Irish blow lead, ousted from playoffs by Buckeyes
JUSTIN SCHUVER
Sports Writer
DETROIT
For Notre Dame to stand a chance against No. 13 Ohio State in the CCHA Super Six, they knew they had to stop talented Buckeye center and first-team all-CCHA member R.J. Umberger. They did just that, keeping Umberger off the scoreboard all game and forcing him into taking penalties.
Unfortunately, they didn't count on senior forward T.J. Latorre and freshman defenseman Nate Guenin stepping up for the Buckeyes.
Latorre scored his first goal of the season and Guenin scored just his second of the year, which would end up being the eventual game-winner, to lead the No. 3 seed Buckeyes to a 3-2 victory over the No. 6 seed Irish at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on Thursday afternoon.
A little more than six minutes into the third period and with the score tied 2-2, forward Paul Caponigri skated the puck down the left side of the ice before centering to Guenin, who had jumped into the play from the right point. Irish goaltender Morgan Cey tried to get back into position, but Guenin was able to wrist the shot above his glove.
"Obviously, we're very disappointed in the locker room right now," Irish coach Dave Poulin said following the game. "I thought we played well tonight. I liked where we were at the end of the second period. I thought we were forechecking them well," Poulin said. "We built a game plan around stopping R.J. Umberger, and I thought our guys, particularly Aaron Gill and John Wroblewski, did a great job doing that."
It was the Irish who had the most offensive pressure early in the first period, before the Buckeyes came back with an offensive flurry of their own, but neither team was able to score. The Irish outshot the Buckeyes 9-8 in the period.
The Buckeyes came out strong at the start of the second period and finally cracked the scoreboard a little more than two and a half minutes in. Forward Dave Steckel sent a beautiful pass to junior forward Chris Olsgard that just remained onsides. Olsgard took the puck down the right side of the ice before centering back to Latorre, who beat Cey low for a 1-0 lead.
The goal ended Cey's shutout streak at 147:19, an impressive feat that spanned four hockey games and included two shutouts. He had blanked the opposition since the 15:25 mark of the third period in the opening game of the Miami series on March 14.
The Irish kept up its offensive pressure and managed to tie the game six and a half minutes later when sophomore forward Brad Wanchulak scored his second goal of the season after sloppy puckhandling by Ohio State netminder Mike Betz.
Freshman forward Mike Walsh beat a Buckeye defenseman to the puck and tried to center to junior forward Rob Globke. Betz came out of goal to poke the pass away, but Wanchulak was trailing the play and shot the loose puck into the vacated net.
The Irish gained the lead five minutes later, after a terrific individual effort by senior forward Connor Dunlop.
Dunlop blocked a pass by a Buckeye defenseman and then carried the puck in down the left side. He saw Globke coming down the right side and made a cross-ice pass to get him the puck. Globke then went around Betz before beating the goalie high with a wrist shot.
The Irish were unable to end the second period with the lead, however. With a little more than two minutes left in the period, Kesler poked a loose puck in the crease between Cey's pads to tie the game at 2-2. Notre Dame outshot the Buckeyes 8-5 in the period.
The third period was all Buckeyes as Cey made several nice point-blank stops before Guenin's game-winning goal. The Irish were outshot 9-3 in the final period and 25-22 for the game.
Notre Dame tried to pull Cey for an extra attacker, but were unable to get the equalizer past Betz. At one point, Betz knocked down an Irish shot and a Buckeye appeared to knock the puck all the way down the ice for an empty net goal, but replays showed the puck was illegally played with a glove.
The disallowed goal ultimately did not matter. The Irish end their season with a 17-17-6 record.
"I think the key for us was when the score was 2-1," Poulin said. "We had several chances to put it away, but could not."
Michael Chin, Connor Dunlop, Evan Nielsen, Jake Wiegand, John Wroblewski and Tony Zasowski played their last game in an Irish uniform.
"This is a tough way to end my career," Nielsen, who is also a captain, said. "I've had a good four years here. I've made a lot of friends and had some great experiences. That's what I want to take away from Notre Dame."
Cey, who was a crucial factor in Notre Dame's first round upset of Miami of Ohio, commented on his team's season following the disappointing loss, the third straight year that the Irish have been ousted in the first round of the Super Six.
"Getting to the Joe [Louis Arena] was really expected of us this year. As the year progressed, I think a lot of people thought we had a disappointing season, but we stuck together through the ups and downs," Cey said.
The Irish return 20 players next season, including team-leading scorer Globke and number-one goaltender Cey.
"There's a lot of really talented guys coming back next year," Nielsen said.
All Sports Stories for Monday, March 24, 2003
