Feb. 18, 2011
Big Rapids, Mich. – Irish goaltender Mike Johnson picked a great time to stand on his head. The sophomore netminder kicked out 37-of-39 Ferris State shots to back stop Notre Dame to a 3-2 win in front of 2,093 at Ewigleben Arena on Friday night.
Nick Larson, Sam Calabrese and Riley Sheahan provided the offense with Calabrese and Sheahan adding assists for two-point nights in the win. Mike Embach and Matthew Kirzinger scored the Bulldog goals in the contest.
The Irish win clinches home ice for Notre Dame in the second round of the CCHA playoffs the weekend of March 11-13 at the Joyce Center.
The victory improved the Irish to 19-9-5 overall and 16-6-3-2 in conference play, good for 53 points in the league standings. They remain one point ahead of second-place Michigan, as the Wolverines defeated Western Michigan, 6-3, and now have 52 points. Both teams have three games remaining on the schedule. Miami, idle on Friday night, is third with 49 points and two games left in the regular season.
Ferris State falls to 16-13-4 on the year and is fifth in the conference with an 11-11-3-2 CCHA record.
The story of the first period was Johnson in the Irish goal as he stopped all 15 shots he faced and kept Notre Dame in the game until the offense got rolling.
“Mike’s (Johnson) play in the first period allowed us to get our feet under us,” said Irish head coach Jeff Jackson.
“Ferris came out with a lot of energy and I expected that. We made some bad plays with the puck and that turned into scoring chances but Mike stood tall for us. You’re not going anywhere in the postseason without good goaltending.”
While Ferris State had the offensive advantage in the opening period, Notre Dame scored the only goal.
With the puck deep in the Bulldogs’ zone, center Sheahan controlled the puck behind the goal and fed it to Mike Voran in the right circle. Voran slid a pass across the slot that Larson backhanded past goaltender Pat Nagle at the 18:10 mark to make it 1-0. The goal was the sophomore left wing’s eighth of the season.
Notre Dame would build a 2-0 lead early in the second period, taking advantage of a Ferris State turnover at 2:19. With the Irish pressuring deep in the Bulldog zone, a Ferris State defender attempted to clear the puck. Calabrese knocked the puck down at the blue line and hammered a slap shot that beat Nagle high to his glove side under the cross bar. For the sophomore defenseman the goal came unassisted and was his sixth of the season.
Just 1:19 later, with Notre Dame on the power play, the Bulldogs cut the lead to 2-1 with a short-handed marker.
Defenseman Scott Czarnowczan carried the puck into the Irish zone and left the puck for Embach. The senior left wing worked his way down the slot and snapped a shot past Johnson at 3:48. The goal was Embach’s eighth of the season and his CCHA-leading fifth short-handed goal of the season.
The next time the Irish got the power play they were able to capitalize as Sheahan scored his third goal of the season when he batted a loose puck out of the air and past Nagle at 7:12.
Sheahan put the play in motion as he carried the puck over the blue line and tried to split the defense. He got through but lost the puck. T.J. Tynan swooped in from the right side and got a shot off that Nagle stopped only to see Sheahan pick the puck out of the air and knock it past the Ferris State goaltender to give the Irish a two-goal lead at 3-1.
“I thought we just settled down in the second period,” said Jackson.
“We were a little hyper in the first period, trying to do things that we shouldn’t do. We just calmed down and played our game better in the second period.
The lone goal of the third belonged to Ferris State as they scored on the power play at 6:45 with Kirzinger finishing the play for his seventh goal of the season.
Defenseman Brett Wysopal dumped the puck behind the Irish goal where Derek Graham set up behind the net. He moved towards the right side and fed a pass across the front of the crease to Kirzinger at the bottom of the left circle where he whipped it past Johnson over his glove hand to make it a 3-2 came.
Each team had chances the rest of the way with Johnson and Nagle making big stops. With 50 seconds left, the Bulldogs pulled Nagle for a sixth attacker and with six seconds left Johnson saved the day for the Irish as he slid across the crease to deny a final scoring bid.
Ferris State out shot the Irish, 39-37, in the game, marking just the eighth time this season that Notre Dame was out shot in a game. Nagle finished with 34 saves for the Bulldogs.
The Irish and Bulldogs will meet on Saturday night for a 7:05 p.m. game at Ewigleben Arena.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#8/#9 Notre Dame (19-9-5/16-6-3-2) 1 2 0 - 3--/#20 Ferris State (16-13-4/11-11-3-2) 0 1 1 - 2
Scoring First Period: ND: Nick Larson 8 (Mike Voran, Riley Sheahan), 18:10.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; FSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Sam Calabrese 6 (unassisted), 2:19; FSU: Mike Embach 8 (Scott Czarnowczan, Chad Billins), SHG, 3:48; ND: Sheahan 3 (T.J. Tynan, Calabrese), PPG, 7:12.
Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; FSU: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: FSU: Matthew Kirzinger 7 (Derek Graham, Brett Wysopal), PPG, 6:45.
Penalties: ND: 3 for 14 minutes; FSU: 3 for 6 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 7 - 15 - 15 - 37Ferris State 15 - 11 - 13 - 39
Goaltender Saves:ND: Mike Johnson (60:00) 15 - 10 - 12 - 37FSU: Pat Nagle (59:10) 6 - 13 - 15 - 34
Power Plays:ND: 1 for 5FSU: 1 for 4
Attendance: 2,097