Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Irish Set To Face No. 1/2 Boston College At Chestnut Hill

Oct. 22, 2003

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  • The Game: Notre Dame (2-2-0) vs. Boston College Eagles (3-1-1)
  • Date/Site/Times: Fri., October 24, 2003 – Kelley Rink/Conte Forum (7,884) – 8:05 p.m. (EDT)
  • Broadcast Information: Radio – The Boston College game can be heard on WDND South Bend’s ESPN Radio 1620. Mike Lockert will call all the action. Irish hockey can also be heard live via the internet at www.und.com. Television – The game will be carried live by College Sports Television (CSTV) as part of their national game of the week package. Steve Schlanger and Billy Jaffe will handle the play-by-play and commentary.

IRISH VERSUS EAGLES: Notre Dame and Boston College meet for the 24th time in the all-time series with the Eagles holding a 14-7-2 edge in the series. The Irish and Eagles have met every year the two teams have played in football (the two schools did not play each other in football in the 1999-2000 season) since the 1995-96 season. The game has always been played on the Friday night preceeding the Saturday football game. Last season, the two teams battled to a 3-3 tie at the Joyce Center at Notre Dame as Aaron Gill (Sr., Rochester, Minn.) scored with 42 seconds left and the Irish playing with a sixth attacker to pull out the 3-3 tie. Notre Dame is winless in the last eight meetings (0-6-2) between the two schools. The last win for the Irish came on Dec. 28, 1994 at Chestnut Hill, a 3-2 win, (the last time the two teams did not play in conjunction with the football game. The two teams also met in the 2000-01 season at the Maverick Stampede in Omaha, Neb. with BC taking a 4-1 win). At Chestnut Hill, the Irish trail in the series, 6-7-1. Notre Dame is 0-2-1 in the last three games played at Kelley Rink.

VERSUS THE BEST: The last time Notre Dame faced the team ranked first in the nation came on Nov. 10, 2000 when the Irish faced Boston College at the Joyce Center. Notre Dame lost that game by a 5-3 score.

MORE CSTV: Both Notre Dame and Boston College will be making their second appearances on CSTV’s Friday night national game of the week coverage. The Irish appeared on Oct. 10 at Ohio State, taking a 5-2 win over the Buckeyes. Boston College was on last Friday, Oct. 17 at North Dakota where the Eagles fell by a 6-4 score. CSTV is currently available nationwide to more than 15 million cable and satellite homes. To find CSTV in your area, log on to www.cstv.com or call your local satellite operator. In the South Bend-Michiana area, CSTV can be accessed on DirecTV’s channel 610.

CCHA ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Notre Dame freshman goaltender David Brown (Stoney Creek, Ont.) was selected the CCHA rookie of the week for his play in the week ending Oct. 19. In Saturday’s game at Bowling Green, Brown made 40 saves in recording his first career shutout, a 3-0 blanking of the Falcons. The shutout came in Brown’s second career start and third appearance, making his shutout the earliest any Irish goaltender had ever recorded a shutout in his career. Brown also played in Friday’s 5-3 loss to Bowling Green, taking the loss by giving up two goals in the third period while making seven saves. For the weekend, Brown was 1-1 with a 1.52 goals-against average and a .959 save percentage (47 saves on 49 shots). On the season, he is 1-2-0 with a 2.17 goals against and a .943 save percentage.

IRISH VERSUS RANKED TEAMS: Notre Dame plays its third nationally ranked team in its first five games this weekend, facing the #1/#2 ranked Boston College Eagles. Notre Dame’s last game versus a team ranked first in the country came on Nov. 10, 2000 at the Joyce Center versus Boston College. The Eagles won that game, 5-3. The Irish opened the 2003-04 season with a split versus #15/#14 Ohio State, winning the opener, 5-2, before dropping the second game, 3-1. Last season, Notre Dame was 2-5-3 in 10 games versus nationally ranked teams. The Irish were 1-2-2 at home, 1-2-1 on the road and 0-1-0 on neutral ice. Notre Dame’s two wins over ranked teams came versus #14 Miami (2-1) and at #6 Michigan (4-3).

BOWLING GREEN RECAP: Goaltenders were the story of the Bowling Green series as Falcon goaltender Jordan Sigalet stole the show on Friday and Notre Dame’s David Brown took the honors on Saturday at Bowling Green. In Friday’s 5-3 Irish loss, Sigalet stopped 56 (a Bowling Green save record) of 59 Notre Dame shots, including 22 in each of the second and third periods. Kevin Bieksa, with a goal and two assists, and D’Arcy McConvey (a goal and an assist) paced the Falcons offensively. Notre Dame’s offense was led by freshman defenseman Wes O’Neill (Essex, Ont.) who had a goal and an assist. Michael Bartlett (Morton Grove, Ill.) and Cory McLean (Jr., Fargo, N.D.) had Notre Dame’s other goals as the Irish rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead. Rory Walsh (So., Milton, Mass.) started in goal for the Irish and played two periods, making 13 saves while giving up three goals. Brown took the loss, making seven saves on nine shots in the third period. Notre Dame outshot Bowling Green 59-25 in the game. The Falcons converted on two-of-six power-play chances and the Irish were one-for-eight. On Saturday, it was Notre Dame’s turn to get outshot as the Falcons fired 40 shots at Brown, while Notre Dame was getting just 17 on Sigalet. Mike Walsh (So., Northville, Mich.) got Brown the only goal he would need when he got his first of the year just 17 seconds into the game. Freshman Josh Sciba (Westland, Mich.) made it 2-0 at 2:47 of the first and Rob Globke (Sr., West Bloomfield, Mich.) closed the scoring at 1:39 of the third period. The Irish were 0-for-6 on the power play while Bowling Green was shutout on all seven of its chances.

SHUTOUT STUFF: David Brown’s 40-save effort in the 3-0 shutout of Bowling Green is the third highest save total for an Irish goaltender in a shutout win. He is surpassed only by a 44-save game by Len Moher in a 4-0 shutout of Denver on Feb. 1, 1975 and a 47-save effort by Matt Eisler in a 3-0 win over Ohio State on Oct. 25, 1996.

ON THE SIDELINES: Notre Dame will continue without the services of junior goaltender Morgan Cey (Wilkie, Sask.) and defenseman Derek Smith (Jr., Marysville, Mich.) for the game at Boston College. Cey is recovering from off-season knee surgery and returned to the ice on Oct. 1. Smith has been sidelined with post-concussion syndrome. He suffered a concussion on Jan. 4 at Nebraska-Omaha and has been sidelined since.

FIRING THE BISCUIT: Notre Dame peppered Bowling Green goaltender Jordan Sigalet with 59 shots in Friday’s 5-3 loss. The 59 shots were the most by an Irish team since Feb. 22, 2003 when they fired 56 shots at Lake Superior’s Terry Denike. Sigalet’s 56 saves are the most since Denike made 50 in a 6-3 Notre Dame win.

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: After getting shutout in their first two games, Notre Dame’s eight-member freshman class combined for three goals and four assists in the weekend series with Bowling Green. Defenseman Wes O’Neill and right wing Matt Williams-Kovacs (Calgary, Alb.) led the way with two points, O’Neill with a goal and an assist and Williams-Kovacs with two assists. Also scoring their first career goals were Michael Bartlett and Josh Sciba. Jason Paige (Saginaw, Mich.) assisted on a goal in Friday’s 5-3 loss. Goaltender David Brown picked up his first career win and shutout on Oct. 18 versus Bowling Green.

NUMBER CHANGE: Notre Dame defenseman Noah Babin (Fr., Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) will wear numbr 14 this weekend versus the Eagles. He is listed as number six in the Notre Dame hockey media guide.

SPECIAL TEAMS: There’s good news and bad news when it comes to Notre Dame’s special teams through the first four games. When it comes to killing penalties, the Irish are among the best in the nation as they’ve given up just two power-play goals on 22 chances for a 90.9% success rate. Bowling Green was 2-for-6 in its 5-3 win on Oct. 17. The Irish held Ohio State 0-for-9 in the first weekend of action and then killed seven Bowling Green power plays in the 3-0 shutout. The bad news comes on the power play, as the Irish have struggled, scoring just three goals with the man-advantage in 25 chances for a 12.0% rate. They were 1-for-14 in the Bowling Green series.

FIRST TIME OUT: With goaltender Morgan Cey on the sidelines to start the 2003-04 campaign, the Irish got outstanding play from sophomore Rory Walsh and freshman David Brown in the opening series at Ohio State. Walsh, a walk-on, who did not see any action during his freshman season, stopped 31 of 33 shots on the way to a 5-2 opening-night win. Walsh is the first Notre Dame hockey player whose father played hockey for the Irish. His father, Brian (’77), was an All-American hockey player for the Irish. A center iceman, the elder Walsh is Notre Dame’s all-time leading scorer after recording 234 career points on 89 goals and 145 assists. Brown played in Saturday’s contest at Ohio State and made 36 saves in a 3-1 loss. Both goaltenders were selected third stars of the game in Perani Cup voting by the media.

FOR OPENERS: The Irish opened the 2003-04 season with a 5-2 win at Ohio State. That gives Notre Dame an all-time record of 19-16-1 in season-opening games in the 36-year history of the program. In home openers, Friday’s 5-3 loss to the Falcons gives Notre Dame a 20-16-0 mark in first games at the Joyce Center. Last season, the Irish opened the home schedule with a 4-2 win versus Western Michigan. Head coach Dave Poulin is 5-4-0 in home openers and 4-4-1 in season openers.

FAST STARTING GLOBKE: Senior right wing Rob Globke is off to a fast start this season with four goals and two assists for six points in his first four games. He has picked up points in three of the team’s four games this year. He opened the season with a hat trick in Notre Dame’s 5-2 win at Ohio State. The hat trick was the second of his career. After not getting a point in the second game of that series, Globke had a goal and two assists versus Bowling Green last weekend. He now has 53 career goals (29th player in Notre Dame history to record 50 or more goals in his career). Globke’s hat trick in the CCHA opener marked the first time since the 1995-96 season that a Notre Dame player recorded a hat trick in the first league game of the year. On Oct. 19, 1995, Brian Urick scored four goals in Notre Dame’s 7-4 win at Alaska Fairbanks. That game was also the first victory (and second game for Dave Poulin as coach of the Fighting Irish).

MORE GLOBKE GOODIES: Senior right wing Rob Globke had the best season of his Notre Dame career in 2002-03, leading the Irish with 21 goals and 15 assists for 36 points. He now has 53 goals and 37 assists for 90 career points. He needs just 10 more points to become the 40th player in school history to reach the 100-point plateau in his career at Notre Dame. Globke’s 21 goals as a junior made him the first Irish player to score more than 20 goals in a season since Aniket Dhadphale had 25 during the 1997-98 season. The talented right winger opened the season with his first career hat trick in a 5-3 win at Minnesota-Duluth and then added two goals the following game in a 4-2 win versus Western Michigan. The five goals in two games was a first for a Notre Dame player since Tim Harberts had five in two games to open the 1994-95 season.

GAME-WINNING GOAL-GETTER: Sophomore left wing Mike Walsh scored the game-winning goal just 17 seconds into Notre Dame’s 3-0 win over Bowling Green on Oct. 18. For Walsh, the goal was the second of his career and also the second game winner in Walsh’s two seasons with the Irish. Last season, his lone goal versus Lake Superior State on Feb. 21, 2003 was the game-winning goal in a 3-2 Irish win.

THE CAPTAINS: Senior center Aaron Gill will serve as the team captain for the Irish in 2003-04. Gill was an alternate captain last season. As a junior, he finished fourth on the Irish in scoring with 13 goals and 12 assists for 25 points. Four of his 13 goals came on the power play and he recorded his first career hat trick on Oct. 19 in an 8-5 win over Western Michigan. Coach Dave Poulin announced his two alternate captains prior to the Western Ontario game (10/3). Serving as alternate captains this season are senior right wing Rob Globke and senior defenseman Neil Komadoski (Chesterfield, Mo.). Globke led the Irish in scoring last season with 21 goals and 15 assists for 36 points. Komadoski was Notre Dame’s top scorer from the blue line last year as he scored a goal and added 23 helpers. His 23 assists and 24 points were career-highs for the veteran defenseman.

SEN-CEY-SATIONAL: Junior goaltender Morgan Cey (Wilkie, Sask.) who hopes to get back into the Irish lineup by the end of October is in his third season as Notre Dame’s go-to-guy in goal. Coming into the 2003-04 season, Cey appeared in 71 of the team’s 79 games from 2001-2003 but has yet to play this year due to a knee injury suffered last summer. As a sophomore, Cey was 15-15-6 with a 2.87 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage. He is already tied for sixth on Notre Dame’s all-time win list with 30 career wins. His .911 career save percentage and last season’s mark of .912 are school records. Cey is currently tied for first with four career shutouts. In the eight career postseason games, the Wilkie, Sask., native is 4-4 with a 1.66 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage. During the first round of the 2002-03 CCHA playoffs, Cey recorded back-to-back hutouts versus Miami (a first at Notre Dame) and set a school record with 147:19 of shutout hockey.

OFFENSIVE DEFENSEMEN: Notre Dame’s roster features three senior defensemen who excel at both ends of the ice. Neil Komadoski, Brett Lebda (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Tom Galvin (Miller Place, N.Y.) combined for 11 goals and 46 assists during the 2002-03 campaign. Komadoski led all Irish defensemen in scoring with a career-best 24 points (one, goal, 23 assists). Lebda tied for seventh in team scoring with seven goals and 14 assists for 21 points. He also led the team with 139 shots on goal (also led the team in 2001-02 with 150). Galvin added three goals and nine assists for 12 points after leading Irish defensemen the previous season with four goals and 19 assists.

NHL DRAFTEES: Notre Dame has three players on the 2003-04 roster that have been selected in the National Hockey League Entry Draft. Senior Rob Globke was a second-round choice of the Florida Panthers in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. Selected 40th overall, Globke’s selection was the earliest any Notre Dame player has ever been chosen. Senior defenseman Neil Komadoski was selected in the third round of the 2001 draft by the Ottawa Senators. Sophomore left wing Mike Walsh was selected in the fifth round of the 2002 draft by the New York Rangers.

OH CANADA: Freshman defenseman Wes O’Neill was a member of Canada’s Under-18 Select team that played in this summer’s Under-18 Select World Cup tournament. O’Neill had a goal and four assists in helping Canada to a fourth-place finish. The former Green Bay Gambler also played for Team Ontario at the Under-17 World Championships in Feb. of 2003. There he had three goals and nine assists in six games. O’Neill was the second pick in the 2002 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Draft by the Kingston Frontenacs. He is the highest-drafted OHL player to decide to play college hockey.

CORY’S STORY: Junior right wing Cory McLean (Fargo, N.D.) had a breakout season with the Irish in 2002-03 as he recorded 10 goals and seven assists for 17 points. Four of his goals came on the power play. He is off to a fast start in his junior year, ranking second on the team in scoring with two goals (one ppg) and three assists for five points. As a freshman, McLean had just one goal and four assists for five points.

BRAIN POWER: Senior defenseman T.J. Mathieson (Clarksville, Md.) is a candidate for Rhodes, Mitchell and Marshall Scholarships for postgraduate studies. Mathieson owns a 3.812 grade-point average in aerospace engineering in Notre Dame’s School of Engineering. He is a two-time winner of Notre Dame’s Rockne Scholar-Athlete Award. He spent the past summer working at General Electric Aircraft Engines in Cincinnati. There, he worked doing stress analysis of high-pressure turbines for commercial aircraft engines.

FAMILY MATTERS: After having as many as four players whose fathers played in the National Hockey League, only one remains for the 2003-04 season. That would be Neil Komadoski, Jr. (Sr., Chesterfield, Mo.), whose father, 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.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Two Irish sophomore hockey players – Rory Walsh and Mike Walsh (Northville, Mich.) have fathers who attended Notre Dame. Rory Walsh’s father, Brian (’77), was an all-American hockey player for the Irish. A center iceman, the elder Walsh is Notre Dame’s all-time leading scorer after recording 234 career points on 89 goals and 145 assists. Mike Walsh’s father, Max, (’74) was an offensive lineman on the Notre Dame football team and a member of the 1973 national championship team.

CLUSTEROLOGY: The Irish finished the 2002-03 season with a 7-4-1 record versus the three other teams in their schedule cluster. Notre Dame was 4-0 versus Bowling Green, 3-1-0 versus Western Michigan and 0-3-1 versus Ferris State. This season, the Irish will face Bowling Green, Lake Superior State and Northern Michigan four times.

FIT TO BE TIED: Notre Dame’s 3-3 tie with Ohio State on Jan. 31, 2003 marked the sixth overtime game of the year for the Irish, with all six ending in ties (0-0-6). Since the start of the 1999-2000 season, the Irish have been involved in 33 overtime games and are 5-2-26 in those contests. The last time Notre Dame won an overtime game during the regular season was on Jan. 25, 2002, a 4-3 overtime win for the Irish at Miami. The Irish had two postseason games decided in overtime during the 2001-02 season (a 3-2 double overtime loss to Nebraska-Omaha and a 2-1 win versus the Mavericks).

PENALTY SHOTS: Notre Dame goaltender Morgan Cey has faced four penalty shots in his Irish hockey career, including three last season. On Feb. 28, in a 4-2 loss to Western Michigan, Cey stopped Bronco Vince Bellissimo at 14:06 of the third period. A month earlier, Jan. 25, in a 3-3 tie with Michigan State, Cey stopped Jim Slater at 16:23 of the second period. His first stop in 2002-03 came on Nov. 22 at Michigan. In that game, a 4-2 loss to the Wolverines, he stopped Milan Gajic at 12:36 of the second period. The first penalty shot Cey faced came during his freshman season when he stopped Bowling Green’s Greg Day on Dec. 8, 2001. That stop came in a 4-2 loss to the Falcons.

FOURTH TIME: Morgan Cey’s back-to-back shutouts (1-0 and 5-0) versus Miami in the first round of last season’s CCHA playoffs made him the fourth goaltender to turn the trick. The others are:

1988-1989 – Bruce Hoffort, LSSU beat Ferris State, 5-0, 3-0.
1993-94 – Blaine Lacher, LSSU beat Ohio State, 5-0, 8-0
1999-00 – Ryan Miller beat Notre Dame, 4-0 in semis and Nebraska-Omaha, 6-0 in finals.

FROZEN TUNDRA: The Irish have developed a pipeline with the Green Bay Gamblers of the United State’s Hockey League. Three members of the current Notre Dame team have played in the Land of Lombardi. Junior defenseman Joe Zurenko (Arlington Heights, Ill.) played there during the ’00-’01 season and freshmen blueliners Noah Babin (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and Wes O’Neill were teammates there last year. New assistant coach Layne LeBel also spent the past two seasons with the Gamblers.

THREE OUT OF FOUR: Notre Dame has advanced to Joe Louis Arena and the CCHA tournament in three of the last four seasons. Only two other CCHA teams – Michigan and Michigan State – have been there all four years since the 1999-2000 campaign.

U.S. JUNIOR NATIONALS: Sophomore right wing Tim Wallace was one of 43 players invited to USA Hockey’s Junior Evaluation Camp held in Lake Placid, N.Y., in August. From those 43 players, USA Hockey will select its 2004 U.S. Junior National Team that will play in the World Junior Championships in Finland. Notre Dame has sent eight players to the World Juniors since 1996-97.

NOTRE DAME PLAYERS ON JUNIOR NATIONAL TEAM: (since ’96-’97):
Ben Simon – 1996-97, 1997-98
Joe Dusbabek – 1997-98
Dan Carlson – 1998-99
Brett Henning – 1999-2000
Connor Dunlop – 1999-00, 2000-01
David Inman – 1999-2000
Rob Globke – 2000-01, 2001-02
Brett Lebda – 2001-02

YOST BUSTERS: Notre Dame’s 4-3 win at Michigan on Nov. 23 was the first regular-season win for the Irish at Yost Arena since they returned to the CCHA in 1992-93. Prior to that, the last time Notre Dame won in Ann Arbor was Oct. 22, 1982, a span of 14 regular-season games. The Irish did win a CCHA playoff game at Yost in the 1998 playoffs. In the regular season, Notre Dame is now 1-14-1 in the last 16 meetings and since 1992-93, the Irish are 2-18-1 versus the Wolverines at Yost Arena. Over the last three meetings, the Irish are 1-1-1 when playing in Ann Arbor.

GOLD MEDAL ASSISTANT: Irish assistant hockey coach, Andy Slaggert, served as an assistant coach with USA Hockey’s gold-medal winning Under-18 Select Team in August at the World Under-18 Select tournament in the Czech Republic. The 11-year assistant at Notre Dame has been involved in coaching with USA Hockey since the 1996-97 season. This was his first time for coaching on the international level.

PATRIOTIC GROUP: Notre Dame’s current roster includes eight players who have past experience with USA Hockey, as members of the National Team Development Program (NTDP) and/or the National Junior Team. Since the program began, the Irish have had a total of 13 NTDP alums grace their roster. The current contingent includes seniors Rob Globke, Neil Komadoski and Brett Lebda, junior Derek Smith (Marysville, Mich.), sophomore Tim Wallace (Anchorage, Alaska) and freshmen Noah Babin (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.), Michael Bartlett (Morton Grove, Ill.) and Josh Sciba (Westland, Mich.)

Former Irish players Brett Henning, Paul Harris, Michael Chin, Connor Dunlop and John Wroblewski are all alums of the U.S. Developmental Program.