On the night when the Wolverines were dedicating the rink inside Yost Ice Arena to legendary coach Red Berenson, Michigan would have liked a better fate. Instead, it was visiting Notre Dame winning 2-1 to extend the Fighting Irish win streak to 14 games and remain an undefeated 11-0-0 in Big Ten play.
“Just like tonight, there’s been a lot of games just like this that could go either way and we’ve just been fortunate with the bounces and the breaks, plus we’re getting good goaltending,” said Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson. “Our special teams have been pretty good, especially our penalty kill. It’s earned, but it’s fortunate. Any time you have this kind of a roll, generally, there’s a lot of luck involved in it, too.”
All of the action that showed up in the box score of tonight’s game happened in the first period. The Irish jumped out to a 2-0 lead on power-play goals by Matt Hellickson and Andrew Oglevie by the 10-minute mark, Tony Calderone scored the only goal for Michigan at 15:52 to make it a 2-1 game, and the only three penalties committed in the game came in the first period and Notre Dame capitalized on both of theirs. Those first-period power plays and the 35-save performance by Fighting Irish freshman Cale Morris were the difference in the game.
“He’s been consistently good,” said Jackson. “He’s the rock back there. I give our defensive corps credit. We have really been good at not giving up a lot of odd-man rushes and tonight we did. That’s just a sign of getting back to doing the things we were doing before the break.”
It was the third game in five days for Michigan after the Wolverines played in the Great Lakes Invitational tournament Jan. 1-2, and the team’s warm-up at the GLI helped Michigan play end-to-end hockey with No. 2 Notre Dame for a solid 60 minutes.
“We had more two-on-ones tonight probably than we’ve had in the last six games combined, and we just couldn’t finish,” said Michigan coach Mel Pearson. “We got a little too cute at times, but they’re stingy and we’ve got to get more traffic in front of them. We didn’t get that second look or that rebound goal. Their second goal on the power-play was just a strength play at the net. We’re going to have to grind it out and get in that hard ice and come up with some ugly goals.
“Having said that, I like the effort from our team. I can’t ask them to give any more. They played hard and we had our opportunities but we’ve just got to learn to finish around the net.”
Hellickson’s goal at 4:44 in the first was his first career goal and the end result of some pretty hard work by the Notre Dame power play. Michigan goaltender Hayden Lavigne made two saves in quick succession before Hellickson picked up that second rebound to make it 1-0. At 9:55, Ogelvie shot from the left circle to score. Calderone’s goal at 15:52 hit Morris and skittered into the net to cut the Notre Dame lead in half.
“For a first game back from break, I’m happy,” said Jackson. “They had a little bit of an edge on us from a competitive standpoint, having played the last couple of days, so it was good for us to get through that game because I thought we were a little bit on our heels as the game progressed, and that’s probably a little bit of conditioning from being off for a month.”
Berenson was on hand for the ceremonial drop of the puck before the game and was touched by a tribute during warm-ups, when every Wolverine wore a jersey bearing his name and his number, 9. The jerseys will later be auctioned off to benefit Michigan’s ice hockey scholarship fund.
“You can’t honor or thank a man like him enough,” said Pearson. “It’s a nice way to do that. He’s a very classy man, and it was a very class move by [Michigan athletic director] Warde Manuel and our athletic department to name the rink after him. That’s going to be a pleasure coming here every day and knowing that name is on that rink.”
Michigan (8-9-2, 3-6-2-1 B1G) travels to South Bend Sunday for a rematch with Notre Dame (17-3-1, 11-0-0-0 B1G). That game begins at 3:05 p.m.
