Feb. 14, 2009
Notre Dame, Ind. – Notre Dame got goals from five separate players, scoring four times on the power play as the Fighting Irish rolled to a 5-2 win over Northern Michigan in front of a sold-out Joyce Center on Saturday night.
Billy Maday, Calle Ridderwall, Kyle Lawson and Ben Ryan scored power-play goals add Garrett Regan added an even-strength goal to lead the Notre Dame offensive attack. Gregor Hanson had a pair of goals for Northern Michigan in the loss.
The Irish power play dominated the weekend series, scoring 10 times in 16 chances. They were 4-for-8 in Saturday’s win after a 6-for-8 night in Friday’s victory.
The win improves the Irish to 23-5-3 overall and 17-4-3-3 in the CCHA, good for 40 points in league action. Notre Dame has a four-point lead over Miami with four games left in the regular season. Northern Michigan falls to 11-15-4 on the season and the Wildcats are now 8-12-4-3 in the league.
It took over 18 minutes for Notre Dame to get on the scoreboard, but when they did, they scored twice in the final 1:23 of the first period.
Maday opened the scoring when he whipped a grabbed the rebound of a shot by Brett Blatchford and fired it past starting goaltender Brian Stewart from the bottom of the left circle for his 11th of the season at 18:37. Kevin Deeth, who assisted on two goals in the game, moved the puck from the left side to Blatchford at the right point to set the play in motion.
The lead would go to 2-0 with just eight seconds left in the first when Ridderwall scored on the power play for his 14th goal of the season.
Deeth won the face off in the left circle dropping it back to Maday. The freshman right wing moved the puck across to the slot and slid a pass to Ridderwall in the right circle. Ridderwall one-timed a blast past Stewart at 19:52 to send the game to the first intermission with the Irish in command of a two-goal lead.
A penalty to Northern Michigan’s Nick Sirota carried over to the second period and it took the Irish just 30 seconds to capitalize.
Lawson snuck in from the right point where he took a pass across the crease from Erik Condra and redirected the puck off Stewart’s pads and into the goal for his third of the season and a 3-0 Notre Dame lead.
Ryan would build the lead to 4-0 with Notre Dame’s fourth consecutive power-play goal of the night. The goal came at 3:18 and was Ryan’s ninth of the season with Condra and Lawson picking up assists on the play. Ryan’s goal ended Stewart’s night in goal for Northern Michigan as Derek Janzen replaced him for the second night in a row.
The Wildcats finally broke through on Irish goaltender Jordan Pearce at 5:59 when Hanson scored his first of the night and ninth of the season to cut the Notre Dame lead to 4-1.
Hanson was at it again less than four minutes later when he whipped a shot from the right circle past Pearce at 9:18 for his second of the night and 10th of the season. For the weekend, Hanson had two goals and four assists for a six-point series.
The Irish would have an answer for Hanson’s goal as Regan scored the lone Notre Dame even-strength goal of the night. Justin White moved the puck back to the left point to defenseman Ian Cole who sidestepped a Wildcat defenseman and looked to get a shot off. Instead he moved a low hard shot in front of the net where Regan was cutting across to deflect it past Janzen for his seventh goal of the weekend.
That would close out the scoring as Notre Dame’s defense stiffened in the third, limiting the Wildcats to just seven shots on the way to the final score of 5-2.
On the night, the Irish out shot Northern Michigan by a 33-19 margin. Pearce finished the night with 17 saves while Stewart (11) and Janzen (17) combined for 28 saves in the game. The win was the 51st of Pearce’s career.
The Irish will look to get closer to their second CCHA regular-season title next weekend when they travel to Omaha, Neb., to face the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks on Feb. 20-21. Both games start at 7:05 p.m. (CT).
**IRISH NOTES**
• Notre Dame leads the nation in power-play goals with 48 and is now 48 for 190 for a 25.3% success rate. That leads the nation in that department. Boston University is second with 42 power-play goals and a 24.1% power-play percentage.
• With two assists in the game, Erik Condra now has 106 career assists and is just one assist behind Dave Poulin `82 for eight place on Notre Dame’s all-time win list. Poulin and his coaching staff recruited Condra to Notre Dame.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - FNorthern Michigan (11-15-4/8-12-3-3) 0 2 0 - 2#2/#3 Notre Dame (23-5-3/17-4-3-3) 2 3 0 - 5
ScoringBilly Maday 11 (Brett Blatchford, Kevin Deeth), PPG, 18:37; ND: Calle Ridderwall 14 (Maday, Deeth), PPG, 19:52.
Penalties: NMU: 5 for 10 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Kyle Lawson 3 (Erik Condra, Ben Ryan), PPG, 00:30; ND: B. Ryan 9 (Condra, Lawson), 3:18; NMU: Gregor Hanson 9 (Andrew Cherniwchan), 5:59; NMU: Hanson 10 (Derek May), 9:18; ND: Garrett Regan 7 (Ian Cole, Justin White), 12:55.
Penalties: NMU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 3 for 6 minutes.
Third Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: NMU: 1 for 2 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Northern Michigan 7 - 5 - 7 - 19Notre Dame 12 - 11 - 10 - 33
Goaltender Saves:NMU - Brian Stewart (23:18) 10 - 1 - x - 11 Derek Janzen (34:51) x - 7 - 10 - 17ND - Jordan Pearce (59:53) 7 - 3 - 7 - 17
Power Plays:NMU: 0 for 6ND: 4 for 8
Attendance: 2,857 (sellout)