Icers strive to recover from early-season slide
By MATT ORENCHUK
Sports Writer
Sometimes in sports all the breaks seem to go against you. A team can play really well throughout a season and still end up with a sub-.500 record. For the Notre Dame hockey team, that situation is a reality.
The Irish are currently in the middle of a 0-4-2 slide, which has seen them drop to the bottom of the CCHA standings. The most recent losses the Irish have suffered were to Lake Superior State.
"We are definitely struggling right now," Irish coach Dave Poulin said. "It is more than just one or two facets of the game. We have made practice less complicated, and we are working on the simple things we take for granted in a game."
The slow start is painful for an Irish team that had high hopes before the season began. Coming off a trip to the CCHA semifinals last year in Detroit, the Irish were looking for a berth in the NCAA tournament. The team wasn't phased by a couple of disappointing losses to top ranked Michigan State and Boston College. The Irish knew that their season depended on what they did in the CCHA regular season.
The CCHA season has followed the downward trend that has been characteristic of non-conference games. Things took a turn for the worse this past weekend when the Lake Superior State Lakers swept the Irish.
On Friday night Notre Dame lost a disappointing 2-1 game. The game was back and forth in the first period, until the Lakers finally got on the board with one second left in the period. Lake Superior's Ryan Vince fed Aaron Davis a perfect pass, which he fired past Notre Dame goalie Kyle Kolquist.
The goal was a power play goal for the Lakers, which snapped the Irish penalty-killing streak at 24. Lake Superior added another goal just 53 seconds into the second period. Notre Dame's Dan Carlson finally got the Irish on the board with a 4:40 left in the third. Lake Superior then withstood a late Irish rally and held on for the win.
Saturday night proved to be worse for Notre Dame.
Chris Peterson scored at the 10-minute mark of the first period to give Lake Superior a 1-0 lead.The Irish played tough for the rest of the period, but fell apart in the second stanza. The Lakers put up three more goals against Kolquist.
Notre Dame couldn't muster anything offensively until there was 52 seconds left in the game. That was when sophomore Michael Chin got his first goal of the season when he flipped one past Laker goalie Jayme Platt. The game ended 4-1, and the Lakers had a weekend sweep of the Irish.
So after a weekend series where 10th-place Lake Superior State swept Notre Dame, the question is whether the Irish should hit the panic button on the season. Notre Dame has won just once in their past nine games dating back to an October series against Northeastern. They have just one win in the CCHA and four points in the standings.
One area that Notre Dame needs to resolve is the goaltending issue. Last year then freshman Tony Zasowski started almost every game. But Zasowski had a veteran defensive unit in front of him that was Notre Dame's strength. This year the defense has been injured and is much more inexperienced. No one has seemed to want the starting role, and Zasowski, Kyle Kolquist and Jeremiah Kimento have all gotten starts this year.
"It is an unresolved position. We really need someone to step forward and get the job. I can't keep rotating goalies in," Poulin said.
Poulin knows that this thing won't be turned around in one day. It will take time for his team to get out of their slump.
The one good thing for the Irish is that they have played the least games out of any CCHA team.While Northern Michigan has played 14 CCHA games, Notre Dame has only played eight. That means there are a lot of points floating out there for Notre Dame to pick up to get them back in the CCHA race. It will be a struggle, but Poulin is to be determined to get his team back on the right track.
"Make no doubt about it, we are going to right this ship, get this thing going and make a run," Poulin said.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, December 5, 2000
