Nov. 18, 2007
Kalamazoo, Mich. – For the second consecutive night, the Notre Dame hockey team combined stingy defense, timely scoring, strong goaltending and outstanding special teams play, as the Irish knocked off Western Michigan 5-1 on Saturday night.
Five different players scored for the Irish with one goal coming on the power play and one short-handed to give Notre Dame a series sweep of the Broncos, this time in front of a sellout crowd of 4,224 at Lawson Arena. The Irish defense held WMU to just 11 shots on goal in the game, but Jordan Pearce came up big for Notre Dame when he had to.
Calle Ridderwall and Justin White scored their first goals of the season while Dan Kissel, Ryan Thang and Erik Condra rounded out the Irish scoring. Max Campbell had the lone Western Michigan goal in the game.
Notre Dame’s win improves the Irish to 9-4-0 on the season and 7-2-0 in the CCHA while the Broncos fall to 3-7-0 on the year and 1-5-0 in conference play.
For the second night in a row, Notre Dame took the play to Western Michigan, out shooting the Broncos 14-4 in the opening period. Western took the early lead in the game, scoring on their first shot at 1:32.
Defenseman Steve Silver moved the puck down the right wing boards in the Notre Dame zone and threw a shot at the front of the net. Along the way, Campbell managed to get his stick on the puck, deflecting the shot past Pearce and inside the left post for his third goal of the season.
The Broncos looked like they had scored again on their second shot of the night when a long clearing pass ended up on Jeff Pierce’s stick at the Irish blue line. Pierce moved in on Notre Dame’s Pearce, got him to make the first move and fired a shot at what looked like an open net. What looked like a sure goal ended up in Jordan Pearce’s glove near the goal line. While the Broncos started to celebrate, linesmen Kevin Langseth was parked on the goal line waving off the goal.
Referee Keith Sergott spent a long time reviewing the goal but the replays showed the puck had not crossed the goal line and Pearce had the save of the game for the Irish.
“I thought we started off playing pretty well,” said Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson. “A couple of crazy bounces and we were almost down 2-0. Jordan’s (Pearce) stop was big and was probably the turning point of the game.”
The Irish finally got on the scoreboard at 12:10 of the opening period with freshman Calle Ridderwall getting his first goal of the season. Defenseman Ian Cole kept a Bronco clearing attempt in at the left point and sent a hard shot at goaltender Riley Gill. Ridderwall, who was near the hashmarks on the left circle, deflected the shot past Gill to tie the game at 1-1. The goal was the first of the Stockholm, Sweden native’s Irish career.
More hard work by the Irish resulted in the second Notre Dame goal. Off a face off to the right of Gill, Christian Hanson tied his man up in the circle. As players battled for the puck, White pushed it ahead and whipped a low, hard, wrist shot past Gill for his first of the season and Notre Dame led 2-1 after the opening period.
Strong forechecking led to Notre Dame’s third goal of the night. Senior Evan Rankin forced a turnover behind the Western Michigan goal and he fed the puck to Kissel driving down the slot. Kissel wasted no time snapping the puck under the cross bar at 8:11 for his second goal of the season and the Irish led 3-1.
As time was running out in the second period, the Notre Dame power play struck at 19:50. Kevin Deeth and Condra worked the puck behind the goal while Thang camped out in front. When the Bronco defensemen moved on the two skaters behind the net, Deeth slid it in front to Thang who one-timed it past Gill for his seventh goal of the season, giving the Irish a 4-1 lead heading into the second intermission.
Condra would tack on his second short-handed goal of the season at 7:55 of the third period when he picked a Bronco defenseman’s pocket at the blue line moved in on Gill and made a great move to pull the goaltender out and toward him while he flipped the puck into a yawning net. The goal was Condra’s sixth of the season.
The Irish defense did the rest, limiting Western Michigan to just two shots in the final period. Notre Dame out shot the Broncos, 32-11 in the game and for the weekend had 76 shots in two games while holding Western Michigan to just 23 in the two games.
“I wasn’t happy with some aspects of our game last Saturday at Miami,” said Jackson. “We were emphasizing taking care of the puck and valuing the puck in the offensive zone and not doing the same defensively. We spent a lot of time this past week on defensive zone coverage, finishing our checks and having more consistent play in our zone and we had success this weekend with that.”
Gill finished the night with 27 saves to 10 for Pearce in the Notre Dame net. The Irish were 1-for-6 on the power play and killed all six Western Michigan chances on the night while getting a short-handed goal.
The Irish must now get ready for a home contest on Tuesday, Nov. 20 when they play host to the Bowling Green Falcons in a 7:35 p.m. game at the Joyce Center.
“Tuesday’s game will be a big game for both teams,” said Jackson. “Bowling Green is playing really well now. It should be quite a game.”
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#11/#10 Notre Dame (9-4-0/7-2-0) 2 2 1 - 5Western Michigan (3-7-0/1-5-0) 1 0 0 - 1
ScoringFirst Period: WMU: Max Campbell 3 (Steve Silver, Patrick Galivan), 1:32; ND: Calle Ridderwall 1 (Ian Cole), 12:10; ND: Justin White 1 (Christian Hanson), 17:31.Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; WMU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Dan Kissel 2 (Evan Rankin), 8:11; ND: Ryan Thang 7 (Kevin Deeth, Erik Condra), PPG, 19:49.Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; WMU: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Condra 6 (unassisted), SHG, 7:55.Penalties: ND: 4 for 8 minutes; WMU: 4 for 8 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 14 - 8 - 10 - 32Western Michigan 4 - 5 - 2 - 11
Goaltender Saves:ND - Jordan Pearce (60:00) 3 - 5 - 2 - 10WMU - Riley Gill (60:00) 12 - 6 - 9 - 27
Power Plays:ND: 1 for 6WMU: 0 for 6
Attendance: 4,224 (sellout)