Jan. 21, 2006
(Marquette, Mich.) … The Northern Michigan Wildcats made the most of their 16 shots on goal Friday night, scoring on five of them, in a 5-2 victory over Notre Dame at the Berry Events Center. Junior left wing Darin Olver paced the Wildcat attack with a third-period hat trick and a four-point night.
Northern Michigan also got power-play goals from Patrick Murphy and Matt Siddall in the win while goaltender Bill Zaniboni stopped 28 of 30 Irish shots on the night. Mike Santorelli added three assists in the Wildcat victory.
Notre Dame got third-period goals from Tim Wallace and Mike Walsh with Wallace’s goal coming after the Irish fell behind 4-0.
The loss snaps a three-game road unbeaten streak (2-0-1) for the Irish and drops them to 7-13-3 on the year and 5-9-3 in CCHA action. Northern Michigan improves to 14-10-1 overall and 10-8-1 in conference play.
After a scoreless first period that saw the Irish out shoot Northern Michigan by a 10-5 margin, the Wildcats would build a 2-0 lead in the second period.
Murphy put Northern Michigan up 1-0 just 1:09 into the second period when he tucked the rebound of a Nathan Sigmund shot from the left wing circle between the left post and David Brown’s pads for his fourth of the year.
The Wildcats would score on their second power-play chance of the game at 6:56 of the second period. This time Siddall would get credit for the goal as he deflected Olver’s shot from the right wing face-off dot over the glove of Brown for his fourth of the season.
The Northern power-play markers snapped a streak of 18 straight penalties killed by the Irish dating back to Jan. 7 at Nebraska-Omaha.
Olver took over the game in the third period collecting his hat trick in a variety of ways, despite the Irish equaling a season-high with 17 shots in the final stanza.
The junior from Burnaby, British Columbia wasted little time in building the Northern lead to 3-0 as he scored just 49 seconds into the final period for his eighth goal of the year. Olver took a pass in the right wing circle from Santorelli, danced around the Notre Dame defense, pulled Brown to the ice and slid the puck under the Irish goaltender.
Olver’s second goal of the night came at 7:53 of the third period when he finished off a 3-on-2 with Santorelli and defenseman Nathan Oystrick. Olver directed Oystrick’s pass behind Brown for his ninth of the season.
The Irish snapped Zaniboni’s shut out bid at 12:03 of the third as Wallace picked up his career-best 10th goal of the season when he snapped a shot from the bottom of the left wing cirle that went off the Wildcat goaltender’s blocker and into the net. Wes O’Neill and Noah Babin picked up assists on the goal.
Notre Dame kept battling, cutting the lead to 4-2 at the 17:44 mark on a deflection by Walsh in front of Zaniboni. Christian Hanson moved the puck from behind the net to Wallace at the top of the right wing circle. Wallace whipped a shot at the goal that Walsh got his stick on, deflecting it past Zaniboni for his sixth of the year.
With Brown off in favor of a sixth attacker, Olver closed out his hat trick when he took a pass from Santorelli and shot it into the open net with 26 seconds left on the clock for his 10th goal of the season and a 5-2 win for the Wildcats. The hat trick was the second of Olver’s career.
Brown finished with 11 saves in the game for Notre Dame.
The two teams close out the weekend series on Saturday night at the Berry Events Center. Game time is 7:35 p.m.
IRISH NOTES:
** Senior defenseman Chris Trick has been selected as one of seven finalists for the college hockey Humanitarian Award that goes to college hockey’s top citizen. Trick was selected, along with six other men’s and women’s college hockey players, from a group of 18 players that were nominated in December. The Award will be presented on Friday, April 7 in conjunction with the Hobey Baker Award at the NCAA Frozen Four in Milwaukee, Wis.
GAME SUMMARY
| 1 | 2 | 3 | – | F |
| 0 | 0 | 2 | – | 2 |
| 0 | 2 | 3 | – | 5 |
Notre Dame (7-13-3/5-9-3)
No. Michigan (14-10-1/10-8-1)
Scoring
First Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; NMU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: NMU: Patrick Murphy 4 (Nathan Sigmund, Nathan Oystrick), PPG, 1:09; NMU: Matt Siddall 4 (Darin Olver, Zach Tarkir), PPG, 6:56.
Penalties: ND: 4 for 8 minutes; NMU: 4 for 8 minutes.
Third Period: NMU: Olver 8 (Mike Santorelli, Matt Maunu), 00:49; NMU: Olver 9 (Oystrick, Santorelli), 7:53; ND: Tim Wallace 10 (Wes O’Neill, Noah Babin), 12:03; ND: Mike Walsh 6 (Wallace, Christian Hanson), 17:44; NMU: Olver 10 (Pat Bateman, Santorelli), ENG, 19:34.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; NMU: 4 for 8 minutes.
Shots On Goal:
Notre Dame: 10 – 3 – 17 – 30
No. Michigan: 5 – 6 – 5 – 16
Goaltender Saves:
ND – David Brown (58:54): 5 – 3 – 3 – 11
NMU – Bill Zaniboni (60:00): 10 – 3 – 15 – 28
Power Plays:
ND: 1 for 6
NMU: 2 for 4
Attendance: 3,360