The Northern Michigan Wildcats and Notre Dame Fighting Irish came into Friday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game enduring tough series the previous weekend, and both were trying to find something that would generate a win. Notre Dame found it in their power play and defense.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tonight\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s win feels really good,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Irish captain Erik Condra said of the 3-2 victory. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re back to playing Irish hockey which is hard-nose, gritty hockey. Everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been joking that our power play has been struggling lately but tonight we got back to the basics and it was good to get some power play goals.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was a really even hockey game at 26-27 shots,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wildcat coach Walt Kyle said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We gave up three power play goals tonight. I thought our penalty kill has been good all year but they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pull it off tonight. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We also took some penalties, took ourselves off the power play, put them on two 5-on-3s. . . . . When
\nyou play a team like this you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to be better. They had their chances but Brian Stewart made some big saves. We left him out to dry a few times tonight. It was almost all power play generated but he made some huge saves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The first period took off and at just 5:47 the Wildcats took a one goal lead. Gregor Hanson and Blake Cosgrove gave the puck to captain Tim Hartung who shot the puck at Irish goalie Jordan Pearce. Pearce locked the puck under his left pad until he hit the post, releasing the puck back into the net. <\/p>\n
At 11:12, Northern Michigan took a bench minor for too many men on the ice. This 5-on-4 gave the Irish their first power-play goal of the night after Ryan Thang shot the puck, hit the post, and put in the rebound himself.<\/p>\n
The second period was a slew of penalties. The Wildcats took five while Notre Dame took three. When the Wildcat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mike Maltese took an interference call at 3:11, it opened up the opportunity for Notre Dame to take their second power play goal of the night. After Wildcat goalie Brian Stewart blocked two shots from Brett Blatchford and Billy Maday, Dan Kissel popped the puck right of Stewart to give the Irish their first lead of the night. <\/p>\n
During the third period, the Irish controlled the puck, keeping it in Northern Michigan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s zone for the majority of play, including a five on three in the Wildcat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favor. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our goal as a team is to be strictly defense,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Condra said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re smart and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re strong defensively and it opens up our offense. Another one of our goals is to win the third period. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to play smart and strong in the third, especially on the road.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The defense tonight made my job easier,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Pearce said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They kept everything away, a lot of the shots I faced were visible so I was able to make the saves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
At 7:15, Wildcat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ray Kaunisto took a contact to the head high sticking call. The penalty didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t last long. A mere 14 seconds, the Irish upped their lead 3-1 with a goal from Christian Hanson. C. Hanson took assists from Brett Blatchford and Keith Deeth and shot the puck towards the net, where it hit one of Northern Michigan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s players and was redirected over Stewart\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right shoulder.<\/p>\n
Irish players Ben Ryan and Kevin Deeth took contact to the head rough and holding calls halfway through the period to give the Wildcats a 5-on-3. Despite the advantage, the Irish killed their penalties, only to let the Wildcats score seconds later.<\/p>\n
The Wildcat goal came at 12:32 when Erik Gustafsson and Ben Lindemulder gave the puck to Nathan Sigmund to tipped the puck into the net.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sigmund played well, he provided energy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kyle said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The tale with our team right now is that the guys that should be scoring goals are failing to do it. They need to find a way to get going. Hopefully the fact that Hartung and Sigmund scored tonight motivates them because Sigmund has sat all year and Hartung is a fourth-line center.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The Notre Dame defensemen will skate for a sweep in Saturday night\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everyone takes great pride and responsibility in our D-zone,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Pearce said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We know if we shut things down defensively that offensive things will take care of themselves. We pride ourselves on our defense and I think that won our game tonight.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Notre Dame has a really strong defense,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sigmund said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really able to get the puck possession time down low and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a big part of our game, especially for our success. We need to start helping each other out, supporting each other down low and finding the net.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153After winning a road game you know the other team is going to come back for a win,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Condra said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to lose twice in their own barn and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to come back with the same intensity and even a little bit more.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always great to get a win, especially when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re on the road,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Pearce said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Northern\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great
\nteam, probably one of the top teams in our conference. So to come in and get two points makes us happy. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not satisfied until we get four.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Northern Michigan Wildcats and Notre Dame Fighting Irish came into Friday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game enduring tough series the previous weekend, and both were trying to find something that would generate a win. Notre Dame found it in their power play and defense. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tonight\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s win feels really good,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Irish captain Erik Condra said of the 3-2 victory. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9049"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}