Nov. 9, 2001
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish got contributions from just about everyone in their 5-2 home win over the Ferris State Bulldogs on Friday night at the Joyce Center.
They even had a pair of sophomores who played sparingly a year ago, score their first career goals in key situations to help the Irish to their first home win of the season.
After Connor Dunlop for Notre Dame and Chris Kunitz for Ferris State traded goals to make the score 1-1, Notre Dame’s unsung heroes took over.
Sophomore defenseman T.J. Mathieson and freshman center Alex Lalonde never quit on what many thought should have been icing on the Irish and instead turned it into a Notre Dame goal. Lalonde beat the Ferris State defense to the puck behind their net and hit Mathieson in stride inside the blue line. Mathieson put his head down and buried the puck behind Bulldog goaltender Mike Brown at 14:19 of the second period to give the Irish a 2-1 lead.
“Newsy (Lalonde) never gave up on the puck and I never heard a whistle so I just kept coming,” said a smiling Mathieson after the game.
“He put the puck right on my stick and I got off a hard shot that went in.”
The game stayed tied until 4:27 of the third when Kyle Dolder got his first career goal by going hard to the net.
“The draw came back and I blocked out my man. Tommy Galvin got to it and went down the boards, so I just went to the net. He got off the shot and I got the rebound,” described the sophomore right wing.
“I turned around on my forehand and shot it high and it went in. It really feels great. Hopefully I can start to produce a few more goals now that I got that one out of the way.”
The contributions by some of the guys who aren’t on the score sheet every night weren’t missed by head coach Dave Poulin.
“We had big nights from a lot of guys and you need that from everyone,” said Poulin.
“T.J. (Mathieson) had a big goal, Kyle Dolder had a key goal and Michael Chin gave us some breathing room with his goal. It was a strong team effort from everyone,” added the seventh-year head coach.
The Irish got on the scoreboard first on Dunlop’s power play marker at 11:33 of the first period. The goal, Dunlop’s second of the season came after passes from Aaron Gill and David Inman found the junior center on the right side of the goal wher he fired it past Brown.
Goaltender Morgan Cey made the 1-0 lead stand until 12:44 of the second period when Rob Collins – the CCHA’s top scorer – and Chris Kunitz combined on a neat two-on-one to even the score at 1-1.
That set up Mathieson’s goal on what Ferris State’s bench thought was an icing call. John Wroblewski dumped the puck down the ice towards the Bulldogs’ goal line. Lalonde beat Ferris State’s defense to the loose puck and fed Mathieson for the goal and a 2-1 lead.
Following Dolder’s goal, Ferris State got back in the game on a Mike Kinnie power play goal at 8:26. Michael Chin then got the Irish the two-goal lead back at 11:21 when he banked a centering pass off Brown for his second goal of the season to give the Irish the 4-2 lead.
Moments later, the Irish picked up two quick penalties and were forced to kill off a two-man advantage for just over a minute. This time Cey came two big, close-in saves to preserve the two-goal lead.
“Morgan (Cey) came up with a couple of huge saves on the five-on-three,” said Poulin.
“Killing that penalty was as important as the two power play goals we scored. That really turned things for us.”
Inman capped the scoring with a power play goal at 15:29 for his fifth of the season. Dunlop controlled a face-off to the right of Brown and Galvin carried it deep into the left wing corner where he found Inman camped in the slot. The senior right wing snapped it past Brown for the final Irish goal of the night.
For the game, the Irish outshot Ferris State, 34-31. Cey and Brown each made 29 saves on the night.
The win makes the Irish 2-5-2 overall, but puts them at .500 in the CCHA with a 2-2-1 record. Ferris State is now 4-4-0 overall and 2-4-0 in league play. The two teams will meet on Saturday night at 7:05 at the Joyce Center.
IRISH HOCKEY NOTES: Junior right wing John Wroblewski extended his point-scoring streak to four games (2-2-4) with his assist on Mathieson’s goal.
The Irish scored twice on the power play (two-for-nine) for the first time this season. Notre Dame is five-for 44 on the power play this season, scoring at an 11.4% success rate.
Notre Dame’s 2-2-1 mark in the CCHA is the first time that the Irish have been at .500 or above after five games since the 1998-99 season when they started the year 5-0-0 in the CCHA.
Right wing Rob Globke who sat out a game disqualification penalty from last Saturday’s game at Northern Michigan will return to the Irish lineup on Saturday night. Freshman center Yan Stastny missed Friday’s game with a bad back.
SCORING SUMMARY
Ferris State (4-4-2/2-4-0) 0 1 1 – 2
Notre Dame (2-5-2/2-2-1) 1 1 3 – 5
Scoring
First Period: ND: Connor Dunlop 2 (David Inman, Aaron Gill), PPG, 11:33.
Penalties: FSU: 2 for 4 minutes, ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Second Period: FSU: Chris Kunitz 7 (Rob Collins, Simon Mangos), 12:44, ND: T.J. Mathieson 1 (Alex Lalonde, John Wroblewski), 14:19.
Penalties: FSU: 9 for 18 minutes, ND: 6 for 12 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Kyle Dolder 1 (Tom Galvin), 4:27, FSU: Mike Kinnie 3 (Derrick McIver, Derek Nesbitt), PPG, 8:26, ND: Michael Chin 2 (Evan Nielsen), 11:21, ND: Inman 5 (Dunlop, Galvin), 15:29.
Penalties: FSU: 3 for 6 minutes, ND: 4 for 8 minutes.
Shots On Goal:
Ferris State 12 – 7 – 12 – 31
Notre Dame 10 -14 – 10 – 34
Goaltender Saves:
Ferris State – Mike Brown (60:00) 9 -13 – 7 – 29
Notre Dame – Morgan Cey (60:00) 12 – 6 -11 – 29
Power Plays: FSU: 1 for 8, ND: 2 for 9
Attendance: 1,740