January 7, 1997

Urick, Dusbabek Spark 3-2 Win At Mankato State As Irish End One-Goal Game Frustration

MANKATO, Minn. – Sophomore Brian Urick tied the gamelate in the second period and fellow Minnetonka (MN) native JoeDusbabek scored the game-winning goal with seven minutes remaining, asthe University of Notre Dame hockey team ended a frustratingslide in one-goal games, posting a 3-2 victory over MankatoState in non-conference action Tuesday at the Mankato CivicCenter.

Notre Dame (6-13-1) – playing in Minnesota for the first timein four years – enjoyed a huge edge in shots (40-17) but had toovercome two deficits before Dubabek’s score gave the Irishtheir first one-goal win since a 2-1 victory over WesternOntario in the season opener. Since that win on Oct. 11, theIrish had lost their last seven games that were decided by onegoal.

Mankato State (7-12-2) – which posted a dramatic 4-3 overtimewin at Notre Dame Nov. 17 – held second-period leads of 1-0 and2-1, but the Mavericks offense did little to help a stellar37-save effort by MSU sophomore goaltender Des Christopher.

Dusbabek scored the game-winning goal at the 12:30 mark aftertaking a mid-ice pass from fellow freshman Ben Simon, who wasplaying in his first game back with the Irish since returningfrom last week’s World Junior Hockey Championships where hehelped the U.S. to a silver medal – its top finish at thetournament. Dusbabek angled towards the left circle and sloweddown to let Simon cross in front of him, freezing the MSUdefense before the right-handed Dusbabek rocketed a shot througha MSU player’s legs and into the right side of the net, aboveChristopher’s glove hand.

The Irish dodged a bullet late in the secondperiod, as penalties to Urick and freshman defenseman NathanBorega provided Mankato State with a two-man advantage for oneminute, 27 seconds. But Notre Dame junior goaltender Matt Eislermade two saves, freshman defenseman Tyson Fraser came up withseveral key clears and Urick poked the puck past the blueline,as the Irish fought off both penalties to keep the game tiedheaded into the second intermission.

MSU scored first on a power-play goal midway through thesecond period as freshman Aaron Fox alertly gathered the puckand sent a quick 15-foot shot from the slot into the rightcorner of the net (7:31).

Fifty-nine seconds later, the Irish scored their ownpower-play goal when senior Terry Lorenz tipped in a shot fromthe right point by Ben Nelsen, who had received a slide passacross the blueline from fellow senior defenseman Brian McCarthy(8:30).

But the Mavericks reclaimed the lead 17 seconds later assophomore Tyler Deis took an outlet pass from linemate RyanRintoul and raced down the ice before sending a shot from theright side of the crease that tucked inside the left post togive Deis his team-leading 19th goal of the season.

The second-period scoring flurry continued at 16:31 whenUrick scored his ninth goal of the season (tying him withDusbabek for the team lead). Urick took a pass from classmateAniket Dhadphale and skated down the left side before anglinginto the slot, drifting into the right circle and quicklywristing a shot past a stunned Christopher into the lower-leftcorner of the net.

Notre Dame outshot Mankato State, 11-6, in a scoreless firstperiod and was unable to convert on the only power-playopportunity of the first 20 minutes.

The first 28 minutes of the game continued the latest offensefrustrations for Notre Dame, which failed to score on its first18 shots while being unable to convert on its first three power-playchances. For the game, the Irish, ironically, duplicated theirshots and goal total from the earlier meeting against MSU (40shots, three goals) while going just 1-for-7 on the power playon Tuesday after going 0-for-8 in the first game against theMavericks.

MSU converted on its first power-play chance of the game butthe Irish then killed off the Mavericks’ final four power playswith Eisler making five of his 15 saves during thosepenalty-killing situations.

The game was Notre Dame’s first in the state of Minnesota infour years – since a 6-3 win at Mankato State Jan. 3, 1993) -and served as a homecoming for eight Minnesota natives on theIrish roster, including Minnotanka Harberts – sophomore forwardsNeal Johnson (Edina) and Craig Hagkull (Arden Hills) andfreshman forwards Troy Bagne (Morehead) and Shance Slominski(Burnsville).

Edina native Tom Carroll, now in his 12th season as a NotreDame assistant coach, also has ties to the Mankato program, asthree of his five brothers played hockey for the Mavericks: Mike(1975-78), Steve (1977-81) and Pat (1981-85). Pat Carrollremains second in Mankato State record book for both careerpoints (224), career goals (123) while holding Mavericks recordsfor single season points (88), season assists (46), careerpower-play goals (37) and career game-winning goals (17) SteveCarroll holds Mankato State career records for minutes (6,896),wins (81) and saves (3,228)

Scoring Summary

Notre Dame (6-13-1)     0 2 1 - 3Mankato State (7-12-2)  0 2 0 - 2

First period – No scoring.
Second period – MSU 1. Fox (Krug, Essay), PP, 7:31; ND 1. Lorenz (Nelsen, McCarthy), PP, 8:30; MSU 2. Dels (Rintoul) 8:47; ND 2. Urick (Dhadphale) 14:52.
Third period – ND 3. Dusbabek (Simon, McCarthy) 12:30.
Shots on goal: ND 11-16-13/40, MSU 6-8-3/17.
Saves: ND (Eisler) 6-6-3/15, MSU (Christopher) 11-14-12/37.
Power play: ND 1-of-7, MSU 1-of-5.
Penalties: ND 1 for 30:00, MSU 12 for 24:00.