March 7, 2012
Notre Dame, Ind. –
– The Games: Best-of-three Second Round CCHA Playoffs – Game 1
rv/#17 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (19-16-3/12-13-3-0) at Michigan Wolverines (21-11-4/15-9-4-1)
– Date/Site/Time: Friday-Sunday, March 9-11, 2012 – Yost Arena (6,637) – 7:35 p.m./7:38 p.m./7:35 p.m.
– Broadcast Information: Radio: Notre Dame hockey can be heard live on Real Country 99.9 FM, starting with the pre-game show 20 minutes before the opening face off. Darin Pritchett will call the action for the Irish. Television: Game 2 of the series, on Saturday, March 10, will be televised live by Comcast with Ben Holden, Sean Ritchlin and Rob Otto handling the play-by-play and color analysis.
– Internet: Audio: Notre Dame will provide live audio for all three games of the series on the Notre Dame website at UND.com. Twitter: Follow the Irish hockey team on Twitter at ND_hockey.
CCHA QUARTERFINALS: Notre Dame and Michigan will meet in the best-of-three CCHA second round playoff series from March 9-11 at Yost Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Game time for all three games is set for 7:35 p.m. Saturday’s second game will be televised live by Comcast with Ben Holden, Sean Ritchlin and Rob Otto calling all the action. The game can be seen in South Bend on Comcast Cable Channel 3. Notre Dame advanced to the second round by defeating Ohio State, two games to none, last weekend at the Compton Family Ice Arena. The Irish won game one, 2-0 and followed with a 4-2 win in game two. The two wins improved Notre Dame to 19-16-3 overall. The Irish finished eighth in the CCHA regular season with a 12-13-3-0 record. Michigan had a first-round bye after finishing second in the CCHA with a 15-9-4-1 league record and is now 21-11-4 on the year. The two teams met twice in the regular season at Notre Dame with the Irish taking a 3-1 win on Jan. 20 while Michigan won, 2-1, on Jan. 21.
IRISH VERSUS WOLVERINES: Michigan is Notre Dame’s oldest hockey rival as the two teams have met 127 times in the all-time series with the Wolverines holding a 71-51-5 advantage. At Ann Arbor, Michigan is 39-23-3 all-time against the Irish. The last time the two teams played at Yost Arena was Nov. 12-13, 2010. The Irish took a 3-1 win in the opening game of the series and Michigan won the second game, 5-3. Over the last 10 meetings between the two schools, the series is tied at 5-5-0. In the CCHA playoffs, the teams have met seven times (12 games) with Michigan holding a 7-5 edge in games played. The teams have met in four series with Michigan winning three (1992-93, 2-0; 1997-98, 2-1; and 2004-05, 2-0), while the Irish won the first-ever playoff meeting in 1981-82, 2-0. The other three meetings have come at Joe Louis Arena where Notre Dame won championship games in 2007 and 2009 and last season, Michigan won the third-place game, 4-2.
ROAD PLAYOFF SERIES: The series with Michigan will be Notre Dame’s first road playoff series since 2009-10 at Ohio State. The Irish were swept in that series, 2-0. The last time Notre Dame won a road playoff series was in 2002-03 when the Irish won at Miami, two games to one, to advance to the CCHA Super Six. The Irish lost game one in that series, then got back-to-back shutouts, 1-0 and 5-0, from Morgan Cey `05 for the win. Since then they have lost series at Michigan (2004-05) and at Ohio State. The Irish are 5-16 all-time on the road in the CCHA playoffs.
IRISH CCHA PLAYOFF HISTORY: The Irish have played 60 games in CCHA playoff history and are 27-33 in those games (17-8 at home, 5-16 on the road and 5-9 at Joe Louis Arena). Notre Dame won a second round series from Lake Superior last season, then lost in the CCHA semifinals to Miami. The Irish also lost the third-place game to Michigan at Joe Louis Arena. Under coach Jeff Jackson, the Irish are 14-10 in the CCHA postseason, winning the championship in 2007 and 2009.
THE COACH AND THE PLAYOFFS: Irish head coach Jeff Jackson has had his share of success in the CCHA playoffs. In 13 CCHA seasons (six at Lake Superior State and seven at Notre Dame), Jackson is 38-12 (.760) in conference postseason play. At Lake Superior, his teams were 24-2 while at Notre Dame, he is 14-10. His teams have advanced to the finals in 10 of 12 seasons (six at LSSU and four at Notre Dame). In those previous 12 seasons, his teams won six CCHA titles (four at LSSU and two at Notre Dame).
RANKINGS: Notre Dame enters the series with Michigan receiving votes in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll and is 17th in the USCHO.com poll. Michigan is ranked fifth in the USA Today polls and is fourth in the USCHO.com poll.
OHIO STATE SERIES: Game 1 – Friday, March 2: Sophomore goaltender Steven Summerhays (Anchorage, Alaska) stopped a career-high 33 shots and Notre Dame got two goals from senior Billy Maday (Burr Ridge, Ill.) in a 2-0 shutout win over Ohio State in game one of the best-of-three first round CCHA playoff series. The shutout was Summerhays’ second in a row as he also shutout Michigan State, 2-0, on Feb. 24. Ohio State out shot the Irish in the game, 33-30. For Maday, the two-goal game was his first of the year and fifth of his career. He put Notre Dame ahead, 1-0, at the 9:08 mark of the first period. Linemate Mike Voran (So., Livonia, Mich.) took a puck off the left wing boards and fired a shot at OSU goaltender Cal Heeter. Heeter made the stop with the rebound landing in front of the crease. Maday drove on the goal and the puck bounced off his shin pad past Heeter for his 10th of the season. He would get his second of the night at 2:50 of the second period, just 17 seconds into an Irish power play. Defenseman Sam Calabrese (Jr., Park Ridge, Ill.) moved the puck from the left circle to the right point to freshman Robbie Russo (Westmont, Ill.) Russo whipped a shot towards the goal that Anders Lee (So., Edina, Minn.) deflected off Heeter. The rebound landed on Maday’s stick on the left side of the crease and he tucked the rebound home for his 11th of the season. The Irish were 1-for-4 on the power play while Ohio State was 0-for-5. Heeter finished with 28 saves in the game.
Game 2 – Saturday, March 3 – For the second night in a row, sophomore goaltender Steven Summerhays made 30-plus saves and four different players got on the scoresheet as Notre Dame defeated Ohio State, 4-2 on Saturday night in front of 4,202 at the Compton Family Ice Arena. Jeff Costello (So., Milwaukee, Wis.), Anders Lee, Mike Voran and Billy Maday scored for the Irish who rallied from a 2-1 first-period deficit with two goals in the second and one in the third on the way to the victory. Sean Duddy and Danny Dries scored the Ohio State goals. After blanking the Buckeyes on Friday night for his second straight shutout, Summerhays had his confidence tested early as the Buckeyes broke through at 4:35 of the first period with the game’s first goal as Duddy whipped a shot from the right face-off circle over his glove. Notre Dame answered back at 9:20 as defenseman Kevin Lind (So., Homer Glen, Ill.) turned an errant Ohio State pass into a goal by Costello. A Buckeye clearing attempt came up the left wing boards in the neutral zone where Lind picked it off. He went cross-rink to Costello at the Ohio State blue line where the sophomore left wing took the puck and snapped a shot from the right circle that beat OSU goaltender Cal Heeter over his glove hand to tie the game at 1-1. The goal was Costello’s fifth of the season. Ohio State had an answer for that goal as the Buckeyes converted on the power play at 17:19, for their only power-play goal in 10 chances on the weekend. Dries picked up his 13th goal of the season of a nice set up from defenseman Curtis Gedig. Whatever confidence OSU gained by getting that goal was wiped out just 2:08 into the second period when Bryan Rust (So., Novi, Mich.) set up Lee in the slot and the big left winger wasted no time burying the puck behind Heeter for his team-best 16th goal of the season. The Irish took the lead for good at 8:57 of the second stanza on Voran’s fifth goal of the season to make it 3-2. Maday won a draw in the left circle to David Gerths (So., Ankeny, Iowa). Gerths carried the puck to the slot and took a shot that was blocked. He grabbed the rebound and shot again with Heeter making the stop. Voran was at the top of the crease and the puck hit him in the hands and went off a Buckeye defender past Heeter for the goal. From there, the Irish clamped down defensively, holding Ohio State at bay through the remainder of the second and all of the third as Summerhays made 20 of his 33 stops in the final two periods. As time wound down, the Buckeyes were called for boarding with 2:38 left in the game. They pulled Heeter in goal for an extra attacker but Maday sealed the win when he grabbed a loose puck at center ice and fired it into the empty net at 19:09 for his 12th of the season and third of the weekend for the 4-2 final score. The goal came on the power play, as the Irish were 1-for-4 with the man advantage while OSU was 1-for-5.
AN IRISH SWEEP: The sweep of the Buckeyes was the first sweep for Notre Dame since knocking off Alaska – November 11-12 – at the Compton Family Ice Arena. The four-goal outburst by the Irish was the first game with three or more goals since a 4-2 win at Alaska on Jan. 28, a span of 10 games.
PITCHING A SHUTOUT: Notre Dame goaltender Steven Summerhays made a career high 33 saves in the 2-0 shutout of Ohio State on March 2. The shutout was the first for Summerhays in the post season and the first for a Notre Dame goaltender in the playoffs since March 14, 2009 when Jordan Pearce `09 blanked Nebraska-Omaha, 1-0, in game two of a second-round series. Pearce also had a shutout in game one of that series, a 5-0 blanking of the Mavericks. Notre Dame now has six shutouts in CCHA playoff action in the 22 years that the Irish have been members of the CCHA.
TWO IN A ROW: Goaltender Steven Summerhays recorded his second consecutive shutout in the 2-0 win over Ohio State on March 2. His two shutouts came after he was lifted from a game on Feb. 11 after 5:24 of the first period, giving up two goals on five shots in a loss at Miami. The back-to-back shutouts are the first for a Notre Dame goaltender since March 13-14, 2009 when Jordan Pearce `09 blanked Nebraska-Omaha in back-to-back playoff games. The back-to-back shutouts are the first for the Irish since Oct. 16 and Oct 23, 2009 when Mike Johnson (Jr., Verona, Wis.) shutout Providence, 2-0, at the Joyce Center and Brad Phillips blanked Boston University in Boston, 3-0.
HOT HAND: Sophomore goaltender Steven Summerhays has a three-game winning streak in goal for the Irish since Feb. 24. During that span, he has given up two goals for a 0.67 goals against average. He has stopped 89-of-91 shots in that span for a .987 save percentage. On the year, he is now 10-6-0 with a 2.47 goals-against and a .908 save percentage with two shutouts.
MADAY…MADAY…MADAY: With kudos to the voice of Notre Dame hockey – Darin Pritchett and his distress signal when senior captain Billy Maday scores, Maday led the Notre Dame offense in the series against Ohio State, scoring three goals and adding an assist for four points in the series. In Friday’s 2-0 win, Maday scored both goals, his first multi-goal game of the season and the fifth of his career. In Saturday’s 4-2 victory, Maday set up Mike Voran’s game winner in the second period and then added the insurance with an empty net goal in the third. Maday is third on the team in scoring with 12 goals and 14 assists for 26 points.
A SCORING CHAMPION: Sophomore center T.J. Tynan closed out the 2011-12 CCHA schedule with a short-handed goal in the 4-2 loss to Michigan State to give him nine goals and 20 assists for 29 points in 28 CCHA games. That was good for a share of the CCHA scoring title along with Michigan State’s Torey Krug. With the co-championship, Tynan became the first Irish player to win a CCHA scoring title in the 22 seasons that the team has been a member of the conference. He is just the second Notre Dame player to win a conference scoring crown as he joins Eddie Bumbacco `74 who won the WCHA scoring title in the 1972-73 season with 31 goals and 34 assists for 65 points in 28 league games.
TWO IN A ROW: T.J. Tynan now has 41 points overall for Notre Dame on 13 goals and 28 assists, giving him 40 or more points in each of his first two seasons at Notre Dame. He is the first Irish player to put together back-to-back 40-point campaigns since David Bankoske `93 recorded a 56-point season in 1989-90 and a 49-point campaign in 1990-91.
COLD, HARD FACTS: Notre Dame’s 4-2 win over Ohio State on March 3 marked the first time since Jan. 28 that Notre Dame scored three or more goals in a game. In the month of Februay, the Irish were 2-6-0, scoring just 10 goals. When Notre Dame scores two or less goals in a game, the Irish are 3-13-3. When they score three or more in a game, the Irish are 16-3-0.
IRISH VERSUS TOP-RANKED TEAMS: Notre Dame has played 23 games to date versus ranked teams and has a record of 9-11-3 in those contests. In games against the top six teams in this week’s USCHO.com poll, the Irish are a combined 6-5-0.
1. Boston College (1-0)2. Ferris State (1-3)3. Minnesota-Duluth (1-1)4. Michigan (1-1)5. Minnesota (1-0)6. Boston University (1-0)
ALL-ROOKIE TEAM: Freshman defenseman Robbie Russo (Westmont, Ill.) has been named to the 2011-12 CCHA all-rookie team. Russo is second among Irish defensemen in scoring with four goals and 11 assists for 15 points. His 15 points tie him for 15th among CCHA freshmen in scoring but he is the top freshman defensive scorer. For the Irish he is the 14th player named to the CCHA all-rookie team and is the first Irish defenseman since Kyle Lawson `10 in 2006-07 to be named to the all-rookie team.
FIRST TEAM ALL-CCHA: Sophomore center T.J. Tynan has been selected first team all-CCHA for the 2011-12 season. The conference’s leading scorer, Tynan is the first Irish player selected first team since defenseman Ian Cole was chosen in 2008-09. To date, the Irish have had four players chosen first team – Tynan, Cole, goaltender David Brown `07 and defenseman Benoit Cotnoir `99. Tynan is the first Notre Dame player to be chosen all-CCHA twice in his career in the 22 years that the Irish have been in the CCHA. He is joined by Jack Brownschidle `77 as the only Notre Dame players selected to two all-conference teams in their careers. Brownschidle was a first team all-WCHA choice in 1976 and 1977. Tynan’s current linemate – Anders Lee – was an honorable mention choice this season after being a second team choice in 2010-11.
CENTURY CLUB: Senior center Billy Maday finally became a member of Notre Dame’s “Century Club,” on Sat., Feb. 25 when he assisted on Anders Lee’s power-play goal. He is now 42nd on the all-time scoring list with 45 goals and 59 assists for 104 points. For the season, Maday is third on the team with 12 goals and 14 assists for 26 points. Inching closer to the 100-point mark is sophomore center T.J. Tynan who enters the Michigan series with 36 goals and 59 assists for 95 points in just 81 career games.
"Century Club" Name (Seasons) G A Pts1. Brian Walsh (1973-77) 89 145 2342. John Noble (1969-73) 81 145 2263. Eddie Bumbacco (1970-74) 103 117 220
40. Tim Reilly (1981-86) 43 65 10841. Aniket Dhadphale (1995-99) 61 44 10542. Billy Maday (2008- ) 45 59 10443. Bob Thebeau (1982-86) 40 63 10344. Kevin Hoene (1968-71) 50 51 101 Matt Hanzel (1985-89) 50 51 10146. Paul Clarke (1973-77) 38 62 100-- T.J. Tynan (2010- ) 36 59 95
ROLLER COASTER RIDE: The 2011-12 season has been a series of ups and downs for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Here’s how the Irish season has gone to date:
10/7-10/14: 2-2-010/21-11/25: 8-0-311/26-12/9: 0-4-012/10-1/7: 3-0-01/13-1/14: 0-2-01/20-2/4: 3-3-02/10-2/25: 1-5-03/2- current: 2-0-0 19-16-3
BACK ON TRACK: Sophomore left wing Anders Lee snapped a 15-game goal-less streak with his first-period power-play goal on Feb. 25. Prior to that goal, Lee’s last markers came on Dec. 31 when he scored twice in a 5-2 win over Boston University. The 6-3, 227-pound portsider leads Notre Dame in goals with 16 and is second on the team with 33 points. While he has struggled in the goal-scoring department since Christmas, Lee has become a playmaker with nine assists in his last 12 games.
SLOW STARTS: The Irish have been out-scored 40-25 in the first period this season. In 38 games to date, Notre Dame has surrendered the first goal in 21 of them. When the Irish give up the first goal, they are 8-12-1. When they score first, Notre Dame is 11-4-2 on the season. When Jeff Costello scored the first goal on Friday, Feb. 24, it marked the first time the Irish scored the first goal of the game since Feb. 4 in the 3-2 loss to Bowling Green.
SAM CAN: Junior defenseman Sam Calabrese (Park Ridge, Ill.) is quietly having another strong season on the Notre Dame blue line. Through the first 38 games of the season, Calabrese leads all Irish defensemen in scoring with three goals and 13 assists for 16 points. The 13 assists are a career high. He led Notre Dame defensemen in scoring in 2010-11 when he had six goals and 12 assists for 18 points.
ROAD DOGS: The Irish have now lost three in a row on the road to fall to 6-8-3 away from the Compton Family Ice Arena. In CCHA contests, the Irish are 4-7-3 away from Compton Arena. Notre Dame’s three non-league road games came at Minnesota- Duluth (a split) and at Minnesota (a win).
CLASS OF THE CLASS: Notre Dame senior defenseman Sean Lorenz has selected as one of 10 finalists for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award that honors student athletes who excel both on and off the ice and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. Lorenz is a three-time monogram winner for the Irish and serves as one of Notre Dame’s alternate captains in 2011-12. He is coming off a career year as a junior (2010-11) for the Irish where he played in 44 games with career highs in goal (4), assists (11) and points (15) while being +33 on the year. He also was the CCHA defensive, defenseman of the year and the winner of Notre Dame’s William Donald Nyrop Award as the team’s top defenseman. Lorenz This season, Lorenz is second among Irish defensemen in scoring with three goals and 10 assists for 13 points and two game-winning goals. The Irish have had six players in the six-year history of the award make the list of 10 finalists. Former Notre Dame goaltender David Brown `07 won the award in 2007.
HOME SWEET HOME: Notre Dame has closed out its home schedule and finished the year with a 12-7-0 mark in its first 19 games at the new Compton Family Ice Arena and 13-8-0 on home ice this season. In the 19 games played at the Compton Family Ice Arena this season, Notre Dame has played in front of 11 sellout crowds of 5,022, including seven of the last nine games. In the first 19 games at the CFIA, the Irish drew have drawn 91,078 for an average of 4,793 per game.
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: Freshman right wing Austin Wuthrich (Anchorage, Alaska) leads Notre Dame rookies in scoring with seven goals and 10 assists for 17 points. That ties him for 11th in the CCHA among freshman scorers. Rookie defenseman Robbie Russo (Westmont, Ill.) is right behind him with four goals and 11 assists for 15 points. That ties him for 15th among CCHA rookies in scoring and makes him the top scoring rookie defenseman in the CCHA this season. He also is tied for 9th in the CCHA among power-play scorers with four goals and eight assists for 12 points. Wuthrich was recently ranked 73rd among North American skaters in the NHL Central Scouting’s mid-term rankings. Wuthrich also is the answer to a Notre Dame trivial pursuit question – Who scored the last goal in the Joyce Center? Austin Wuthrich at 18:35 of the third period on Oct. 15.