After No. 6 Notre Dame lost to unranked Northern Michigan last night, the Irish, who have yet to be swept this season, came out determined to earn the split tonight.
The first period was scoreless. Notre Dame put 13 shots on goal while the Wildcats had a mere three. The Wildcats blocked a lot of shots, playing tight defensive hockey.
Notre Dame scored first at 11:59 of the second when sophomore Kevin Deeth skated behind the net, picked up a rebound and tucked the puck past horizontal Wildcats’ goalie Brian Stewart’s glove.
Moments later, Notre Dame junior Christian Hanson shot the puck from the faceoff circle, across Stewart and into the top right corner of the net to give the Irish a two-goal lead.
The Wildcats came out strong in third and scored on a goal that was reviewed. Jared Brown’s tally stood up on review, closing the gap to one.
“I saw the puck go in,” Brown said. “I was just hoping they just wouldn’t change their mind about it. I was really happy to get one tonight.”
“We didn’t generate a lot of shots,” Wildcats’ coach Walt Kyle said. “They had the puck in our end so much and our power play was ineffective. We just weren’t able to generate goals, despite our one man advantages.”
“We got outworked a lot this game,” Brown said. “We didn’t get the puck enough. Their team was all over the ice. Stewart kept us in the games this weekend.”
The Wildcats’ were very effective on the penalty kill, holding the Irish without a power-play goal.
“That’s two games in a row we haven’t given up a power play goal,” Kyle said. “There were a lot of positives. We covered well in our own end. We spent a lot of time in there. The biggest piece of good news to me was that our guys played so well, especially after losing to Michigan, Michigan State and Miami [in the beginning of the season].
“Notre Dame is a really good team and you can see it. They really turned it up tonight. They controlled the play. They’re number six for a reason.”
