Hockey: Irish unable to solve Maverick goaltender
By: CHRIS FEDERICO
Assistant Sports Editor
The Irish dropped two home games to conference rival Nebraska-Omaha — 3-2 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday — and missed an opportunity to pick up points in a very tight CCHA race.
The losses were quite tough for the team, because in both games the Irish played well enough to win, but on both nights Irish shooters were constantly foiled by Maverick goaltender Dan Ellis.
"It was frustrating. We played well over the last two games and outshot them," Irish center Connor Dunlop said. "We got 40-plus shots each night, but we couldn't solve [Ellis]."
The Irish outshot their opponents 90-45 in the two games. However, Ellis managed to turn away 86 of those 90 shots in leading his team to victory. In addition, the Irish failed to take advantage of several key opportunities to score, while their opponents made the most of their opportunities.
"It's interesting because we had our chances to win," head coach Dave Poulin said. "It comes down to them making plays and us not making plays. We had great chances, but it's not good enough because they didn't go in."
The Mavericks came out firing at the beginning of the game Saturday, taking the role of the early aggressor against the Irish. Just 10:48 into the contest, the Mavericks grabbed the lead when right wing Scotty Turner put back a rebound from a shot by center Andrew Wong. Irish goaltender Morgan Cey made a lunging kick save to stop Wong's shot, but was unable to do anything about the Turner follow.
Nebraska-Omaha added to its lead three minutes later when Maverick captain David Brisson burned most of the Irish defenders down the rink and took a shot on Cey. The freshman goalie stopped the first attack, but Maverick Anthony Adams quickly followed with a rebound that got by Cey.
"Both the first and the second goals were rebound goals, and those were clearing opportunities for us," Poulin said.
The Irish got one goal back just 13 seconds later when center Rob Globke blasted a shot past Ellis. Defensemen Evan Nielsen and Neil Komadoski were credited with assists on the play.
The best scoring opportunity in the second period came about eight minutes into the period during an Irish power play. Irish defenseman Brett Lebda fired a shot from the blue line that got past Ellis, but bounced off the cross bar. The puck then got back to Lebda who blasted another shot that was stopped this time by Ellis. Dunlop, however, had an opportunity to put in the rebound with Ellis flat on the ice, but his shot also struck the bar and bounced away.
"We moved it around pretty well tonight [on the power plays]," Dunlop said. "We ended up getting one power play goal, but we've got to make sure we get those chances and take advantage of them because that's really the difference in this league."
Over the course of the two games, Notre Dame was 2 for 17 in power play opportunities, whereas Nebraska-Omaha was 3 for 8.
In the third period, penalties again hurt the Irish when Wong took a pass from left wing Jeff Hoggan and slapped a one-timer past Cey during the Maverick power play to build a 3-1 advantage.
Late in the third period, the Irish chipped away at the Maverick lead. During an Irish power play, Lebda slipped a pass from behind the net to left wing David Inman, who knocked a one-timer by Ellis.
The nail in the coffin for the Irish came at the 17:37 mark when Shane Glover took a crossing pass from Hoggan and shot it past Cey for the Mavericks' fourth and final goal.
In the contest Friday night, it was the Irish who came out firing, but many of their bullets missed the mark. In that first period, the Irish outshot the Mavericks 17-2, but only managed one goal for their efforts.
With 4:50 left in the first period, center John Wroblewski snuck one past Ellis with assists from Nielsen and left wing Brad Wanchulak to give the Irish the early lead.
Just two minutes into the second period, it appeared that the Irish would add to their lead, but with the Maverick goalie down, right wing Michael Chin misfired on his shot from close range.
Instead, Nebraska-Omaha would tie the game at the 5:31 mark of the second period when Irish defender Tom Galvin lost the puck right in front of the net. Brisson was able to put the puck past Cey on the easy breakaway.
Midway through the period, Nebraska-Omaha got its first lead of the night on a power play. Defender Greg Zanon took a one-timer from the blue line and fired it into the net.
The Irish defense locked down on the Mavericks after those two early second period goals and prevented the Mavericks from opening up their lead.
At the 13:02 mark of the third period, Dunlop managed to tie the game for Notre Dame by knocking in a rebound after shots from Lebda and Inman, who were both credited with assists.
With just over a minute left in regulation, it appeared the teams were headed for overtime. After a couple of Irish defenders got entangled in front of the net, Maverick wing Shane Glover was able to shoot the puck past Cey for the game-winning goal.
The weekend proved to be the first this year that the Irish were shutout in earning points towards the conference standings.
"It's frustrating because it's the first CCHA weekend that we failed to take away points," Poulin said. "At this point in the year, every point is going to be absolutely critical."
The two losses drop Notre Dame to 6-8-4 in conference play, but with only seven points separating third place from ninth place, anything can happen over the next five weeks. Next weekend the Irish will travel to Miami (OH) for another pair of conference games.
"Each game the rest of the way is, as far as I'm concerned, there for the taking," Poulin said. "We have to go take them. We've put ourselves in a very difficult position and we have to go take those games."
Contact Chris Federico at cfederic@nd.edu.
All Sports Stories for Monday, January 21, 2002
