Jan. 6, 2001
Notre Dame, Ind. – If the Notre Dame hockey team didn’t have bad luck, they wouldn’t have any luck at all.
For the second night in a row, the Ferris State got the breaks at the right time as sophomore left wing Chris Kunitz batted a loose puck out of the air past Notre Dame goaltender Jeremiah Kimento (Jr., Palos Hills, Ill.) to give the Bulldogs a 3-2 overtime win versus the struggling Fighting Irish.
The game-winning, goal-scoring sequence had more bounces than a tennis ball. The play started when center Brett Smith centered the puck from the right wing corner in front of the Notre Dame net. The bouncing biscuit appeared to hit right wing Derrick McIver in front and then deflected off Kimento who finished with 25 saves in the game. From there, the puck bounce off the left post to Kunitz who whacked the puck out of the air for the game winner, his 11th goal of the season at the 2:11 mark of overtime.
Kimento, the hard luck goaltender for the Irish never saw the puck go in the net. “The puck came out of the corner, bounced off their guy then hit me. After that, I don’t know where it went. They just crashed the net and then they were celebrating. They got the good bounce,” said Kimento shaking his head.
The irony of the goal was that it came just seconds after Irish forward Dan Carlson (Sr., Edina, Minn.) almost had the game winner as his shot from the slot was stopped by Bulldog goaltender Phil Osaer, one of his 24 saves on the night.
“Danny (Carlson) made a great move and had a great scoring chance,” said Irish coach Dave Poulin.
“He thought he had it too, his hands were going up after the shot.”
The loss extends the Irish losing streak to four in a row and they’ve now won just once in their last ten games. ND falls to 4-16-3 overall and 2-10-2 in CCHA play. Ferris State has now won four of its’ last six games and is now 7-11-4 on the season. In the CCHA, the Bulldogs now have a three-point lead on the Irish with for 11th place with a 3-8-3 league mark.
The overtime loss also snapped ND’s 3-0-11 string in overtime that dated back to the start of the 1999-2000 season. The last time the Irish lost in overtime was Mar., 5, 1999 at Miami. Notre Dame also saw its 3-0-11 mark in overtime at the Joyce Center snapped. The last time that Notre Dame lost at home in overtime was Nov., 17, 1996.
After a scoreless first period, Ferris State struck first. Junior center Rob Collins fired home a centering pass from Kunitz at 10:41 of the second period for his 10th goal of the season.
Notre Dame answered back less than four minutes later when Carlson extended his scoring streak to five games (4-7-11) when he scored his seventh of the season at 14:01. Ryan Dolder (Sr., Hutchinson, Minn.) and Brett Lebda (Fr., Buffalo Grove, Ill.) assisted on the goal to extend their scoring streaks to five games.
The score would stay 1-1 until the 15:00 minute mark when sophomore defenseman Troy Milam scored on a long floater from the blueline that eluded a screened Kimento.
As time wound down, Notre Dame pressed for the equalizer but couldn’t get the puck past Osaer. With 34 seconds left, Ferris State forward Josh Bowers was called for high sticking and the Irish had a six-on-four power play chance. This time Lebda came to the rescue.
During an Irish time out following the penalty, Poulin reminded his team that it was about this time last year that the Irish turned their season around. The reminder paid off.
With the face-off to the right of Osaer, freshman Aaron Gill (Rochester, Minn.) chased the face-off down in the left corner and slid it along the boards to Carlson. ND’s top scorer found Lebda cutting to the goal from the left point and the charging defenseman buried the shot behind Osaer for his fourth goal of the season at 19:43 to send the game to overtime.
“We battled and battled and it paid off as we got the tying goal. Lebda made a great play and scored a great goal. I thought maybe that was our break,” said a dejected Poulin.
A frustrated Notre Dame team must now regroup and get ready for a home-and-home series with nationally-ranked Western Michigan. The two teams meet at the Joyce Center on Friday, Jan., 12 at the Joyce Center.
“I know how hard this is on the players because I know how difficult it is as a coach. I thought they gave a strong effort tonight, I’m not disappointed with that,” said Poulin.
“They’re down, there is an empty feeling. I told them that we have to take what we did well and and get ready for Western Michigan next week. When things are going like this, you aren’t going to get a break, it’s not going to happen, you just have to keep working through it, make your own breaks.”
SUMMARY:
Ferris State (7-11-4/3-8-3) 0 1 1 1 – 3
Notre Dame (4-16-3/2-10-2) 0 1 1 0 – 2
First Period: No Scoring.
Penalties: FSU: 4 for 8 minutes, ND: 4 for 8 minutes.
Second Period: FSU: Rob Collins – 10 (Chris Kunitz, Derrick McIver), 10:41, ND: Dan Carlson – 7 (Ryan Dolder, Brett Lebda), 14:01.
Penalties: FSU: 4 for 16 minutes, ND: 3 for 6 minutes.
Third Period: FSU: Troy Milam -2 (Kevin Swider, Phil Lewandowski), 15:00, ND: Lebda – 4 (Carlson, Gill), PPG, 19:43.
Penalties: FSU: 1 for 2 minutes, ND: 0 for 0 minutes.
Overtime: FSU: Kunitz – 11 (D. McIver, Brett Smith), 2:11.
Penalties: FSU: 0 for 0 minutes, ND: 0 for 0 minutes.
Power Plays:
Ferris State: 0 for 5
Notre Dame: 1 for 6
Shots On Goal
Ferris State: 8 – 10 – 8 – 2 – 28
Notre Dame: 5 – 9 – 10 – 2 – 26
Goaltender Saves:
Ferris State: Phil Osaer (62:11) 5 – 8 – 9 – 2 – 24
Notre Dame: Jeremiah Kimento (61:18) 8 – 9 – 7 – 1 – 25
Attendance: 2,650