Sophomore T.J. Tynan opened the 2011-12 season with a goal and three assists in series at Minnesota-Duluth.

Irish To Close Out Joyce Center Era With Weekend Series Versus Ohio State

Oct. 13, 2011

Notre Dame, Ind. –

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– The Games: #2/#2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (1-1-0) vs. Ohio State Buckeyes (1-1-0)

– Date/Site/Time: Friday-Saturday, October 14-15, 2011 – Joyce Center (2,713) – 7:05 p.m. both nights

,b> – 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: Saturday’s game will be televised live by Comcast with Ben Holden and Lyle Phair calling the action and Rob Otto rinkside.

– Internet: Audio: Notre Dame’s will stream the audio for both games of the Ohio State series. The games can be heard live and free of charge at und.com.Video: Notre Dame will provide live video streaming of Friday night’s game on und.com free of charge. Statistics: Follow Irish hockey at home via Gametracker at und.com.

HOME OPENER: Notre Dame opens the 2011-12 home and CCHA schedule this weekend with a series against the Ohio State Buckeyes on Fri.-Sat., Oct. 14-15. Game time both nights is 7:05 p.m. Saturday night’s game will be televised live by Comcast with Ben Holden and Lyle Phair providing the play-by-play and color with Rob Otto at rinkside. This series also is the closing series for Notre Dame at the Joyce Center, the home of Irish hockey since the program began during the 1968-69 season. Notre Dame will begin play at the Compton Family Ice Arena on Friday, October 21 when the Irish play host to Rensselaer. Notre Dame comes into this weekend ranked second in the nation in both the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine and USCHO.com polls. The Irish are 1-1-0 on the year after opening the season with a split at Minnesota-Duluth last weekend. Ohio State is not ranked and also is 1-1-0 on the year after splitting with Quinnipiac a week ago in Columbus, Ohio.

IRISH VERSUS BUCKEYES: Notre Dame and Ohio State have met 65 times in the all-time series with the Buckeyes holding a 30-26-9 record. At the Joyce Center, the series is tied at 12-12-4 while OSU leads in Columbus, 16-14-5 with the Buckeyes 2-0-0 on neutral ice. The last time that Ohio State won at the Joyce Center was on Feb. 22, 2008, a 3-1 win. The Irish are 1-0-2 since that meeting. Last season, the two schools met in Columbus, Ohio, with the teams splitting a two-game series. On Jan. 21, Ohio State took a 6-1 win at Value City Arena and on Jan. 22, Notre Dame bounced back with a 4-1 victory. In the last 10 meetings, Ohio State has a 5-3-2 advantage.

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: Notre Dame will play its final games at the Joyce Center this weekend versus the Ohio State Buckeyes in a pair of 7:05 p.m. games. Flash back to the 1998-99 season when Notre Dame helped close out the OSU Ice Rink, Dec. 4-5, 1998 before the Buckeyes moved into the Value City Arena on Jan. 2, 1999. Those final games were played on Dec. 4-5, 1998.

A LOOK BACK AT LAST WEEK: The Irish traveled to Duluth, Minn., a week ago for a pair of games with the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. The two teams split the series, with UMD taking a 4-3 win in the series opener on Friday night and Notre Dame coming back from a 2-0 deficit in game two for a 5-3 victory at AMSOIL Arena. In Friday’s opener, the Irish got goals from Billy Maday (Sr., Burr Ridge, Ill.), Anders Lee (Edina, Minn.) and Mike Voran (Livonia, Mich.) on the way to a 3-3 tie after two periods of play. Travis Oleksuk got the game-winning goal with 4:24 left in the game as he fired a shot from the left circle that snuck through Mike Johnson’s (Jr., Verona, Wis.) pads. The Bulldogs out shot the Irish 31-17 in the game and were 2-for-8 on the power play while Notre Dame was 1-for-5 with the extra man.

On Saturday night, Notre Dame spotted Minnesota-Duluth a two-goal lead on goals by Oleksuk (7:17 of 1st) and Mike Seidel (29 seconds into second) before the Irish came alive. Nick Larson (So., Apple Valley, Minn.) cut the lead to 2-1 at 6:45 of the second and T.J. Tynan’s (So., Orland Park, Ill.) short-handed goal at 16:31 of the second tied the game at 2-2. Anders Lee put the Irish ahead to stay at 3-2 when he scored at the 18:00 mark of the second stanza. In the third, defensemen Kevin Lind (So., Homer Glen, Ill.) and Sean Lorenz (Sr., Littleton, Colo.) closed the scoring for the Irish with goals at 2:46 and 9:58. Seidel added a late power-play goal at 14:52 for the 5-3 final. Sophomore goaltender Steven Summerhays (Anchorage, Alaska) made 21 saves in the win as the Irish were out shot, 24-23 on the night. Notre Dame was 1-for-4 with the man advantage while the Bulldogs were 1-for-6.

OPENING THE COMPTON CENTER: The Notre Dame hockey team will make its first-ever appearance in the new Compton Family Ice Arena on Friday, Oct. 21 when the Irish play host to the Rensselaer (RPI) Engineers in a 7:05 p.m. contest. The site for the game has been listed as TBA since the schedule was announced in June due to the extremely aggressive construction schedule necessary to have the building ready for use by mid-October. The Notre Dame hockey team will move into the new building on Tuesday, Oct. 18 – the original projected date of substantial completion – with the first game to be played three nights later.

TURN OUT THE LIGHTS The October 15 game with Ohio State will be the last Notre Dame hockey game to be played at the Joyce Center, the team’s home since the program began during the 1968-69 season. The Irish played their first game at the Athletic and Convocation Center (the original name of the building) on Jan. 9, 1969, an 8-5 win over Ohio University. Notre Dame played its first eight games on the road that season and were 5-1-2 coming into the game against the Bobcats. Since that game, the Irish are 360-285-57 (.553) at the Joyce Center (renamed in 1987 to honor the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s executive vice-president from 1952-87). In coach Jeff Jackson’s six years behind the bench, Notre Dame is 65-31-13 (.656) at the Joyce Center.

NEW HOME FOR THE IRISH: Construction on Notre Dame’s new, on-campus ice facility – The Compton Family Ice Arena – began in March of 2010 and the Irish will “get the keys” to the building on Tuesday, Oct. 18.

On Sept. 11, 2010, a project blessing ceremony for the $50-million facility was held with many of the key benefactors in attendance. At the ceremony, Notre Dame director of athletics, Jack Swarbrick, announced that the building would be named the Compton Family Ice Arena in honor of the generous donation from Kevin and Gayla Compton and their family. The Comptons are part of the ownership group of the National Hockey League’s San Jose Sharks.

The original announcement for the new building was made on Feb. 12, 2009 by Notre Dame executive vice-president John Affleck-Graves and Swarbrick after the University’s Board of Trustees approved the plan.

The Compton Family Ice Arena will house both the Charles “Lefty” Smith rink, within the new 5,000-person capacity, home of the Irish hockey team and a second sheet of ice (Olympic-sized) with limited seating availability. The majority of the general public arena seating will be of the chair-back variety.

The Compton Family Ice Arena also will include offices for the Notre Dame coaching staff, a state-of-the art locker room suite that includes both wet and dry locker rooms, meeting rooms, a sports medicine area that includes hot and cold hydrotherapy, cardio and weight rooms, a players’ lounge, equipment areas, video operations and a multi-purpose room that will be the location for weekly team Mass and serve as a study lounge and dining area.

The arena also will feature a balcony level with a 200-seat, Irish pub-themed club called O’Briens, multiple concession areas on both levels, spacious restrooms and a merchandise shop.

The Compton Family Ice Arena also will serve the Notre Dame and South Bend community as a place for the Irish Youth Hockey League (IYHL) and local figure skating groups to flourish. On campus it will become the home of club and interhall hockey, the figure skating club and intramural broomball, curling and physical education classes.

Multiple locker rooms also will be available for campus and community use of the facility.

Design and construction of the Compton Family Ice Arena are under the auspices of the Southfield, Mich., office of Barton Malow, a national design and construction services firm and their project partner Rossetti Architects, also of Southfield, Mich.

FOR OPENERS: With last Friday’s season-opening loss to Minnesota-Duluth, Notre Dame is now 21-21-2 in all-time season openers. In road season openers Notre Dame falls to 17-23-4 for the 44-year history of the program. In home openers at the Joyce Center, the Irish are 24-18-1 all-time going into Friday’s game with Ohio State.

FULLâ⒬ˆHOUSE: During the 2010-11 season, Notre Dame sold out 16 of its 19 home games at the Joyce Center. A year ago, Notre Dame averaged 2,801 fans per game. Since Dec. 13, 2008, the Irish have recorded sellouts in 39 of their last 46 home games. A sellout at the Joyce Center is 2,713 with 2,857 capacity with standing room. Twice during the `09-’10 season – Jan. 15 vs. Michigan State and Jan. 29 against Nebraska-Omaha – 3,007 fans jammed into the Joyce Center. Prior to that number, the largest crowd to see an Irish hockey game was 3,310 on March of 1995 when Notre Dame play Illinois-Chicago. The following season, new seating was installed and capacity was reconfigured.

CONFERENCE CALL: The Hockey East Association and the University of Notre Dame announced on Wednesday, Oct. 5 that the Fighting Irish have been accepted into the league as the 11th member school and will begin play in the 2013-14 campaign. The announcement came at a press conference on the ice at Notre Dame’s new Compton Family Ice Arena.

In making the announcement, Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna said, “It is not an overstatement to say that this is one of the most significant days in the history of our conference. The addition of new institutions is always exciting but Notre Dame brings a unique set of qualities and circumstances to the continued growth of our league. We are proud to welcome Notre Dame into the fold and we look forward to getting to the many details that come with this announcement.”

Notre Dame Vice President and Director of Athletics Jack Swarbrick said, “We are excited to be joining Hockey East beginning in the 2013-14 season. Many factors played a role in our decision, but three were of special importance to us. The first two were the critical issues of the student-athlete experience and Notre Dame’s fit with the other schools in the conference. But of special importance in this instance, was our goal of giving our hockey program an unprecedented level of national exposure through our expanded partnership with the NBC Sports Group. Athletics at Notre Dame has always served as a platform for promoting the University.”

Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson added, “We are honored and pleased to join Hockey East for the 2013-14 season. The conference is an established league with a great tradition and outstanding programs that share Notre Dame’s values. The exposure for our players and team in a major media and NHL market will be second to none. Hockey East’s commitment to playing a smaller league schedule will allow us to enhance our home and non-conference schedule with traditional western and Big Ten rivals. This will allow us to bring great games to the Compton Family Ice Arena and create a more diverse, nationally-televised schedule. We are grateful to Joe Bertagna and the Hockey East Association members for this tremendous opportunity.”

Notre Dame is currently a member of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) and has had two stints with the CCHA during its 44 years of Division I hockey. The Irish first joined the conference from 1981-83 and then again in 1992 through the 2012-13 season. During that time, Notre Dame has won two CCHA regular-season and postseason tournament titles (2007 and 2009).

The current shift in conferences began with the Big Ten’s decision to form their own hockey league beginning in 2013-14. That started the realignment process in both the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) and the CCHA that has occurred this past summer and fall.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: To no one’s surprise, Notre Dame’s dynamic duo of Anders Lee and T.J. Tynan picked up where they left off last season in the opening series against Minnesota-Duluth. Lee scored a goal and an assist in the opening game and added a goal in Saturday’s with for a two-goal, one assist weekend. Tynan had one assist in the opener and followed with a three-point game (1g, 2a) in the second meeting for a four-point weekend. His goal came short-handed and tied the game at 2-2. Last season, Lee led the Irish in goals (24) and was second in points with 44. Tynan was the team’s leading scorer with 23 goals and 31 assists for 54 points.

SHORT-HAND SUCCESS: T.J. Tynan’s first goal of the season came short-handed in the win over Minnesota-Duluth and was the third of his career. In 2010-11, Tynan had two of Notre Dame’s 13 short-handed goals. The 13 shorties tied Boston College for the national lead. The 13 short-handed tallies were the most for the Irish since setting a school record with 19 during the 1981-82 season.

SPECIAL NUMBERS TO WATCH: Two important areas for the Irish this season will be the power play and the penalty kill as they had some issues with both areas in 2010-11. The Irish were 33-for-209 on the power play a year ago for a 15.8% success rate. That ranked them 9th in the CCHA and 42nd in the nation. The penalty-killing unit gave up 37 power-play goals and was 155-of-192 for an 80.7% success rate. That was eighth-best in the conference and 39th nationally. This year, the Irish are 2-for-9 on the power play (22.2%) an have killed 11-of-14 opponent chances for a 78.6% mark after two games.

CLASS OF THE CLASS: Notre Dame senior defenseman Sean Lorenz has been named one of 20 candidates 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 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. Last year’s candidate, Calle Ridderwall `11, was a finalist for the award. Former Notre Dame goaltender David Brown `07 won the award in 2007. FIRST TIMERS: Four members of Notre Dame’s freshman class made their first collegiate appearances against Minnesota-Duluth. Defenseman Robbie Russo (Westmont, Ill.) and forwards Garrett Peterson (Manhattan, Ill.) and Peter Schneider (Vienna, Austria) played in both games. Austin Wuthrich (Anchorage, Alaska) made his first collegiate appearance in Saturday’s 5-3 victory.

SHOOTING THE PUCK: Notre Dame’s 17 shots on goal against Minnesota-Duluth on Friday night marked the fewest shots for the Irish in a game since Nov. 20, 2009 when they had 16 shots on goal in a 4-1 win over Michigan State. Last season, the fewest shots Notre Dame had in a game was 21, versus Western Michigan on Oct. 30, 2010. OH BROTHER: Notre Dame freshman defenseman Eric Johnson (Verona, Wis.) is the younger brother of junior goaltender Mike Johnson (Verona, Wis.). The Johnson brothers become the 10th set of brothers to play hockey at Notre Dame. They are the first pair of brothers to play on the same team since Aaron `04 and Tony Gill `06 who played together from 2002-04. The Irish brothers:

Robert `89 and David Bankoske `93Joe `72 and Mike Bonk `79Jack `77 and Jeff Brownschidle `81Tim `76 and Dan Byers `78Ryan `01 and Kyle Dolder `03Don `78 and Terry Fairholm `78Aaron `04 and Tony Gill `06Mark `85 and Bruce Guay `90Bob `71, Dave `76 ad Dick Howe `78Mike and Eric Johnson

LIGHTING THE LAMP: With his third-period goal on Friday night, Mike Voran snapped a 16-game goal drought that carried over from last season. Voran’s last goal came on Jan. 15 of 2011 when he scored against Alaska. Defenseman Kevin Lind snapped a 25-game goal-scoring drought with his goal on Saturday night versus the Bulldogs. His last goal came on November 10, 2010 at Michigan.

CAPTAINS: Two members of the Irish senior class and one sophomore will serve as captains for the 2011-12 season. Defenseman Sean Lorenz and forward Billy Maday will serve as the team’s co-captains this season. Sophomore forward Anders Lee will be the team’s lone alternate captain this season. This marks the first year for all three players to serve as captains at Notre Dame.

HCA ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Sophomore center T.J. Tynan was the 2010-11 Hockey Commissioner’s Association (HCA) national rookie of the year after leading all freshmen in scoring with 23 goals and 31 assists for 54 points. Tynan was the CCHA rookie of the year and a member of the conference all-rookie team. He was selected second team all-CCHA. The 5-8, 167-pound forward was the Notre Dame Monogram Club’s most valuable player, the team’s offensive player of the year and the co-rookie of year for the Irish.

CLUTCHâ⒬ˆSCORER: Sophomore left wing Anders Lee proved to be one of Notre Dame’s top clutch scorers during the 2010-11 season. Lee, who led the Irish with 24 goals, scored seven game winners to lead the team and the CCHA. Those seven game winners tied a Notre Dame single-season record that was set in 1989-90 by David Bankoske `93, who also had seven game-winning goals.

JOHNNY ON THE SPOT: Notre Dame goaltender Mike Johnson (Jr., Verona, Wis.) became just the sixth goaltender in Irish hockey history to record 20 wins in a season when he did it as a sophomore in 2010-11. Johnson was 20-10-4 on the year, helping Notre Dame to its second Frozen Four. He trails Jordan Pearce `09, who had 30 in 2008-09; David Brown `07 (29 in 2006-07); Lance Madson `90 (24 in 1987-88), Pearce (23, in 2007-08) and Mark Kronholm `74 (20 in 1972-73). Johnson’s 20 win ties him fifth on the single-season win list with Kronholm.

PUT THE BISCUIT IN THE BASKET: Notre Dame finished the 2010-11 season tied for third in in the nation in goals with 151 in 44 games. The Irish trailed North Dakota (178), Boston College (153) and tied Yale (151). Per game, Notre Dame is 10th overall with a 3.43 average. Yale is tops in the nation with 4.19 per game. The 3.43 goals-per-game is the most for the Irish since 1990-91 when they averaged 4.06 per game. The 151 goals was the most since 1989-90 when that team scored 151 goals.

COMEBACK KID: Sophomore defenseman Sam Calabrese (Park Ridge, Ill.) led Notre Dame defensemen in scoring with six goals and 12 assists for 18 points this season. As a freshman in 2009-10, Calabrese saw action in just three games all season, suffering a broken leg on Dec. 4, 2009 at Miami. Of Calabrese’s six goals this season, two have come short-handed. He is second on the team with a +24 and capped his great comeback year by being named honorable mention all-CCHA and Notre Dame’s most improved player for the `10-’11 campaign.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE: Freshman forward Peter Schneider (Vienna, Austria) will become the third European to play at Notre Dame when he takes the ice for the Irish this season. A native of Vienna, Austria, Schneider played last season in the United States Hockey League (USHL) for the Indiana Ice. With the Ice, he had 30 goals and 24 assists for 54 points in 55 games. He joins Swedish natives Calle Ridderwall `11 and Robin Bergman as the three Europeans to play at Notre Dame. Ridderwall spent four years with the Irish (2007-11) while Bergman played part of the 2007-08 campaign.

EXTRA HOCKEY: Notre Dame played in seven overtime games last season and was 2-0-5 in those games. The two overtime game winners for the Irish came off the sticks of Jeff Costello (So., Milwaukee, Wis.) in the second round of the CCHA playoffs against Lake Superior and off the stick of Anders Lee in the NCAA Regionals against Merrimack. The Irish have now gone 21 straight overtime games (5-0-16) without a loss. That streak goes back to March 21, 2008, a 2-1 overtime loss to Miami at the CCHA semifinals. During the `09-’10 season, the Irish were involved in nine overtime contests, finishing 1-0-8 in those games.

APR LEADERS: The Notre Dame hockey program was one of 11 University athletic programs to post Academic Progress Rate (APR) numbers that ranked them best in the nation within their sports – and 12 others produced top-10 APR figures among all NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) institutions, according to institutional research based on 2011 numbers released in late May by the NCAA. Irish hockey posted a 997 score to finish ahead of Ohio State (993), Michigan (988), Western Michigan (986), Connecticut (985) and Minnesota (981). APR statistics for Irish sports featured nine perfect 1000 scores – in men’s cross country, women’s cross country, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s rowing, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s indoor track and field and men’s outdoor track and field. Other programs that ranked number one within their sports were men’s ice hockey (at 997) and men’s lacrosse (at 998).

NHL DRAFTEES: The Irish have 10 players on the 2011-12 roster who have been selected in the National Hockey League’s Entry Draft. Sophomore T.J. Tynan was selected in last June’s draft in the third round by the Columbus Blue Jackets. He was followed by freshman defenseman Robbie Russo (Westmont, Ill.) who was a fourth-round pick of the New York Islanders. Those two join junior Riley Sheahan (St. Catharine’s, Ont.) who became Notre Dame’s third-ever first round pick in June of 2010 when he was chosen 21st overall by the Detroit Red Wings. Sheahan joins former defenseman Ian Cole (2007 – St. Louis) who was selected 18th overall and former right wing Kyle Palmieri (2009 – Anaheim), the 26th pick overall. Sheahan was followed by sophomore defenseman Stephen Johns (Wampum, Pa._, who went in the second round, 60th overall to the Chicago Black Hawks. One round later in the third round, with the 80th overall pick, freshman forward Bryan Rust (Novi, Mich.) was chosen by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Notre Dame’s final player selected in 2010 was defenseman Kevin Lind (Homer Glen, Ill.), who was picked in the sixth round, 177th overall by the Anaheim Ducks. Two other Irish sophomores were selected a year earlier in the 2009 draft. Left wing Jeff Costello (Milwaukee, Wis.) was chosen by the Ottawa Senators in the fifth round, 146th overall and six picks later, left wing Anders Lee was a New York Islanders’ choice in the sixth round, 152nd overall. That group joins junior left wing Nick Larson (Apple Valley, Minn.), a 2008 selection of the Calgary Flames in the fourth round, 108th overall and senior defenseman Sean Lorenz, a member of the 2008 draft class, by the Minnesota Wild in the fourth round, 115th overall.