Senior goaltender Mike Johnson stopped 26-of-28 shots in his first start of the season, winning 3-2 at Northern Michigan.

Mike Voran and Mike Johnson Lead Irish To A 2-1 Win Over Russian Red Stars

Jan. 3, 2012

Final Stats

Notre Dame, Ind. – Sophomore forwards Mike Voran and Anders Lee scored first-period goals while junior goaltender Mike Johnson stopped 27-of-28 shots to lead Notre Dame to a 2-1 win over the Russian Red Stars Tuesday night in exhibition action at the Compton Family Ice Arena.

Maxim Kvitchenko scored the lone goal for the Red Stars who were playing their seventh of eight games on an exhibition tour of the United States. The team is made up of 18-to-20 year old all-stars from the Minor Hockey League (MHL) and is now 2-5-0 on the tour that started on Dec. 17.

The win for Notre Dame gets the 2012 portion of the schedule off to a strong start. The Irish return to regular-season action on Sat., Jan. 7 when they travel to Minneapolis, Minn., to face the University of Minnesota in the annual Hall of Fame game. The contest will feature two of the top-ranked teams in the nation as the Irish are ranked third in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll and fifth in the USCHO.com poll. Minnesota is fifth in the USA Today poll and third in the USCHO.com poll.

The Irish wasted little time building a 2-0 lead in the first eight minutes of the game. Lee, who leads Notre Dame with 14 goals, opened the scoring at 3:59 of the opening period when he banged the rebound of a Voran shot past starting goaltender Eugeny Ivannikov for the 1-0 lead. Billy Maday picked up the second assist on the goal.

Less than four minutes later, Voran did the honors as he took a lead pass from freshman defenseman Robbie Russo and beat Ivannikov with a blast from the top of the right wing circle at 7:22 to give the Irish the 2-0 lead.

Ivannikov was replaced at 8:20 of the first period by Rafael Khakimov who blanked Notre Dame the rest of the way.

From there the Irish defense and Johnson took over as the junior held off the Red Stars as he made 16 of his 28 saves after Kvitchenko snapped his shutout bid early in the second period.

Defenseman Dmitry Kozlov broke up a Notre Dame pass along the right boards and moved the puck ahead to Ansel Galimov. The right wing carried the puck down the right boards and found Kvitchenko between the hash marks where he snapped a wrist shot past Johnson inside the left post at 4:16 to cut the Irish lead in half.

That would be the last goal that the Russians would score as Johnson stopped all 12 shots he faced in the third period as the Irish were out shot, 12-7.

For the game, Notre Dame out shot the Red Stars, 31-28. Ivannikov made five saves in 8:30 of playing time while Khakimov had 24 stops in his 50:40 of action.

Each team was 0-for-3 on the power play.

Notre Dame’s game at Minnesota on Saturday, Jan. 7 will start at 7:07 p.m. (CT) and can be seen on the Big Ten Network.

GAME SUMMARY                  1    2    3  -  FRussia Red Stars              0    1    0  -  1#3/#5 Notre Dame (12-6-3)     2    0    0  -  2

Scoring First Period: ND: Anders Lee (Mike Voran, Billy Maday), 3:59; ND: Voran (Robbie Russo), 7:22.

Penalties: RRS: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.

Second Period: RRS: Maxim Kvitchenko (Ansel Galimov, Dmitry Kozlov), 4:16.

Penalties: RRS: 0 for 0 minutes; ND: 0 for 0 minutes.

Third Period: No Scoring.

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

Shots On Goal:Russian Red Stars    11 - 5 - 12 - 28Notre Dame           16 - 8 -  7 - 31
Goaltender Saves:RRS: Eugeny Ivannikov (8:30) 5 - x - x - 5 Rafael Khakimov (50:40) 9 - 8 - 7 - 24ND: Mike Johnson (60:00) 11 - 4 - 12 - 27
Power Plays:RRS: 0 for 3ND: 0 for 3
Attendance: 4,664