Nov. 27, 2001
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* The Games:
Notre Dame Fighting Irish (2-6-4/2-3-3) vs. Lake Superior St. Lakers (3-9-0/2-8-0)
* Date/Site/Times:
Saturday, Dec. 1- Sunday, Dec. 2, 2001 – Joyce Center (2,713) – 7:05 p.m./5:05 p.m. * Broadcast Information: The games can be heard live on WDND South Bend’s ESPN Radio 1620 with Dave Mager calling the action. The broadcast can also be heard via the internet at www.und.com.
BACK IN ACTION:
After being idle for the Thanksgiving holidays, the Notre Dame hockey team returns to the Joyce Center ice this weekend with a rare Saturday-Sunday series with the Lake Superior State Lakers. Game times this weekend are 7:05 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1 and 5:05 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 2. The Fighting Irish will look to get back on the winning track versus the Lakers after a tie (4-4) and a loss (4-2) at Western Michigan on Nov. 16-17.
The Nov. 17 loss snapped a three-game unbeaten streak (1-0-2) for the Irish. Notre Dame has played eight of its first 12 games on the road this season and following the weekend series with Lake Superior will close out the 2001 portion of the schedule with four road games in December including two games at Bowling Green (Dec. 8-9) and two at Princeton (Dec. 28-29). Notre Dame’s next home game is an exhibition game versus the USA Under-18 Developmental team on Friday, Dec. 21 at 7:05 p.m. After starting the season with an 0-4-1 record, Notre Dame is 2-2-3 in its last seven games. Lake Superior State visits the Joyce Center looking for its first road win of the season as the Lakers are 0-5-0 away from Taffy Abel Arena in Sault Ste. Marie. Last weekend, Lake State split a pair of 3-2 decisions at home with Bowling Green, losing Friday’s contest before bouncing back with a come-from- behind 3-2 win on Saturday.
IRISH VERSUS LAKERS:
This weekend’s games are the first of four games this season between Notre Dame and Lake Superior State. The two teams will meet in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., on Feb. 22-23, 2002. The two teams have met 30 times in the all-time series with Notre Dame trailing, 8-20-2. Since Notre Dame returned to the CCHA in 1992-93, the Irish are just 5-19-2 versus the Lakers. At the Joyce Center, Notre Dame is 5-7-2 and 3-7-2 since 1992-93. The two teams met exactly one year ago at Lake Superior with the Lakers taking 2-1 and 5-1 wins on Dec. 1 and 2, 2000. Over the last 10 meetings between the two schools, the Irish are 3-5-2. The Irish have had success at the Joyce Center in recent years versus the Lakers going 2-0-2 in the last four meetings. The last time the Irish lost at home to Lake Superior State was Nov. 28, 1997.
HEAD COACH DAVE POULIN:
Irish head coach Dave Poulin is now in his seventh season behind the Notre Dame bench. He owns an 83-127-33 (.409) overall record and is 59-93-29 (.406) in CCHA contests. Versus Lake Superior State, Poulin-coached teams are 4-10-2.
SCOUTING THE LAKERS:
Lake Superior enters this weekend tied for 11 th place in the CCHA with Alaska Fairbanks as each team has four points in the league standings. The Lakers snapped a five-game losing streak last Saturday with a 3-2 win over Bowling Green at home where LSSU is 3-4-0 on the season. Third-period goals by Chris McNamara (1:23) and Jeremy Bachusz (7:23) wiped out Bowling Green’s 2-1 lead for the 3-2 win. Freshman goaltender Matt Violin made a career-high 49 saves in the victory and was named the CCHA’s Rookie of the Week. Offensively, the Lakers are led by McNamara (5g, 1a) and Bachusz (2g, 3a). Forward Adam Nightingale also has five points on a goal and four assists. In goal, Scott Murray has played in eight games (1-5-0) with a 2.85 goals against average and a .914 save percentage. Violin has played in four games and is 1-0-0 with a 2.76 goals against and a .931 save percentage. Lake Superior has scored 19 goals (1.58 per game) while giving up 49 goals this season. The Lakers are just three-for-52 (5.8%) on the power play while their penalty killers have killed 35 of 44 (79.5%) opponent man-advantages. For more information on the Lake Superior State Lakers check their website at www.lssu.edu/athletics.
WESTERN MICHIGAN RECAP:
Notre Dame picked up a tie (4-4) and a loss (4-2) in the Nov. 16-17 series at Western Michigan. In Friday’s 4-4 tie, freshman Alex Lalonde (Newmarket, Ont.) scored the first two goals of his collegiate career and Notre Dame rallied from three, one-goal deficits to run its unbeaten streak to three (1-0-2). Connor Dunlop (Jr., St. Louis, Mo.) scored just 36 seconds into the game and Michael Chin (Jr., Urbana, Ill.) got the game-tying goal at 4:52 of the third period. Goaltender Morgan Cey (Fr., Wilkie, Sask.) made 31 saves in goal for the Irish. On Saturday night, Western Michigan’s Dana Lattery scored a pair of first-period goals and goaltender Mike Mantua made 28 stops to lead the Broncos to a 4-2 win. Chin and John Wroblewski (Jr., Neenah, Wis.) scored Notre Dame’s goals and Cey had 27 saves as the Irish fell to 2-6-4 on the year and 2-3-3 in CCHA play.
WROBO ON THE OFFENSIVE:
Notre Dame center John Wroblewski has always been known for his defensive skills, but this season, he has gone on the offensive. The Neenah, Wis., native scored his career-best third goal of the season at Western Michigan. He has also equaled his career-high for points set last season (2g, 4a). This season, Wroblewski has six points (3g, 3a) through the first 12 games.
A LITTLE CHIN MUSIC:
Junior right wing Michael Chin has regained his goal-scoring touch for the Irish. The 6-2, 210-pound winger has a two-game goal-scoring streak for the first time in his career after scoring in each of Notre Dame’s games at Western Michigan. Chin also has a career-high five-game point-scoring (3-2-5) streak. Twice this season (at Ohio State and at Western Michigan), Chin has scored the game-tying goal in 4-4 ties. Chin’s best season was his freshman year (’99-’00) when he scored six goals with seven assists for 13 points.
TURNING ON THE POWER:
The Irish are eight for 60 on the power play this season for a 13.3% success rate. Over the last four games, Notre Dame is five-for- 25 (20.0%) with the man-advantage. For the first time in almost two seasons (54 games), the Irish turned in back-to-back games with two or more power play goals. Notre Dame was two-for-10 versus Ferris State (Nov. 9) and followed with a two-for-seven per-formance on (Nov. 10). The last time the Irish scored two or more power play goals in back-to-back games was Feb. 12 and Feb. 18, 2000. Notre Dame was four-for- 10 versus Nebraska-Omaha (Feb. 12) and two-for-three versus Bowling Green (Feb. 18). David Inman leads the team with three power play goals while Aaron Gill has two and Brett Lebda, Connor Dunlop and Alex Lalonde each have one.
STREAKING IRISH:
Michael Chin has a career-high five-game scoring streak (3-2-5) and has a personal-best two-game goal scoring streak … John Wroblewski (Jr., Neenah, Wis.) has points in six of his last seven games (3-3-6) … defenseman Tom Galvin (So., Miller Place, N.Y.) has points in three of his last four games (0-5-5) … Yan Stastny (Fr., St. Louis, Mo.) has a two-game point streak (0-2-2) and Aaron Gill has points in three of his last four games (1-3-4).
BRONCO BUSTER:
The Western Michigan Broncos bring out the best in Notre Dame defenseman Neil Komadoski (So., St. Louis, Mo.). In the 4-4 tie (Nov. 16), Komadoski picked up the second multiple-point game of his career (two assists) with both com-ing versus Western Michigan. Last season, Komadoski had a pair of assists in the Jan. 12 game. In his career, the rugged defenseman has a goal and four assists for five points in six games versus the Bron-cos.
FOUR-POINT WEEKEND:
Sophomore defenseman Tom Galvin (So., Miller Place, N.Y.) scored as many points in two games versus Ferris State (Nov. 9-10) as he did in 26 games last year. Galvin turned in the first two multiple-point games of his career with a pair of assists in each contest. Last season, the 5-9, 187-pound blueliner had four assists for the year. So far this season through 12 games, Galvin has a goal and six assists for seven points. He has scored points in three of his last four games (0-5-5).
CAREER FIRSTS:
T.J. Mathieson (So., Clarksville, Md.) and Kyle Dolder (So., Hutchinson, Minn.) each scored their first collegiate goals in the 5-2 win over Ferris State on Friday night. For Dolder, his goal was also the first game-winning goal of his ca-reer. Defenseman Tom Galvin also had the first multiple point games of his career collecting two assists in each of the Ferris State games. Goaltender Tony Zasowski (Jr., Darien, Ill.) recorded the first assist of his Notre Dame career when he helped set up Brett Lebda’s second period goal in the 3-3 tie with Ferris State.
FATHER’S DAY:
So far this season when Notre Dame goaltender Tony Zasowski gets his chance to play it’s been like Father’s Day as the junior goaltender has played in a pair of 3-3 ties. Zasowski made 29 saves in a 3-3 tie at Northeastern (Oct. 27) in his first start of the year. He turned in his second 3-3 tie on Nov. 10 with a 26 save game versus Ferris State. For the year, Zasowski is 0-0-2 with a 2.77 goals against average and a .902 save percentage.
FOUR BY FOUR:
Connor Dunlop’s four-point and four-assist game on Nov. 2 versus Northern Michigan were career-bests for the junior center. The four-point game also extended his point-scoring streak to a personal-best of five consecutive games (1-9-10). Dunlop leads the Irish in scoring with those 10 points. The last Notre Dame player to get four assists in a game was defenseman Brett Lebda, who had four assists in a five-point game at Nebraska-Omaha on Dec. 20, 2000. The Irish won that contest, 7-4.
THE IN(MAN) THING:
For the second time in his Notre Dame hockey career, David Inman scored four points in a game on two goals and two assists. The most recent time came in the 5-4 Irish win at North-ern Michigan on Nov. 2. The first time came on Feb. 12, 2000 when he turned in a four-point effort (2g-2a) versus Nebraska-Omaha. With his big night at Northern Michigan, Inman now has five two-goal games in his career and five games with two assists.
LEBDA FOR THE DEFENSE:
Sophomore defenseman Brett Lebda turned in the first two-goal game of his career in the 5-4 win over Northern Michigan. For the offensive-minded blueliner, the two goals were his first of the season. In the win over Northern, Lebda also had a career-high 10 shots on goal, pass-ing his previous best of eight set in his rookie year versus Niagara at the Maverick Stampede.
PENALTY MARK:
With 24 penalties for 78 minutes in the loss to Northern Michigan, the Irish set school records for both penalties and minutes. The previ-ous record for penalties was 22 at Michigan State(3/4/00).
The previous penalty-minute record was 77 and was also set versus Northern Michigan on Dec. 12, 1981. Rob Globke (So., West Bloomfield, Mich.) led the Irish with six penalties for 31 min-utes. He received a game-disqualification penalty in the post-game penalty-parade and will have to sit out the first game versus Ferris State on Friday night.