Jan. 9, 2009
Box Score
South Bend, IN - No. 1 Notre Dame withstood a battle from the No. 19 visiting Nanooks on Friday night and handed the Blue and Gold their seventh loss of the season with a 2-0 triumph against an Alaska team that was up for the challenge.
Going up against the number one offense in the CCHA and not getting a shot until 14 minutes into the game, the Nanooks had to be losing after the first intermission. Wrong. The Nanooks stood toe-to-toe with the mighty Irish and skated confidently into the first intermission deadlocked at zero's, despite being out shot 10-4.
Goalie Chad Johnson came out sharp and sent a message to Notre Dame that their high powered offense would get a tough test, and he also stole a little of the Irishs' luck as one of the Notre Dame's 10 shots crushed the right post.
The second 20 minutes was more even in the shot department but Notre Dame held the slight advantage at 10-7. Both teams had their opportunities in a very well played period that had a great pace with back-and-forth action.
The 0-0 tie would be broken in the third period as the Nanook defense, which played so well all night, made one mistake that the Irish would capitalize on it. Failure to clear the Alaska zone left everybody on the left side of the net, except the Irish's Ryan Thang on the weak side who found the puck on his stick and the net unattended. Thang slotted the puck past Johnson for his seventh goal of the season at 11:40 in the third.
The Nanooks would pull Johnson for an extra man at the end of the game which led to a second Notre Dame goal by Erik Condra, and the game ended at 2-0. Alaska however showed that they were not intimidated by Notre Dame and that they would be ready to play tomorrow night as the final two minutes of the game saw multiple scrums and penalties on both sides.
Johnson, the second star of the game, saved 28 of the 29 shots he faced, while Notre Dame's goalie Jordan Pearce, the third star of the game, was called on to sucessfully stop only 16 Nanook shots.
The loss drops Alaska to 10-7-4 (8-6-3-2 CCHA) while top ranked Notre Dame is now 17-3-2 (11-2-2-2 CCHA). Alaska looks to avoid its first pointless CCHA series of the season tomorrow as the puck drops in South Bend at 3:05 ASKT.
