Sept. 30, 1999
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The University of Notre Dame hockey team will open its 1999-2000 season at the Joyce Center Fieldhouse on Friday, Oct. 1, with a 7:05 p.m. exhibition game versus Wilfrid Laurier University, which is located in Waterloo, Ontario.
The Irish will open their season versus a Canadian college for the ninth time in the program’s modern era and for the sixth time in the last seven seasons. Notre Dame recently opened versus Waterloo in 1993, St.-Francis Xavier in ’94, Guelph in ’95 and Western Ontario in ’96 and ’97.
Notre Dame returns 18 of 24 letterwinners from a 1998-99 team that spent most of the season in the national top 10 and finished fourth in the rugged Central Collegiate Hockey Association, en route to a 19-15-4 overall record.
The Irish will return to the ice for a two-game series versus growing CCHA rival Michigan on Thursday, Oct. 7, and Friday the 8th. Both games will be held at the Joyce Center, with 7:05 p.m. starts.
Exhibition games versus Canadian colleges do not count towards a team’s won-loss record or official NCAA statistics.
WJVA (1580 AM) TO BROADCAST IRISH HOCKEY DURING 1999-2000 SEASON
Notre Dame hockey games will be broadcast during the 1999-2000 season by South Bend’s WJVA 1580 AM, with live internet broadcasts also available via the Notre Dame Athletic Department’s official website.
The voice of Notre Dame hockey during the 1999-2000 season will be Dave Mager, whose play-by-play experience includes stints with two Division I programs: Colgate University and Merrimack College. A native of Middletown, N.J., Mager is a graduate of Syracuse University’s highly-respected broadcast journalism program. He was the winner of the 1992 Bob Costas award, which recognizes the top graduating sportscaster at Syracuse.
While at Syracuse, Mager also served as sports director of the school’s nationally-regarded campus station, WAER-FM. He then worked as a sportscaster and producer at WBZ radio in Boston, while also pursuing his college hockey play-by-play experience at Colgate and then Merrimack.
Mager moved to the Midwest in 1997, when he joined CBS Radio’s WBBM (AM 780) in Chicago. He continues on WBBM as an afternoon drive sportscaster and as the station’s primary reporter covering the Chicago Bears and Notre Dame football.
SIMON NAMED CAPTAIN, BOREGA AND FRASER SELECTED AS ALTERNATES
The Notre Dame hockey team selected its 1999-2000 team captains during the recently-completed preseason workouts. Senior center Ben Simon (Shaker Heights, Ohio) will serve as the Irish captain while a pair of senior defensemen – Nathan Borega (Wasilla, Alaska) and Tyson Fraser (Surrey, B.C.) – will serve as the alternate captains.
Fraser and Borega-who skated together in 66 games during the previous three seasons-are the first pair of defenseman to serve as captains or alternate captains for Notre Dame hockey in 25 years and are just the third to do so in the program’s 32-year modern era.
Simon is on the verge of eclipsing 100 points in his Notre Dame career, with 31 goals and 67 assists in 104 games. The All-America candidate was named second team all-CCHA for the 1998-99 season and is the CCHA’s third-highest returning scorer. His junior season with the Irish included many clutch plays, among them three game-winning goals, two game-tying goals and six game-winning assists.
Fraser’s subtle and consistent defensive skills were recognized following the 1998-99 season, when he was one of three finalists for the CCHA’s “top defensive defenseman” award. He also has made steady offensive contributions during his Irish career, recording points in 38 of his 90 career games (five goals, 38 assists).
Borega has become known for his disciplined aggression on the Irish blue line, as the hard-hitting, 6-2, 225-pounder has totaled just 120 career penalty minutes in 99 games (1.21 minutes per game). A classic complement to Fraser’s style of play, he has totaled three goals and nine assists during his Notre Dame career, with one of his goals coming in the 1998 CCHA playoff victory at Michigan.