Irish split weekend with Mavericks, retain fifth-place
By MATT OLIVA
Sports Writer
Two Notre Dame hockey teams showed up this weekend, as the Irish split the weekend series with the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks. After dropping Friday night's game to the Mavericks, 3-1, the Irish came back on Saturday with a convincing win, 7-4, to regain sole possession of fifth place.
Friday, Notre Dame appeared on its way to starting off the series with a win.
The Irish scored just over three minutes into the game when Ben Simon's pass toward the net glanced off of Dan Carlson's skate and past Maverick goaltender Kendall Sidoruk. It was a quick goal, but the Irish offense struggled to put together any offense the rest of the way.
Nebraska-Omaha answered back with two more goals in the period to take a 2-1 lead, which was eventually enough for the win.
The first goal came on the power play, but the second was the one that really took the wind out of the Irish. Notre Dame was on the power play, but turned the puck over to Maverick sophomore Jeff Hoggan. Hoggan bounced the puck off Irish goalie Tony Zasowski's left pad for the short-handed goal.
The Irish had only one good chance at scoring, which came in the second period. Joe Dusbabek fired a shot with four minutes remaining that got past the Mavericks' goalie but hit off the cross bar and deflected away from the net. The Mavericks then put the Irish away on an empty-net goal.
"We were out-worked all night," Irish head coach Dave Poulin said. "It is frustrating because that is one thing in life that you control. They were a very good hockey team."
Saturday night's game was a different story. The Irish scored first on a power play. The Notre Dame power play came up empty the night before, but David Inman ended the drought by converting on a pass from Evan Nielsen. The lead did not last long as Hoggan scored an unassisted goal 23 seconds later.
Things turned around in the second period for the Irish. Michael Chin scored on a give-and-go with Brett Henning to put the Irish back on top at the 1:14 mark. They increased their lead eight minutes later when Chin found the net again for his second goal of the weekend. Ben Simon set up the goal by skating to the side of the crease and giving a backhand pass to Chin, who then put the puck between the legs of the Maverick goalie.
The Irish appeared to be heading into the second intermission with a solid two goal lead, but Simon broke free and into the Nebraska-Omaha zone as time was winding down. He then dove and knocked the puck past Sidoruk as time expired to give Notre Dame a 4-1 lead.
The UNO bench argued that time had expired before the puck crossed the goal line, but the referee remained with his call and allowed the goal. It was Simon's first goal in 15 games, dating all the way back to the Massachusetts series.
It was the second controversial call in the period. Early it appeared that the Mavericks had tied the game at two, but the referee waived it off stating that the whistle had blown. Replays show that Zasowski had never covered the puck, but the early whistle prevented UNO from getting back into the game.
"There were some questionable calls and the breaks went our way," Poulin said. "You're not going to get them all but we'll take them when we get them. I believe that the breaks even out, and we haven't been getting them lately. It would be great to see things go our way down the stretch."
The third period became sloppy, as the UNO team showed its frustrations. Nielsen scored a power-play goal from the blue line to pad the Irish lead. Nebraska came back to make the score 5-2. When all was done, the Irish came out of the game with a 7-4 victory. Inman and Carlson added goals for the Irish, both on the power play, giving Notre Dame four for the night.
Much of the scoring outbreak came from the freshmen. Altogether they accounted for eight points on the night. Chin had two goals, Nielsen added a goal and two assists, and Connor Dunlop finished with three assists.
"Tonight we scored goals, and goal scoring is confidence," Poulin said. "The confidence from power-play goals carries over to five-on-five. The four power-play goals is big. We played better — we skated and got to the puck. The key is to get more people involved. Nielsen played a big part tonight, and Dunlop was a key with his passes."
"We have to carry it over to next Friday now," Poulin said. "We can't wait for two periods to play. We have to come out right away against these teams."
All Sports Stories for Monday, February 14, 2000
