Aug. 29, 2005
Tampa, Fla. – Former Notre Dame goaltender Morgan Cey (Wilkie, Sask.) has signed a multi-year contract with the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning. Jay Feaster, executive vice-president and general manager of the Lightning made the announcement on Friday, Aug. 26.
In making the announcement, Feaster said, “Morgan Cey is a very talented goaltender who has caught the attention of both our scouting staff and our goalie coaches. Jeff Reese and Corey Schwab think Morgan has a lot of potential. He has excellent size and moves well for a big man. We are anxious to have our coaches work with him and get him started on his pro career.”
Cey finished his Notre Dame career in 2004-05 as one of the top goaltenders in Irish history. For his career, he finished first in goals-against average (2.79), first in save percentage (.912) and tops in shutouts (6). He was second in games (112) and minutes played (6,456:04) and sixth in career wins over four seasons.
In 2004-05, Cey was voted the team’s Notre Dame Monogram Club’s Team Most Valuable Player while going 3-17-5 with a 2.99 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage. His 2.99 goals-against gave him four seasons with a goals against under 3.00, making him the first goaltender in the program’s history to have four sub-3.00 seasons. Cey led the Irish to their biggest win of the season on Oct. 22 when he made a career-high 50 saves in Notre Dame’s 3-2 win over No. 1 ranked Boston College. For his efforts, Cey was named the CCHA goaltender of the week and the USCHO.com defensive player of the week.
During his Irish career, Cey was four-for-four on penalty shots and recorded back-to-back shutouts twice. On March 15-16, 2003, the 23-year old goaltender turned in 1-0 and 5-0 shutouts in the first round of the CCHA playoffs versus Miami to help send the Irish to the CCHA Super Six. He is just one of four CCHA goaltenders in the league’s history to record back-to-back playoff shutouts. In the 2003-04 season, Cey again recorded back-to-back shutouts on Dec. 28, 2003 and Jan. 3, 2004. After missing six weeks to a knee injury, his first game back saw him shut down third-ranked Maine, 1-0 at the Everblades Collegiate Hockey Classic in Estero, Fla., stopping 32 shots in the game. Six days later, he stopped 27 shots in blanking Findlay by the same 1-0 score.
A Sociology major, Cey graduated from Notre Dame on May 15, 2005.