Oct. 31, 2010
Kalamazoo, Mich. – Notre Dame and Western Michigan battled 65 minutes on Saturday night at Lawson Arena but couldn’t figure out a winner in regulation or overtime, finishing in a 2-2 tie, so the two teams each got one point in the CCHA standings and went to a shootout to settle the final point of the weekend.
That extra point ended up belonging to the Irish as Ben Ryan scored the lone shootout goal, giving Notre Dame the 1-0 shootout win and two points in the standings for Saturday and five-of-six points in the weekend series with the Broncos.
Anders Lee and Jeff Costello scored Notre Dame’s regulation goals while Western Michigan got two goals from Chase Balisy in the tie.
Max Campbell opened the shootout for the Broncos but was stopped by Notre Dame goaltender Mike Johnson. Ryan scored on a backhander, beating Western goaltender Nick Pisellini over his glove and under the crossbar. Johnson then stopped Shane Berschbach and Balisy while Pisellini stopped Ridderwall, giving the Irish the 1-0 shootout win.
The game counts as a tie on the national level so the Irish are now 5-1-1 overall and 3-0-1-1 in the CCHA, good for 11 points in the standings. The Broncos go to 4-2-2 on the season and are 0-1-1-0 in conference play for one league point. The win also gives 11th-ranked Notre Dame a five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1) since Oct. 10.
It didn’t take the Irish long to get on the scoreboard as they took the early lead just 1:14 into the game on Lee’s sixth goal of the season.
Ryan carried the puck down the left side and centered a pass to right wing Ryan Guentzel. Pisellini went for the poke check and missed, sliding out of the goal. Guentzel centered the puck to Lee alone in front and he fired it into the wide-open cage to put Notre Dame ahead, 1-0.
The Broncos were able to tie the game at 13:55 on a power-play goal by Balisy. Western controlled the puck in the zone and linemate Kyle O’Kane fired a low shot that Johnson stopped. The rebound bounced to the right side of the goal where Balisy was waiting to put the puck in the net. The goal was Balisy’s second of the season.
Western Michigan out shot the Irish, 12-6, in the opening period.
The Broncos continued to carry the play early in the second period and converted it into a 2-1 lead at 2:44 when Balisy collected his second goal of the night and third of the weekend for Western Michigan.
O’Kane set the play in motion moving the puck to Balisy as he came down the right boards. The freshman center worked his way to the bottom of the right circle and backhanded a shot over Johnson’s glove and inside the right post to put the Broncos ahead by a goal.
The Irish were able to tie the game at 16:37 when Costello got his first career goal, firing the rebound of defenseman Kevin Lind’s point shot past Pisellini to make it a 2-2 game. Fellow defenseman Sean Lorenz started the play as he moved the puck from the right point to Lind on the left. Shots were even in the period with each team getting eight each.
The two teams battled through the third period but neither team could score as Johnson stopped all nine shots he faced and Pisellini five.
In overtime, the teams mustered just three shots with the Broncos finishing the night with 31 shots on goal as Johnson made 29 saves for the game. Notre Dame finished with 21 shots in the game and Pisellini finished the night with 19 saves.
Notre Dame’s 21 shots on goal was a season low for the Irish as they were averaging 33.7 per game through the first six games of the season.
Notre Dame returns to action next weekend, Nov. 5-6, when they travel to Bowling Green for a pair of CCHA games versus the Falcons. Game time both nights is 7:05 p.m.
** IRISH NOTES **
* Saturday night’s game at Western Michigan was the first of five consecutive road games for the Irish. Notre Dame will play just two of its next 11 games at home – Nov. 19-20 vs. Michigan State. The Irish are at Bowling Green (Nov. 5-6), at Michigan (Nov. 12-13), at North Dakota (Nov. 26-27) and at Miami (Dec. 3-4) over the next 11 contests.
* In 2009-10, the Irish were involved in nine overtime games, going 1-0-8 in those games. The eight ties equaled a program record. In those eight ties, Notre Dame went to a shootout in all of them with seven coming in CCHA play and one in the Shillelagh Tournament’s championship game to decide a winner. The Irish were 2-5 in CCHA shootouts and 3-5 on the year.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 OT - F#11/#13 Notre Dame (5-1-1/3-0-1-1) 1 1 0 0 - 2Western Michigan (4-2-2/0-1-1-0) 1 1 0 0 - 2
Scoring First Period: ND: Anders Lee 6 (Ryan Guentzel, Ben Ryan), 1:14; WMU: Chase Balisy 2 (Kyle O’Kane, Shane Berschbach), PPG, 13:55.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; WMU: 2 for 4 minutes.
Second Period: WMU: Balisy 3 (O’Kane, Berschbach), 2:44; ND: Jeff Costello 1 (Kevin Lind, Sean Lorenz), 16:37.
Penalties: ND: 3 for 6 minutes; WMU: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: ND: 3 for 6 minutes; WMU: 2 for 4 minutes.
Overtime: No Scoring.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; WMU: 0 for 0 minutes.
Shootout: ND wins, 1-0
WMU - Max Campbell - stopped by JohnsonND - Ben Ryan - goal (backhander over Pisellini)WMU - Shane Berschbach - stopped by JohnsonND - Ridderwall - save by PiselliniWMU - Chase Balisy - save by Johnson
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 6 - 8 - 6 - 2 - 21Western Michigan 12 - 8 - 9 - 2 - 31
Goaltender Saves:ND: Mike Johnson (65:00) 11 - 7 - 9 - 2 - 29WMU: Nick Piselleni (65:00) 5 - 7 - 5 - 2 - 19
Power Plays:ND: 0 for 3WMU: 1 for 5
Attendance: 3,057