Nov. 15, 2010
Notre Dame, Ind. – Notre Dame freshman center T.J. Tynan (Orland Park, Ill.) has been named the Central Collegiate Hockey Association’s rookie of the week for games played the week of Nov. 8. This marks the second consecutive week that the 18-year old center has been honored by the conference for his play on the ice. In his two games last week at Michigan, Tynan scored a goal and added two assists for a three-point weekend in the series split with the Wolverines.
On Friday, Nov. 12, in the 3-1 win over Michigan, Tynan set up fellow freshman Kevin Lind’s (Homer Glen, Ill.) game-winning goal at the 1:35 mark of the third period. Tynan carried the puck deep into the Wolverine zone and dropped a pass for right wing Billy Maday (Jr., Burr Ridge, Ill.). Maday’s slap shot was stopped by goaltender Shawn Hunwick but the rebound went to the left boards where Lind pinched in and fired a shot past Hunwick to make it a 2-1 game. Tynan had three shots in the game and was +1 for the night.
Tynan helped the Irish take a 2-1 lead in the first period of Saturday’s game, an eventual 5-3 loss to Michigan. He scored the opening goal of the game at 5:15 of the period when he took a centering feed from Anders Lee (Fr., Edina, Minn.) and whipped it past goaltender Bryan Hogan for his fifth goal of the season.
With the Irish trailing in the second period, 3-2, the 5-8, 156-pound center helped set up the tying goal by defenseman Joe Lavin (Sr., Shrewsbury, Mass.) at 13:58. Tynan carried the puck into the Michigan zone and left it inside the blue line for Lavin. The defenseman did the rest, carrying the puck on net before sliding a shot between Hogan’s pads for his second of the year and a 3-3 tie. On the night, Tynan finished with a goal and an assist for two points, had five shots on goal and was even for the night.
After 11 games this season, Tynan is second on the Notre Dame scoresheet with five goals and eight assists for 13 points with one power-play goal and one game winner. He is currently tied for fourth in the overall CCHA scoring race and leads all conference freshmen in scoring. His 13 points tie him for third in the nation among all freshman scorers.
The games at Michigan closed out a five-game road swing for the Irish where they were 2-2-1. Notre Dame enters the week ranked 11th in the nation in both the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine and USCHO.com polls. Tynan and the Irish teammates are currently 7-3-1 overall and are 5-2-1-1 in the CCHA, good for 17 points and first place in the conference, one point ahead of the second-place Wolverines.
The Irish return to action this weekend when they play host to Michigan State on Fri.-Sat., Nov. 19-20 at the Joyce Center. Friday’s game has a 7:35 p.m. starting time while Saturday’s contest has 5:05 p.m. starting time.