HOCKEY: Irish ready to skate up CCHA standings
By MATT ORENCHUK
Sports Writer
Throughout the course of any athletic season there is a separation of the contenders from the pretenders. Such a separation is about to come in the CCHA.
Right now there are eight teams in the league that are within six points of third place. Notre Dame and the University of Nebraska-Omaha are two of the teams jammed in the CCHA standings.
That is what makes this weekend's games against Nebraska-Omaha important for the Irish. If Notre Dame is going to separate itself from the competition, then the team must have a success against the teams closest to them in the standings.
"We are coming into this weekend looking for the sweep," said sophomore Aaron Gill. "This is a huge opportunity to jump ahead of the logjam and put us up in front of the competition."
The Irish have been playing better hockey as of late, going 6-3-1 over the last six weeks of competition. A large part of that success has been freshman goalie Morgan Cey and the developing corps of young defensemen.
During the first month of the season the defense was young and inexperienced. A couple of games the Irish took leads into the third period only to give up tying and winning goals. Through the last six weeks though the Irish defense has played with a renewed sense of confidence.
"We have one of the younger defensive corps in the league," said sophomore defenseman Brett Lebda. "We had to get used to playing with each other. Right now it feels like everything is coming together."
In Nebraska-Omaha the Irish find a team in the same predicament as themselves. The Mavericks are one point behind Notre Dame in the CCHA and they are looking at the Notre Dame series as a way to move up in the standings.
Nebraska-Omaha started off the season on fire, going 7-2 in their first nine games. However, as of late the Mavericks have cooled off some. Nebraska-Omaha is a more human 5-7-3 since mid-November when CCHA play started. Senior Jeff Hoggan leads the Maverick offense. He is their leading scorer with 14 goals and 16 assists on the season. In goal is sophomore Dan Ellis, who has stats similar to Notre Dame goalie Morgan Cey.
The Irish are happy to have the students back, and hope that the home crowd canpropel them to a weekend sweep. Notre Dame has sold out their last three games at the Joyce Center.
"Over break it was great, sellouts every night," said Lebda. "It is a great feeling when you have a full building and a loud supportive crowd."
The puck drops tonight and tomorrow night at the Joyce Center at 7:05 p.m.
All Sports Stories for Friday, January 18, 2002
