Senior defenseman Sean Lorenz had four of Notre Dame's 23 blocked shots in the 3-0 loss at Miami.

Irish Sweep Northern Michigan With A 3-1 Win On Saturday Night

Jan. 8, 2011

Final Stats

MARQUETTE, Mich. – The Notre Dame hockey team used strong goaltending from sophomore Mike Johnson and timely scoring to hand Northern Michigan a 3-1 loss at the Berry Events Center on Saturday night. The Irish win gave the Irish a CCHA road sweep, something that they haven’t accomplished since Feb. 20-21, 2009 at Nebraska-Omaha.

The dynamic duo of T.J. Tynan and Anders Lee each had two points with Tynan netting his 15th goal of the year along with defensemen Sean Lorenz (4th) and Sam Calabrese (5th) in the win. Justin Florek broke up Johnson’s shutout bid at the 19:49 mark of the second period. Johnson stopped 24-of-25 shots in the game for his second win of the weekend.

The win improves the 12th-ranked Irish to 14-7-3 overall and 11-4-1-1 in the CCHA, good for 35 points and a four-point lead on second-place Michigan as the Wolverines shutout Michigan State, 4-0. Northern Michigan is now 9-11-4 overall and 7-7-2-0 in conference play.

The Irish picked up where they left off on Friday night, scoring a pair of unanswered goals in the opening period, giving them 10 straight goals over a four-period span.

Tynan and Lee had a hand in both goals with Tynan getting his 15th of the season just 2:20 into the first with Lee making the play happen, forcing a turnover deep in the Northern Michigan zone.

The freshman left wing took the puck away from the Wildcat defense inside the right circle and moved in on goaltender Jared Coreau. Just when it looked like he was running out of space he dropped it to Tynan who was trailing the play and the rookie center snapped it up under the cross bar for the 1-0 lead.

Tynan and Lee were back at it late in the period. With a penalty whistled against Wildcat Erik Spady, the Irish pulled Johnson in favor of a sixth attacker. Lee controlled the puck along the backboards and moved it to Tynan near the left circle. Tynan spotted Lorenz moving in from the right point and put a pass on the junior defenseman’s stick and he beat Coreau to the glove side for his fourth of the season to make it 2-0.

Play was suspended with 29 seconds left in the first period due to deteriorating ice conditions along the boards to the right of the penalty box. That time was added on to the start of the second period.

The Notre Dame lead would go to 3-0 at the 6:25 mark of the second period at the tail end of a five-minute Irish power play as Wildcat Andrew Cherniwchan was given a major penalty and a game disqualification just 1:26 into the period for a knee-on-knee hit to Irish forward Calle Ridderwall.

Calabrese took a pass from Ryan Guentzel and moved down the right wing boards and fired a shot from the right circle that beat Coreau over his glove hand to give the Irish a three-goal lead. The goal was Calabrese’s fifth of the season and marked his third consecutive game with a goal.

That goal also sent Coreau to the bench in favor of junior goalkeeper Reid Ellingson.

Northern Michigan was able to cut the lead to 3-1 with just 11 seconds left in the middle period, scoring a power-play goal off the stick of Florek.

Right wing Phil Fox redirected a shot by defenseman Scott Macaulay that Johnson stopped. The rebound popped into the air where Florek batted the biscuit out of the air past Johnson for his eighth goal of the season.

The Wildcats out shot the Irish, 7-5, in the third period, but Johnson was able to hold them off the scoreboard.

The Irish were out shot in the game by a 25-20 margin. Ellingson finished with nine saves in his relief appearance while Coreau had eight in the first 26:25 he played. The shot margin marked just the fourth time this season that the Irish have been out shot in a game. They are now 1-2-1 in those games.

Notre Dame is now 2-0-1 in its last three games.

The Irish return to action next weekend, January 14-15 when they play host to Alaska in a two-game series at the Joyce Center.

** IRISH NOTES **

* Notre Dame is now 11-1-1 when they score the first goal of the game.

GAME SUMMARY                              1     2     3  -  F#12/#11 Notre Dame (14-7-3/11-4-1-1)      2     1     0  -  3Northern Michigan (9-11-4/7-7-2-0)        0     1     0  -  1

Scoring First Period: ND: T.J. Tynan 15 (Anders Lee), 2:20; ND: Sean Lorenz 4 (Tynan, Lee), EX, 19:31.

Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; NMU: 1 for 2 minutes.

Second Period: ND: Sam Calabrese 5 (Ryan Guentzel, Joe Lavin), PPG, 6:25; NMU: Justin Florek 8 (Phil Fox, Scott Macaulay), PPG, 19:49.

Penalties: ND: 3 for 6 minutes; NMU: 3 for 17 minutes.

Third Period: No Scoring.

Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; NMU: 7 for 36 minutes.

Shots On Goal:Notre Dame             8 -  7 - 5 - 20Northern Michigan     11 -  7 - 7 - 25
Goaltender Saves:ND: Mike Johnson (60:00) 11 - 6 - 7 - 24NMU: Jared Coreau (26:25) 6 - 2 - x - 8 Reid Ellingson (33:35) x - 4 - 5 - 9
Power Plays:ND: 1 for 6NMU: 1 for 6
Attendance: 2,179