Feb. 11, 2002
Notre Dame, Ind. – Notre Dame freshman goaltender Morgan Cey (Wilkie, Sask.) has been named the Central Collegiate Hockey Association’s (CCHA) Rookie of the Week for the week ending February 10th.
Cey stopped 75 of the 78 shots he faced on the weekend as he led the Fighting Irish to a split versus nationally ranked Michigan State at Munn Arena in East Lansing, Mich.
Michigan State came into the weekend series ranked third in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll and fourth in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll and had gone unbeaten in 33 consecutive games dating back to Oct. 21, 2000.
The 6-3, 175-pound goaltender started the weekend series on Friday night with a career-high 41 saves as he gave up a lone power play goal in the second period of a 2-0 loss. The Spartans scored into an empty net with 12 seconds left for the final goal of the game. Cey was named the second star of the night.
In Saturday’s 3-2 win, Cey stopped 34 of 36 Michigan State shots to snap the Spartan’s unbeaten streak at 30-0-3 and give the Irish their first win at Munn Arena since Nov. 1, 1997.
Cey made 19 saves in the second period as Michigan State cut the Notre Dame lead to 3-2 at 6:36 of the stanza, but that was all the freshman netminder would let past him for his ninth win of the season. He was chosen the game’s first star.
The win was the first by the Irish over an opponent ranked higher than third in the national polls since Jan. 3, 1999 when they stopped number-one ranked North Dakota by a 4-3 margin in Grand Forks, N.D.
For the season, the acrobatic goaltender is 9-12-3 with a 3.16 goals against average and a .900 save percentage. He was also the CCHA rookie of the week on Dec. 31.
The Irish are currently 10-15-5 on the season and 8-12-4 in the CCHA. Notre Dame is off this weekend, but returns to play on Feb. 22-23 at Lake Superior State.