Ryan Thang enters the weekend with Nebraska-Omaha as the 30th player in school history with 50 goals and 50 assists.  He starts the weekend with 56 goals and 51 assists for 107 career points.

Irish To Give The Shirts Off Their Backs This Weekend Versus Nebraska-Omaha

Jan. 27, 2010

Notre Dame, Ind. –

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– The Games: Notre Dame (11-10-7/7-7-6-2) vs. Nebraska-Omaha (12-11-5/8-10-2-1)

– Date/Site/Time: Fri.-Sat., January 29-30, 2010 – Joyce Center – 8:06 p.m. both nights

– Broadcast Information: Radio: Notre Dame hockey can be heard live on Cat Country 99.9 FM, starting with the pre-game show 20 minutes before the opening faceoff. Darin Pritchett will call the action for the Irish. Television: Both games of the series will be televised live by CBS College Sports with Matt Shepard and Dave Starman calling all the action. Game time both nights is 8:06 p.m.

– Internet: Audio: Both games of the Nebraska-Omaha series will have live audio available free of charge at the Notre Dame website – und.com. Live statistics will be available at und.com and at the CCHA website (ccha.com).

IRISH HOST FINAL HOME SERIES VERSUS NEBRASKA-OMAHA: Notre Dame returns home to the Joyce Center this weekend with a pair of games versus Nebraska-Omaha on Jan. 29-30 with faceoff both night set for 8:06 p.m. Both games will be televised live by CBS College Sports with Matt Shepard and Dave Starman calling the action. This is the final home series of the season for the Irish who will play five of their final six games in February on the road. Notre Dame has gone 2-0-2 over the past two weekends getting a win and a tie versus both Michigan State and Lake Superior State. The Irish are 11-10-7 overall and are 7-7-6-2 in the CCHA, good for 29 points and sixth place in the conference race. They are currently one point behind fifth-place Alaska (30) and three behind fourth-place Lake Superior (32). Notre Dame is one point ahead of seventh-place Michigan (28) and two ahead of eighth-place UNO (27). The Mavericks come into the series, fresh off a two-game sweep of Northern Michigan last weekend. They are 12-11-5 on the year and 8-10-2-1 in the conference, good for 27 points. Following this weekend, the Irish have one more home game – Sat., Feb. 27 versus Michigan. UNO closes the CCHA schedule at home with Ohio State and Michigan and travels to Miami.

IRISH VERSUS MAVERICKS: Notre Dame and Nebraska-Omaha meet for the 30th time in the all-time series on Friday night with the Irish holding a 16-9-4 edge. At the Joyce Center, Notre Dame is 8-4-2 against the Mavericks. The two teams met four times last season, twice on the regular season and then again in the second round of the CCHA playoffs. In the regular season at Omaha, Neb., Notre Dame won both games, 4-3 in overtime and 1-0 in regulation. In the playoffs, Jordan Pearce `09 spun back-to-back shutouts, 5-0 and 1-0, to send the Irish on to Joe Louis Arena. Since Jeff Jackson took over behind the Notre Dame bench for the 2005-06 season, the Irish are 9-1-2 versus the Mavericks, including wins in six consecutive games.

SHIRTS OFF THEIR BACKS: The Notre Dame hockey team will be wearing special commemorative jerseys this weekend, saluting the Wounded Warriors Project and Hockey Helpers as part of a fundraising effort for the Wounded Warriors Project. These jerseys have been part of an auction that has been underway since Jan. 22 on the Notre Dame website at und.com/auctions. All 28 players jerseys will be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the Wounded Warriors Project. The auction ends at 9:30 p.m on Saturday night. Fans in attendance at the game will then have the opportunity to pick up the jerseys on the ice complete with autographs as the Irish players “Give The Shirts Off Their Backs.” The Hockey Helpers (HH) was founded by Ryan Adler, a former Hobart College hockey player. The program was established in 2008-09 to give the Hobart College hockey team and other NCAA collegiate teams the opportunity to volunteer and give back through multiple service projects. HH collaborated with Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) to bring attention and support to the veterans wounded during war. The WWP is a 501(c)(3) non-partisan, non-profit organization that exists to provide tangible comfort and support to the new generation of severely injured service members upon their return home from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas around the world. Beginning at the bedside of the severely injured, Wounded Warrior Project provides programs and services designed to ease the burdens of these heroes and their families, aid in the recovery process, and smooth the transition back to civilian life.

LAKE SUPERIOR STATE RECAP: Friday, January, 22 –

Junior Calle Ridderwall (Stockholm, Sweden) scored a natural hat trick in the second period while Ryan Thang (Sr., Edina, Minn.), Ben Ryan (Jr., Brighton, Mich.) and Patrick Gaul (So., Pittsburgh, Pa.) scored single goals in Notre Dame’s 6-1 win over Lake Superior State. Freshman goaltender Mike Johnson (Verona, Wis.) stopped 26-of-27 Laker shots to pick up the win. Lake Superior took a 1-0 lead just 2:01 into the game when Steven Kaunisto scored with a shot from the blue line that went off Johnson’s blocker and inside the left post. Thang picked up his fifth goal in the last three games to tie the game at 1-1 after one period. Notre Dame would then run off five goals in the second period to build a 6-1 advantage. Ryan picked up his fifth of the year at 1:52 of the second, followed by Gaul’s first collegiate goal at 6:34. From there it was all Ridderwall as he scored five-on-five goals at 7:56 and 9:33, while his third goal came on the power play at 14:45. The Irish out shot Lake Superior, 28-27, in the game while going 1-for-6 on the power play. The Lakers were 0-for-3 with the man advantage.

Saturday, January 23 – After scoring six goals on Friday night, the Irish got just one the following night, but it was good enough for a 1-1 overtime tie against the Lakers. Lake Superior would capture the extra point in the standings by winning the shootout, 1-0. Notre Dame goaltender Mike Johnson made a career-high 45 saves as the Irish outshot the Lakers, 46-27, in the game. Zach Trotman scored the lone Lake Superior goal at 10:59 of the second period only to have that answered by Notre Dame’s Nick Larson (Fr., Apple Valley, Minn.) 23 seconds later at 11:22 for the only scoring in the game. In the shootout, the Lakers’ Domenic Monardo scored the lone goal in the 1-0 shootout. Lake Superior State was 0-for-5 on the power play while the Irish were 0-for-4.

HAT TRICK HAPPINESS: Junior left wing Calle Ridderwall recorded his second hat trick of the season in the 6-1 win over Lake Superior on Jan. 22. The three-goal night proved to be a natural hat trick for Ridderwall as he scored three times in a 6:47 span of the middle period. Notre Dame’s leading scorer through 27 games (16-6-22), Ridderwall had his first hat trick on Nov. 28 versus Bowling Green. He becomes the first Irish player to get two hat tricks in a season since Tim Kuehl `90 accomplished the feat during the 1987-88 season. Ridderwall is tied for second in the CCHA with his 16 goals, while his 10 power-play goals leads the conference.

CCHA PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: For the second week in a row and the third time this season, Notre Dame senior defenseman Kyle Lawson (New Hudson, Mich.) was named the CCHA defenseman of the week while goaltender Mike Johnson was the league’s goaltender of the week. Lawson had a pair of assists, blocked six shots and was +4 in the Lake Superior series while helping Notre Dame limit the Lakers to two goals on the weekend. He picked up both assists in the 6-1 win and was on the ice for all five even-strength Irish goals to go +5 on the night. Lawson played over 35 minutes in the 1-1 tie with four blocked shots. Johnson stopped 71-of-73 shots (.973) in the two games, including a career-best 45 in the 1-1 overtime win. The win and the tie boosted his record to 8-6-4 with a 2.03 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage.

OFFENSIVE OUTBURST: Notre Dame’s six goals on Jan. 22 and the five-goal second period were season highs for the Irish. Previously, Notre Dame had scored five goals twice on the year (Jan. 2 vs. Colgate and Jan. 15 vs. Michigan State). The last time the Irish scored six goals or more goals in a game was Feb. 13, 2009 when they had nine versus Northern Michigan. The last time Notre Dame had five or more goals in a period was Nov. 22, 2008 when the Irish had six goals in the third period versus Bowling Green.

CALL A DOCTOR: The Irish move into the weekend series with Nebraska-Omaha having missed 51-man games this season due to injuries. The Notre Dame list looks like this:

Teddy Ruth (13 games)Sam Calabrese (11 games)Eric Ringel (10 games)Billy Maday (4 games)Sean Lorenz (4 games)Ian Cole (4 games)Christiaan Minella (3 games)Riley Sheahan (1 game)Ryan Thang (1 game)

Calabrese (broken ankle), Ringel (concussion), Ruth (concussion), Maday (shoulder/concussion), Minella (knee) and Cole (concussion) all missed Notre Dame’s last game at Lake Superior State.

FIRST TIMERS: Two members of the Notre Dame lineup recorded “firsts” in their careers in the 6-1 win over Lake Superior State. Center Patrick Gaul scored his first career goal at 6:34 of the second period to give the Irish a 3-1 lead. The goal came in his 35th career game. Freshman right wing Kevin Nugent (New Canaan, Conn.) picked up his first career assist on Gaul’s goal. His point came in the 11th game of his career.

DEFENSIVE SCORING: Over Notre Dame’s last four games, the Irish have scored 16 goals (4.00 per game) while giving up just eight (2.00 gpg). In those three games, Irish defensemen have been active in the scoring, racking up 16 assists in that span. Kyle Lawson (Sr., New Hudson, Mich.) leads the way with seven assists.Brett Blatchford follows with five while Ian Cole (Jr., Ann Arbor, Mich.) and Joe Lavin (Jr., Shrewsbury, Mass.) have two each.

OVERTIME MARKS: Three of Notre Dame’s eight games in January have gone into overtime and have been decided with a shootout. For the season, the Irish are 1-0-7 in overtime games. In the seven shootouts to date, Notre Dame is 3-4. The overtime win on Nov. 27 versus Bowling Green was the first for the Irish since Feb. 20, 2009 at Nebraska-Omaha, a 4-3 win. Notre Dame is now 3-0-10 in overtime since its last overtime loss, a 2-1 decision to Miami on March 21, 2008, in the CCHA semifinal game.

STREAKING IRISH: Notre Dame defensemen Brett Blatchford (Sr., Temperance, Mich.) saw his career-best and team-high point streak end at eight games on Jan. 23 at Lake Superior State. During the streak, Blatchford had no goals with 11 assists for 11 points. His streak started on Dec. 11.

PLAYING GAMES: Senior Kevin Deeth (Gig Harbor, Wash.) comes into the series with Nebraska-Omaha having played in 155 career games and is currently sixth on the Irish all-time games played list. Three others – Kyle Lawson, Ryan Thang and Brett Blatchford – have their sights set on the top 10 as they own 151, 149 and 143 games played respectively. The top 10:

Games PlayedName (Seasons)                        Games1.  Mark Van Guilder (2004-08)         1632.  Brock Sheahan (2004-08)            1613.  Erik Condra (2005-09)              159    Dan Carlson (1997-01)              1585.  Evan Nielsen (1999-03)             1566.  Kevin Deeth (2006- )               1557.  Garrett Regan (2005-09)            154    Wes O'Neill (2003-07)              154    Jason Paige (2003-07)              15410. Tim Wallace (2002-06)              153    Aaron Gill (2000-04)               153--  Kyle Lawson (2006- )               151--  Ryan Thang (2006- )                149--  Brett Blatchford (2006- )          143

SCORING WOES: Through the first 28 games of the season, Notre Dame has scored a total of 69 goals. The Irish have scored goals via the power play in 22 of their 28 games, getting a total of 32 power-play goals. Notre Dame has two short-handed goals to give the team 34 special team goals to go with 35 even-strength goals. For the year, the Irish are averaging 2.46 goals-per game and the offensive attack is ranked 48th in the nation.

DEFENSIVE DANDIES: While the Irish have struggled to score goals, they have done a good job of keeping the puck out of the net through the first 28 games. In those games, Notre Dame’s defense has held opponents to two goals or less in 16 of them and has given up three or less in 21 of the 28 contests. For the year, the Irish have given up just 61 goals for a 2.18 goals per game to rank sixth in the nation in team defense.

MR. CLUTCH: With his game-winning goal on Jan. 15 versus Michigan State, Ryan Thang became Notre Dame’s all-time leader in game winner with 14. The goal snapped a four-way tie for the top spot.

Game-Winning GoalsName (Seasons)                   GWG1.  Ryan Thang (2006-)            142.  Rob Globke (2000-04)          13    Brian Urick (1995-99)         13    Dave Poulin (1978-82)         134.  Dave Bankoske (1988-93)       125.  Erik Condra (2005-09)         11    Paul Regan (1969-73)          117.  Tim Kuehl (1986-90)           10    Tom Mooney (1984-88)          10    Greg Meredith (1976-80)       10

CHART-CLIMBING, PART TWO: With his two assists in the series against Lake Superior State, senior defenseman Kyle Lawson leads Irish defensemen in scoring and is fourth among CCHA defensemen with four goals and 16 assists for 20 points. For his career, Lawson is now tied with former Notre Dame All-American Benoit Cotnoir `99 with 88 career points for 10th on Notre Dame’s all-time list for points by a defenseman. He has 17 goals and 71 assists for 88 points in 151 career games. Here is the top 10 scoring defensemen for the Irish.

Points By A DefensemanName (Seasons)                    G    A    Pts1.  John Schmidt (1978-822)      28   95    1232.  Jeff Brownschidle (1977-81)  39   92    1223.  Jack Brownschidle (1973-77)  31   78    1094.  Bob Thebeau (1982-86)        40   63    1035.  Paul Clarke (1973-77)        38   62    1006.  Bill Green (1969-73)         30   66     96    Kevin Markovitz (1986-90)    24   72     968.  Bill Nyrop (1970-74)         17   72     899.  Kyle Lawson (2006-)          17   71     88    Benoit Cotnoir (1995-99)     28   60     88

PENALTY KILLERS: Notre Dame’s penalty-killing unit ranks first in the CCHA and first in the nation. To date, the Irish have killed 118-of-131 opponent power-play chances for a 90.1% success rate.

50/50 CLUB: With a goal and two assists in the 6-1 win over Lake Superior State, senior captain Ryan Thang became the 30th player in Notre Dame history to score 50 goals with 50 assists in his career. Thang now has 56 goals and 51 assists for 107 career points. The last player to reach that mark was Rob Globke `04 who did it in 2003-04 and finished his career with 68 goals and 56 assists. Earlier in January, Thang became the 45th player in the history of the Irish hockey program to score 100 points in his career. Thang’s assist on Ian Cole’s power-play goal in the first period of the Jan. 10 game with Ferris State gave him 51 goals and 49 assists for his 100th career point.

A NICK OF TIME: Notre Dame freshman left wing Nick Larson has proven to be a clutch scorer for the Irish in his rookie year. Among his five goals this season are a pair of game winners and one game-tying goal. His most recent “clutch” goal came on Jan. 23 when he scored the lone goal for the Irish in the 1-1 tie at Lake Superior State. Larson’s third-period goal came just 23 seconds after the Lakers had taken the lead. His top game of the season came on Jan. 15 against Michigan State when he collected three points (2g, 1a) in the 5-2 win over the Spartans. His four-point weekend (2g, 2a) against Michigan State earned him CCHA rookie of the week honors on Jan.18. On the year, he now has five goals and three assists for eight points with two game-winning goals.

THE KID IS ALRIGHT: Freshman goaltender Mike Johnson has gotten his collegiate career off to a fast start through the first 28 games of the season. This season, Johnson has appeared in 19 games for Notre Dame, making 18 starts. He is 8-6-4 overall with a 2.03 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage. Last week he stopped 71-of-73 shots by Lake Superior while giving up just two goals in a win and a tie to earn CCHA goaltender of the week honors. He owns a pair of shutouts with the first coming on Oct. 16, versus Providence College, and the second on Dec. 13 against Michigan. He is currently fourth in the CCHA and sixth in the nation in goals-against average and third in the league and fifth nationally with his .929 save percentage. In his 18 starts, Johnson has given up 36 goals while the Irish have scored 39.

BACK BETWEEN THE PIPES: Junior goaltender Brad Phillips stopped 19-of-20 shots in relief of Mike Johnson in the 4-4 overtime tie against Michigan State on Jan. 16. Phillips played the final 40:26 of the game. It marked his first appearance in goal for the Irish since Nov. 28 against Bowling Green. Phillips, who missed the entire 2008-09 season due to knee surgery, has appeared in nine games this season, making eight starts. He is 2-3-3 overall with a 2.20 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage with one shutout.

HOME ICE STRUGGLES: With the 5-2 win over Michigan State on Jan. 15, Notre Dame improved to 6-6-3 in the first 15 home games this season. During the 2008-09 campaign, the Irish were 13-3-2 at the Joyce Center and over the previous three seasons owned a 37-9-7 mark on home ice.