when he had a pair of goals in game three versus Western Michigan in Notre Dame’s 5-4 overtime win. Wallace continues to add to his “Iron Man” streak as he has now played in 135 consecutive games for the Irish.
ROAD WIN: The Dec. 10 win at Minnesota State snapped a 17-game road winless skid (0-15-2) for the Irish. It had been over a year since the last Notre Dame road win. That came on Nov. 26, 2004, a 3-2 win at Alaska Fairbanks. This season, the Irish are now 1-5-1 on the road and 5-6-0 at home.
GETTING BETTER EVERY DAY: Notre Dame’s penalty-killing unit that has struggled all season long has now put together four strong games in a five-game span. Over the last five games, the Irish have killed 28 of 32 opponent power-play chances (87.5%), including three power-play shutout performances. On Dec. 17, Lake Superior scored three times on eight chances as the only blemish on the recent Notre Dame record. On the year, Notre Dame has killed 99 of 126 chances for a 78.6% penalty-killing ratio. The Irish have held teams without a power-play goal in just four of 18 games this season.
THE QUICKEST AND THE LATEST: Tim Wallace’s goal at 00:09 of the first period versus Western Michigan on Dec. 2 was the quickest goal at the start of a game in Notre Dame history. It broke the mark of 12 seconds set by Sterling Black on Jan. 6, 1990 versus Arizona. Erik Condra’s goal with nine seconds left on the clock versus Minnesota State (Dec. 6) was the latest regulation-time, game-winning goal ever for the Irish, edging T.J. Jindra’s (Jr., Faribault, Minn.) short-handed game winner against Boston College last season by six seconds (19:45).
POWER-PLAY PRODUCER: Despite being shutout on the scoresheet in the last two games, defenseman Wes O’Neill (Essex, Ont.) has six points in his last five games (1g, 5a). The big defenseman recorded the first three-point game of his career at Minnesota State (Dec. 6) with three assists on the night. On the year, O’Neill has four multiple-point games and for his career, now has nine games with two or more points. On the season, the 2004 New York Islander draft choice has two goals and 11 assists for 13 points. Of his 13 points, 11 have come on the power play (2g, 9a). In his two-plus seasons with the Irish, O’Neill now has 10 goals and 35 assists for 45 points with 27 of those coming via the power play (8g, 19a).
DOUBLE-DIGIT SCORER: Junior forward Josh Sciba (Westland, Mich.) picked up his 10th goal of the season on Dec. 10 versus Minnesota State, giving him a career-high in that department. He currently had a four-game point streak (3-1-4) and a two-game goal streak (2-0-2) snapped on Dec. 17 by Lake Superior State. Both tied his career high in each category. With 10 goals and four assists on the year, he has equaled his career-high for points (14) set during his freshman year (2003-04, 7g, 7a). Of Sciba’s 23 career goals, 10 have come via the power play.
POWER SURGE: Notre Dame has scored two or more power-play goals in three of its last five games, going 7-for-30 (23.3%) in that span. After going 4-for-45 (8.9%) on the power play through the first six games of the season, the Irish have now scored 17 times on 79 chances (21.5%) with the man advantage in the last 12 contests. Overall, the Irish are 21-for-124 (16.9%) through the first 18 games of the season.
FIVE AND COUNTING: David Brown’s 3-0 shutout versus Western Michigan (Dec. 3) was the fifth of his career and first this season. The junior puck stopper had four in his freshman year of 2003-04. The shutout moves him into sole possession of second place in the Irish record book for shutouts with five. Only Morgan Cey `05, with six, has more shutouts than Brown in Notre Dame history.
TWO AT A TIME: Senior left wing Mike Walsh recorded his second multiple-point game of the season on Dec. 3 in the 3-0 win over Western Michigan. In 18 games this season, Walsh has four goals and three assists for seven points. His other two-point game (1g, 1a) came in Notre Dame’s 9-4 win over Bowling Green on Nov. 10.
CAREER YEAR: Mark Van Guilder’s (So., Roseville, Minn.) three-point game (three assists) versus Western Michigan (Dec. 3) was the first of his Irish career and the third multiple-point game of his career. With two goals and eight assists for 10 points, Van Guilder already has career highs in assists (8) and points (10) in the first 14 games this season.
ON A TEAR: Senior left wing Matt Amado (Surrey, B.C.) has scored a career-high seven goals in the first 18 games of the season for the Irish. In each of his first three seasons, the speedy winger had just five goals. His two-goal game versus Bowling Green on Nov. 11 was the first multiple-goal game of his Notre Dame career.
LOOKING FOR GOALS: After scoring 13 goals in the weekend series versus Bowling Green (Nov. 10-11), the Irish have been held to just 19 goals in the last 10 games (1.90), including the four-goal outburst on Dec. 18 versus Lake Superior. For the season, the Irish have 48 goals in 18 games (2.67).
ALL TIED UP: The Nov. 19 tie with Miami gives Notre Dame 50 overtime games that the Irish have been involved in since the start of the 1999-2000 season. In those games, they are 7-6-37. During the 2004-05 season, Notre Dame played in nine overtime contests, going 1-2-6 in those games. The lone overtime win came on Dec. 10 versus Michigan State and was the first regular-season overtime win since Jan. 25, 2002, snapping a 16-game winless (0-2-14) skid in regular-season overtime games.
IRON MEN: Junior right wing Tim Wallace has played in all 135 games during his three-plus seasons at Notre Dame. He became Notre Dame’s all-time “Iron Man,” passing former defenseman Evan Nielsen (`03) who held the record with 114 games between 2000-03. Other Irish consecutive game streaks of 35 games or more include:
Chris Trick – 57 games
Mark Van Guilder – 56 games
Mike Walsh – 51 games
Van Guilder joins Wallace as the only two players with two or more years experience on the Irish roster who have not missed a game during their careers.
SCORING BY CLASS: Here’s how Notre Dame scoring breaks down by classes this season.
Class (Skaters) Goals Assists PointsSeniors (5) 19 16 35Juniors (7) 19 30 49Sophomores (8) 4 16 20Freshmen (4) 6 15 21Totals 48 77 125
GETTING INVOLVED: The Notre Dame defense had a big hand in the Irish win at Minnesota State, picking up four assists in the game. Wes O’Neill assisted on all three goals and Chris Trick’s shot was deflected by Erik Condra with nine seconds left for the game winner. In the series sweep versus Bowling Green (Nov. 10-11), the defense contributed 11 points (all assists). Noah Babin and Brock Sheahan (So., Lethbridge, Alb.) led the way with three assists each. Chris Trick and Wes O’Neill had two points each while Tom Sawatske (Jr., Duluth, Minn.) had one assist in the two games. For Trick and Sheahan, the two-point games were the first multiple-point games of their careers. In 18 games this season, the Irish defense has four goals and 29 assists for 33 points.
IRISH ADD FOUR: Head coach Jeff Jackson has annouced that Christian Minella (Aurora, Colo.) has signed a national letter-of-intent to attend Notre Dame beginning in the fall of 2006. Minella is a 6-2, 200-pound right wing who is currently playing for the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers. In 300 games for the Stampede, Minella has nine goals and six assists for 15 points. Minella joins Kevin Deeth (Gig Harbor, Wash.), Kyle Lawson (New Hudson, Mich.) and Ryan Thang (Edina, Minn.) who signed national letters-of-intent to attend Notre Dame but deferred to the 2006-07 season. Deeth, a center, is currently the leading scorer for the Green Bay Gamblers (31 gp, 11-20-31); Lawson, a defenseman, is a member of the Tri-City Storm (27gp, 6-8-14-9) and Thang, a right wing, is in his second season with the Sioux Falls Stampede (29 gp, 8-10-18).
HATS OFF: Junior center Josh Sciba recorded the first hat trick of his career in the 9-4 win over Bowling Green on Nov. 10. Sciba scored two goals on the power play and then added a short-handed marker to cap his evening. He followed that with a third power-play goal of the weekend when he scored in Friday’s 4-2 win over the Falcons. Sciba’s hat trick was the first for a Notre Dame player since March 18, 2004 when Aaron Gill `04 scored three goals in a 6-5 Irish loss to Ohio State in the first round of the CCHA Super Six. His hat trick was also the first for a Notre Dame player at the Joyce Center since Aniket Dhadphale `99 scored three on November 13, 1998 in a 6-2 win over Bowling Green. Before Sciba’s hat trick, the last five Irish three-goal efforts came on the road.
FAST START: Freshman Erik Condra’s three-point game (0g, 3a) versus Denver was the first three-point game by an Irish rookie since Brett Lebda `04 had five points (1g, 4a) versus Nebraska-Omaha on Dec. 20, 2000. His three-point game was the first for the Irish since Nov. 5, 2004 when both Mike Walsh and Cory McLean `05 had three points versus Bowling Green in a 4-4 tie. The speedy right wing picked up his second three-point game of the year with three assists against Bowling Green on Nov. 10 and added his third on Dec. 6 (2g, 1a) in the 3-2 win at Minnesota State.
FLUSHING AWAY THE LOSSES: When new Irish head hockey coach Jeff Jackson met with his team for the first time in the 2005-06 school year, they went over team rules, regulations, set up schedules and met with other administrators. At the end of the meeting, he gave the team’s returning players an index card to write down everything that they hated from the previous season (a 5-27-6 year that ended in a 19-game winless skid – 0-17-2). After doing that, the team went to where center ice would be at the Joyce Center rink and threw the cards into a waste basket to burn them, symbolizing that the previous year was done and it was time to move on. Jackson had the ashes placed in a jar that was kept in the locker room to remind everyone about the previous season. “I thought that it was would be good to keep them as a reminder of what happens when you’re not committed,” said Jackson. On Saturday night (Oct. 29) following the first period at home versus Princeton, after starting the season at 0-3 and coming off a bad second period performance the night before (in a 5-3 loss to the Tigers), Jackson walked into the locker room and before talking to the team, took the ashes into the restroom and flushed them down the toilet. “With the first three games, our second periods were horrible, so we flushed last year away,” said Jackson. “They (the players) laughed a little, but the toilet flushed and last year is behind us. Those losses from last year were still lingering over the team and I’m just glad it’s behind them and that now we can move on.” The Irish went out and scored two goals in the second period in the 2-0 win and the winless skid was over.
IRISH SPECIAL TEAMS Here’s a game-by-game look at Notre Dame’s special teams this season:
POWER PLAY PEN. KILLINGGame G-Chances Kills-Opp@CC 0-4 6-7@DU 2-8 (2 SHG) 7-9PRINCE 0-10 5-7PRINCE 1-8 9-9MICH 1-10 3-7@MICH 0-5 3-6BGSU 4-10 5-7 (SHG)BGSU 1-8 8-9@MIA 2-4 5-6@MIA 0-4 (SHG) 2-3OSU 1-9 7-9OSU 2-10 7-9at WMU 0-4 4-6WMU 2-5 6-6at MSM 2-7 6-7MSM 0-7 (SHG) 7-7LSSU 0-4 5-8LSSU 3-7 4-4Home 15-88 (17.0%) 66-82 (80.5%)Away 6-36 (16.7%) 33-44 (75.0%)Neutral 0-0 (0.0%) 0-0 (0.0%)Totals 21-124 (16.9%) 99-126 (78.6%)
NOTRE DAME'S RECORD WHEN....When Notre Dame scores first 5-2-1When opponents score first 1-9-0When Notre Dame leads after one period 3-0-0When Notre Dame trails after one period 0-6-0When score is tied after one period 3-5-1When Notre Dame leads after two periods 6-0-1When Notre Dame trails after two periods 0-11-0When score is tied after two periods 0-0-0When Notre Dame outshoots opponent 3-2-0When opponent outshoots Notre Dame 3-7-1When shots are even 0-2-0In Game 1 of CCHA weekend series 1-4-1In Game 2 of CCHA weekend series 3-3-0In one-goal games 2-2-0In two-goal games 2-4-0Notre Dame at home 5-6-0Notre Dame on the road 1-5-1Notre Dame on neutral ice 0-0-0Notre Dame in overtime 0-0-1Notre Dame in October 1-3-0Notre Dame in November 2-5-1Notre Dame in December 3-3-0Notre Dame in January 0-0-0Notre Dame in February 0-0-0