Nov. 10, 2010
Notre Dame, Ind. –
Complete Release in PDF Format
– Date/Site/Time: Fri.-Sat., Nov. 12-13, 2010 – 7:35 p.m. – Yost Arena (6,637) – Ann Arbor, Michigan
– The Teams: #11/#11 Notre Dame (6-2-1/4-1-1-1) at #9/#8 Michigan (5-2-3/4-1-1-0)
– Broadcast Information: Radio:Notre Dame hockey can be heard live on Cat Country 99.9 FM in South Bend. Darin Pritchett, the voice of the Irish will call the action with the pregame show beginning 20 minutes before the opening face off. Television: Saturday night’s game will be televised live by Comcast Michigan with Ben Holden and Sean Ritchlin providing the play-by-play and color commentary.
– Internet Broadcast: Audio: Both games of the Notre Dame-Michigan series will have live audio streaming at the Notre Dame website – und.com. Video: Friday’s game will have live video streaming at bigtennetwork.com. There is a charge for this service. Statistics: Livestats are available at both the und.com and mgoblue.com websites.
EARLY SEASON CCHA SHOWDOWN: Notre Dame closes out its current five-game road trip on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 12-13 when the Irish travel to Ann Arbor, Mich., for a pair of games versus the University of Michigan. Game time both nights is 7:35 p.m. Saturday night’s game will be televised live by Comcast in Michigan with Ben Holden and Sean Ritchlin calling all the action. Notre Dame brings a 6-2-1 overall record and a 4-1-1-1 mark in CCHA play into Friday night’s game and has 14 points in the league standings, good for first place in conference play. Michigan stands at 5-2-3 overall and is 4-1-1-0 in the CCHA, good for 13 points and stands second in the conference, one point behind the Irish. The current five-game road swing is the longest of the season for Notre Dame. The Irish are 1-1-1 in the first three games, getting a 2-2 tie (1-0 shootout win) on Oct. 30 at Western Michigan and then splitting a pair at Bowling Green (Nov. 5-6), losing 3-2 and winning, 6-3. Michigan is coming off a road trip at Alaska where the Wolverines fell to the Nanooks, 3-0 last Friday, before taking a 5-2 decision on Saturday. Following this weekend, the Irish return home to face Michigan State on Nov. 19-20 at the Joyce Center.
IRISH VERSUS WOLVERINES: This is Notre Dame’s oldest series as it began in the 1921-22 season. The two teams have met 122 times with Michigan holding a 68-49-5 edge in the series. At Yost Arena, the Wolverines are 38-22-3 versus the Irish. Last season, the two teams met four times with each team winning twice on home ice. On Dec. 11, Michigan downed Notre Dame at Yost Arena, 4-1. Two days later at the Joyce Center, it was the Irish taking a 2-0 win. In February, the Wolverines won, 4-0, on Feb. 25 and Notre Dame closed the regular season on Feb. 27 at home with a 5-3 win. From the 1988-89 season through the 2005-06 campaign, Michigan was 41-6-3 against the Irish. Since the start of the 2006-07 season, the Irish are 8-5-0 versus the Wolverines. Notre Dame’s last win at Yost Arena came on Jan. 31, 2009, a 3-2 win. Since `06-’07, Notre Dame is 2-3-0 at Yost Arena.
CCHA ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Notre Dame freshman center T.J. Tynan (Orland Park, Ill.) was named the CCHA rookie of the week for his play versus Bowling Green. Tynan had two goals and two assists in the series, including a career-best three-point game (1g, 2a) in the 6-3 win over the Falcons on Nov. 6. His goal in that game was the eventual game winner for the Irish.
THE RANKINGS: For the second week in a row, Notre Dame is ranked 11th in both the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll and the USCHO.com poll. Michigan comes into this weekend’s series ranked ninth in the USA Today poll and eighth in the USCHO.com rankings.
TOUGH SCHEDULE: Notre Dame moves into a tough stretch in the schedule this week when the Irish travel to Michigan. Over the next four weeks, they will face ranked teams with three of the series coming on the road. Based on this week’s rankings, Notre Dame plays #9/#8 Michigan this weekend; will be home to face rv/#16 Michigan State (Nov. 19-20); will travel to #10/#10 North Dakota (Nov. 26-27) and then close out the four weeks with a visit to #3/#4 Miami (Dec. 3-4).
BOWLING GREEN RECAP: Friday, Nov. 5 – Notre Dame ran into a hot goaltender on Friday night as Bowling Green’s Nick Eno stopped 30-of-32 shots in a 3-2 win over the Irish. The senior goaltender made 12 of his saves in the third period as Notre Dame rallied from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits but fell a goal short. Freshman center T.J. Tynan (Orland Park, Ill.) and Billy Maday (Jr., Burr Ridge, Ill.) scored third period goals in the loss. The Falcons got goals from Marc Rodriguez, Jordan Samuels-Thomas and Camden Wojtala in the victory. The Irish out shot the Falcons, 32-23 in the games. Notre Dame goaltender Mike Johnson (So., Verona, Wis.) made 20 saves on the night. Rodriguez scored the first goal of the game at 15:29 of the first period and the score stayed that way until the 10:07 mark of the third when Samuels-Thomas made it 2-0. Tynan scored on the power play at 11:51 to make it 2-1. Wojtala scored the eventual game winner at 15:03. The Irish pulled Johnson in favor of a sixth attacker with 2:10 remaining and Maday tucked a rebound over Eno with 23 seconds left to cut the BG lead to 3-2, but that was as close as the Irish would get. Notre Dame was 1-for-10 on the power play while the Falcons were 1-for-4.
Saturday, Nov. 6th – T.J. Tynan and Ryan Guentzel (Sr., Woodbury, Minn.) each had a goal and an assist and Notre Dame got single goals from six different players as the Irish bounced back for a 6-3 win at Bowling Green on Saturday night. David Gerths (Fr., Ankeny, Ia.), Sean Lorenz (Jr., Littleton, Colo.), Calle Ridderwall (Sr., Stockholm, Sweden) and Anders Lee (Fr., Edina, Minn.) joined Tynan and Guentzel on the scoresheet in the victory. David Solway, Ian Ruel and James McIntosh scored for Bowling Green. Gerths opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the year at 4:57 of the first period. The Falcons forged a 2-1 lead after the first on goals by Solway and Ruel. The second period was all Notre Dame as the Irish scored three times in a 5:36 span early in the period. Guentzel snapped a 47-game, goal-less streak when he cashed in on a 2-on-1 with Ben Ryan (Sr., Brighton, Mich.) just 54 seconds into the period to tie the game. Lorenz scored on a slapshot from the right point at 2:15 and Tynan got the eventual game winner at 6:30. McIntosh cut the lead to 4-3 just two minutes into the third period before Ridderwall and Lee put the game away with power-play goals at 4:16 and 18:15 for the 6-3 win. Notre Dame out shot Bowling Green, 36-13 in the win. Andrew Hammond made 30 saves for the Falcons while freshman Steven Summerhays (Anchorage, Alaska) made 10 stops to get his second career win. The Irish were 2-for-10 on the power play while the Falcons were 0-for-2.
FAST START: Senior right wing Ryan Guentzel leads the Irish in scoring after nine games with 13 points, scoring one goal and adding a career-high 12 assists. He is coming off a four-point weekend at Bowling Green where he had a goal and three assists. His goal versus the Falcons was the first for Guentzel since March 13, 2009 when he scored in a CCHA playoff game versus Nebraska-Omaha and snapped a 47-game, goal- less streak. Guentzel is coming off a junior year that saw him score just six points, all assists, in 36 games for the Irish. His previous best season was 2008-09 when he had four goals and seven assists for 11 points. He is in the midst of a career-best six-game, point streak (1-8-9) that started on Oct. 15 versus Lake Superior State.
,b> BEST OFâ⒬ˆTHEâ⒬ˆBEST: Over the past four seasons, the Notre Dame hockey program ranks among the top five programs in the country. Since the start of the 2006-07 season, the Irish have won 109 games and have a .677 winning percentage. The Irish are third in that time period in wins, trailing Michigan (119) and Miamiâ⒬ˆ(114). Notre Dame’s .677 winning percentage is also third behind Miami (.693) and Michigan (.686). Here are the top five teams by wins and winning percentage since 2006-07.
WINS WINNINGââ'¬Ë†.PCTMichigan (119) Miami (.693)Miami (114) Michigan (.686)Notre Dame (109) Notre Dame (.677)Boston College (106) Boston College (.662)North Dakota (106) North Dakota (.635)
HOMETOWN HERO: Freshman defenseman Jared Beers (Mishawaka, Ind.) picked up the first two points of his career with a pair of assists in the 6-3 win at Bowling Green on Nov. 6. His first collegiate assist came on David Gerth’s first period goal and his second came on T.J. Tynan’s game winner in the second period. Beers is just the fourth local player to play for the Irish in the program’s history. He joins Mike McNeill `84-’88 (South Bend), Tommy Smith `88-89 (South Bend) and Carey Nemeth’93-’94 (Granger) as local players to play for the Irish. Beers played two seasons at Culver Academy and then saw action in the NAHL with the Kenai River Brown Bears (2008-09) and the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders in the USHL in 2009-10.
OH BROTHER: When the Irish and Wolverines get together this weekend, it will pit the Rust brothers versus each other – freshman, Bryan for Notre Dame and senior, Matt, for Michigan. This will be the first time the two brothers will meet against each other at the collegiate level. In nine games this season, Bryan Rust (Novi, Mich.) has one goal and one assist for two points with a pair of penalty minutes. Matt Rust has played 10 games for Michigan and has two goals and three assists for five points with four penalty minutes. Bryan has a short-handed goal for the Irish while Matt has a shorty and a power-play marker for the Wolverines.
THEâ⒬ˆSPECIALIST: Senior left wing Calle Ridderwall is second on the team in goals with five through the first nine games this season and tied for the team lead in power-play goals with three. He has led Notre Dame in goals in each of the last two seasons, getting 17 in 2008-09 and 19 last season in 2009-10. Over the last two-plus seasons, Ridderwall has scored 41 goals with 25 of them coming via the power play. Last season, his 11 power-play goals led the CCHA. Ridderwall had 11 power-play goals in `08-’09 to match last season’s total and has two this year. His 25 power-play goals move him into a tie for sixth on Notre Dame’s all-time power-play goal list with Aniket Dhadphale `99, Tim Kuehl `90 and Kirt Bjork `83, all of whom had 25 man-advantage goals in their careers. For his career, Ridderwall has 46 goals and 27 assists for 73 career points in 126 games.
Power-Play Goals Name (Seasons) PPG1. Greg Meredith (1976-80) 432. Dave Poulin (1978-82) 323. Mike McNeill (1984-88) 314. Lou Zadra (1988-92) 285. Ryan Thang (2006-10) 27 6. Calle Ridderwall (2008-) 25 Aniket Dhadphale (1995-99) 25 Tim Kuehl (1986-90) 25 Kirt Bjork (1979-83) 2510. Brian Walsh (1973-77) 24
ANOTHER MILESTONE: Notre Dame’s Oct. 30, 3-2 win over Western Michigan was the 200th CCHA win for Irish coach Jeff Jackson. Now in his 12th season at the Division I level, Jackson is 201-81-45 in his career in CCHA play in six seasons at Lake Superior State (1990-96) and six seasons at Notre Dame. Earlier in October (Oct. 14 vs. Lake Superior State), Jackson won his 300th career game as a Division I coach. His all-time record stands at 304-119-48 for a .696 winning percentage.
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: Notre Dame’s freshmen class has played a key role in the 6-2-1 start for the Irish. In the series versus Bowling Green, 11 of the 12 rookies saw action (only third goaltender Joe Rogers did not play) and accounted for four Notre Dame goals and four assists in the series split with the Falcons. In the first nine games, the Irish freshmen have accounted for 19 of the team’s 33 goals (57.5%), 22 of the 61 assists (36.1%) and 41 of team’s 94 points this season (43.6%). Freshman goaltender Steven Summerhays has two of the team’s six wins in goal.
POWER SHORTAGE: During Notre Dame’s series with Bowling Green, the Irish were just 3-for-20 on the power play for a 15.0% success rate. In nine games this season, Notre Dame is 8-for-58 (13.8%). The 58 power-play chances are the third highest total in the nation this year. The Irish have scored at least one power-play goal in seven of the team’s nine games this season. The Nov. 6 game at Bowling Green marked the first time this season that the Irish scored two power-play goals in one game.
FAST START: Notre Dame freshman left wing Anders Lee knows how to get his career off to a fast start. The 6-3, 218-pounder scored a goal on his first shot in the 6-3 win over Holy Cross (Oct. 8), just 1:58 into the first period. He went on to record two more goals for a hat trick in his first-ever collegiate game. Lee then added an assist in the 5-4 loss to Boston University in the championship game of the Warrior Ice Breaker Tournament. For his efforts, Anders Lee was named the CCHA rookie of the week for the week ending Oct. 10. He joins John Noble `73 as the only other freshman to score three goals in his first game as Noble did the trick on Nov. 15, 1969 in an 8-3 win over Windsor. He joins recent Irish players – Billy Maday, Christiaan Minella `10 and Tim Wallace `06 – as freshmen who scored on their first shot on goal. Lee added a goal and an assist in the Oct. 15 win over Lake Superior State and through the first nine games of the season, he leads the team with seven goals, is tied for the top with three power-play goals and is fourth in points with nine (7g, 2a). He was named the CCHA rookie of the month for October.
LATE ADDITIONS: Center T.J. Tynan’s fast start (4g, 6a) in the first nine games have been a key to the 6-2-1 start for the Irish. The 5-8, 156-pound center has moved in to become one of the team’s quarterbacks on the power play. The Orland Park, Ill., native wasn’t even supposed to be on this year’s team. Even though he signed a national letter-of-intent in Nov. of 2009, Tynan was going to defer and play another year with the Des Moines Buccaneers in the USHL where he was the Bucs leading scorer in `09-’10 and a member of the USHL’s all-rookie team. When Kyle Palmieri decided to sign with the Anaheim Ducks in early August, the call went out to Tynan and he joined the Irish roster. Freshman defenseman Kevin Lind (Homer Glen, Ill.) also joined the team in mid-August after Jarred Tinordi opted to play in the OHL. The 6-3, 221-pound Lind has played in all nine games and tops the defensemen in scoring with five points, all on assists and is tied for the team lead with a +5.
THE PUCK STOPS HERE: Sophomore goaltender Mike Johnson and freshman goaltender Steven Summerhays split the goaltending duties last weekend in the Bowling Green series. That marks the second consecutive weekend that the duo has split games. Johnson got the start on Friday, Nov. 5th and made 20 saves in the 3-2 loss. Summerhays faced a season-low 13 shots the following night and made 10 saves in the 6-3 win over the Falcons. Johnson, who started the season with a personal-best five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1), is now 4-1-1 on the year with a 2.15 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage. As a freshman, Johnson took CCHA all-rookie team honors, playing in 29 games in `09-’10, going 10-13-5 with a 2.60 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage. Summerhays is now 2-1-0 with a 3.36 goals-against average and a .828 save percentage. He owns wins over Bowling Green and Western Michigan while his lone loss came to Boston University on Oct. 10. Summerhays joined the Irish after playing the last two seasons with the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers. In `09-’10, Summerhays was a first team all-USHL selection and the USHL goaltender of the year after going 31-2-3 with a 2.17 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage. Joining Summerhays and Johnson in the Notre Dame goaltending corps is freshman Joe Rogers (Marysville, Mich.) who has yet to play this season. Rogers joins the Notre Dame roster after playing last season in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) with the Albert Lea Thunder. Rogers was 13-19-2 with a 3.97 goals-against average and a .891 save percentage.
CAN’T TELL THE PLAYERS WITHOUT A SCORECARD: The 20010-11 Notre Dame hockey team has a much different look than last year’s 13-17-8 team as 13 players from that team are gone and 12 freshmen will take their place. Seven players – seniors Brett Blatchford, Kevin Deeth, Dan Kissel, Kyle Lawson, Christiaan Minella, Tom O’Brien and Ryan Thang – have graduated. Three players – defensemen Ian Cole and Teddy Ruth along with forward Kyle Palmieri – signed with the NHL teams that drafted them. Cole (St. Louis) and Ruth (Columbus) left after their junior seasons while Palmieri (Anaheim) left after his freshman year. Three are no longer with the team. Junior goaltender Brad Phillips is currently with the Bloomington Prairie Thunder of the Central Hockey League. Sophomore left wing Kyle Murphy returned to junior hockey for more playing time and is with the Vernon Vipers of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). The third player, defenseman Eric Ringel has retired from hockey after a concussion and the concussion symptoms that occurred last season. He was not cleared to play by doctors and will serve as an undergraduate student assistant coach. The 12 freshmen include two goaltenders, four defensemen and six forwards.
PLAYING SHORT-HANDED: Through the first nine games of the 2010-11 season, Notre Dame has been very successful killing penalties. The Irish have killed 40-of-45 opponent power-play chances for a 88.9% success rate. While giving up just five power-play goals in nine games, Notre Dame already has scored three short-handed markers on the season. In 2009-10, the Irish had just four short-handed goals in 38 games. To date, Joe Lavin (Holy Cross), Bryan Rust (Boston University) and Billy Maday (Lake Superior State) have scored short-handed for the Irish.
SHOOTING THE PUCK: After averaging 35 shots per game over the first five games of the season, the Irish were held to a combined 45 shots in the series against Western Michigan (24 on Friday and 21 on Saturday). Previous to that, the fewest shots Notre Dame had in a game was 34, something that happened three times. Against Bowling Green, the Irish were back to their pre-Western Michigan level, getting 32 and 36 shots respectively versus the Falcons. After nine games this season, the Irish are now averaging 32.0 shots per game. The 13 shots that Notre Dame surrendered to Bowling Green on Nov. 6 was a season low, breaking the mark of 21 set the week before at Western Michigan. For the season, the Irish are holding the opposition to 25.8 shots per game.
LOWE’S SENIOR CLASS AWARD: Senior left wing Calle Ridderwall is one of 20 Division I hockey players to be selected as a candidate for the 2010-11 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. The award is presented annually to an NCAA Division I student-athlete in 10 sports based on achievement’s in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition. CLASS is an acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School and the award focuses and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. This is the fifth year that Lowe’s has sponsored an award for hockey. In 2006-07, former Irish goaltender David Brown `07 won the Senior CLASS Award while in 2007-08, Mark Van Guilder `08 and in 2008-09, Jordan Pearce `09 and Erik Condra `09 were among the top 10 finalists. Team captain Ryan Thang `10 was the team’s nominee last season.
CAREER BESTS: With three assists in the season opener versus Holy Cross, senior Ben Ryan equaled his career best for points in a game while setting his personal best with the three assists. Linemate Ryan Guentzel had career highs with three assists and three points in the win over Holy Cross. Guentzel equaled his career best with three points (1g, 2a) in the 6-3 win over Bowling Green. Both Guentzel and Ryan have three multiple-point games each this season.
FRESH START: Sophomore defenseman Sam Calabrese (Park Ridge, Ill.) had a freshman season that he would love to forget. The product of the USA Under-18 Team, Calabrese played in just three games, registering no points. Last Dec. 4, on the first shift of his third game, he suffered a broken leg at Miami that sidelined him for most of the season. This year, in seven games, Calabrese has three assists and is tied for the team lead with a +5 rating.
GETTING THE CALL: To former Notre Dame players made their NHL debuts last week. Right wing Kyle Palmieri, who played just one season with the Irish, was recalled by Anaheim from their AHL farm team in Syracuse on Tues., Nov. 2 and saw his first NHL action on Nov. 3, scoring his first NHL goal in a 3-2 win for the Ducks. Palmieri had just been named the AHL player of the week for a six-goal, one-assist week and was leading the league with seven goals before his recall. On Friday, Nov. 5, defenseman Ian Cole was recalled by the St. Louis Blues from their AHL Peoria farm club where he had played 11 games. He made his NHL debut on Sat., Nov. 6, playing in Boston against the Bruins in a 2-1 shootout win. Both players remain with their NHL teams as of Wed., Nov. 10. Both Palmieri (2009) and Cole (2007) were first-round draft choices by their respective teams. There are now five former Notre Dame players in the NHL as Palmieri and Cole join Mark Eaton (New York Islanders), Brett Lebda (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Christian Hanson (Toronto).
EXTRA HOCKEY: During the `09-’10 season, the Irish were involved in nine overtime contests, finishing 1-0-8 in those games. The eight ties equaled a Notre Dame record set during the 1999-2000 season. All eight ties in `09-’10 went to a shootout where the Irish were 3-5 in those games. The lone overtime win came on Nov. 27, 2009 versus Bowling Green (2-1) and was the first for the Irish since Feb. 20, 2009 at Nebraska-Omaha, a 4-3 win. Through the first nine games of the 2010-11 season, the Irish have played one overtime game – on Oct. 30 at Western Michigan. That game ended in a 2-2 tie and the Irish won the overtime shootout, 1-0. Notre Dame is now 3-0-12 in overtime since its last overtime loss, a 2-1 decision to Miami on March 21, 2008, in the CCHA semifinal game.
FULLâ⒬ˆHOUSE: With sellout crowds in each of the first four home games, Notre Dame has now recorded 11 consecutive sellouts since Nov. 28, 2009. The Irish have had sell outs in 18 of the team’s last 22 home games and last year averaged 2,765 fans per game. Since Dec. 13, 2008, the Irish have recorded sellouts in 27 of their last 31 home games. A sellout at the Joyce Center is 2,713 with 2,857 capacity with standing room. Twice during the `09-’10 season – Jan. 15 vs. Michigan State and Jan. 29 against Nebraska-Omaha – 3,007 fans jammed into the Joyce Center. Prior to that number, the largest crowd to see an Irish hockey game was 3,310 on March of 1995 when Notre Dame play Illinois-Chicago. The following season, new seating was installed and capacity was reconfigured.