Feb. 21, 2011
Notre Dame, Ind. – Freshman goaltender Steven Summerhays (Anchorage, Alaska) has been named the CCHA rookie of the week for his play in Notre Dame’s weekend sweep at Ferris State on Feb. 18-19. This marks the ninth week this season that a Notre Dame player has been named the conference rookie of the week.
Summerhays, who has a personal three-game unbeaten streak (2-0-1) dating back to Jan. 29, stopped a career-best 29 shots in the 5-2 Irish win at Ferris State on Feb. 19. Both goals that the freshman goaltender surrendered came on Bulldog power-play chances.
The win improved Summerhays to 5-2-1 on the season with a 3.01 goals-against average and a .858 save percentage. In his three-game unbeaten streak that covers his last three starts, the 6-0, 193-pound goaltender has surrendered just five goals for a 1.62 goals-against average and has stopped 55-of-60 shots for a .917 save percentage.
A product of the United States Hockey League (USHL) and the Green Bay Gamblers, Summerhays joins forwards T.J. Tynan (Orland Park, Ill.), who has been selected four times, Anders Lee (Edina, Minn.), a three-time selection and Mike Voran (Livonia, Mich.) as Notre Dame players to take CCHA rookie of the week honors.
Notre Dame has now won four straight games and has a seven-game unbeaten streak (5-0-2), dating back to Jan. 22. Overall, the Irish are 20-9-5 and go into the final week of the CCHA regular season in first place with a 17-6-3-2 record, good for 56 points and a one-point lead on Michigan.
The Irish go into the week ranked eighth in both the USA Today/American Hockey magazine and the USCHO.com polls.
Summerhays and his teammates close out the regular season this weekend, Feb. 25-26, with a home-and-home series versus Western Michigan. The Irish and the Broncos will meet in Kalamazoo, Mich., at 7:35 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 25. The two teams then finish the regular season on Sat., Feb. 26 with a 7:05 p.m. game at the Joyce Center.