Feb. 23, 2001
Fairbanks, Ak. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team saw its drive for the final CCHA playoff spot hit a snag with a 4-4 tie at Alaska-Fairbanks on Friday night.
UAF’s Cory Rask scored the game-tying goal at 4:27 mark of the third period as the Nanooks battled back from 1-0, 3-1 and 4-3 deficits to salvage the 4-4 verdict.
The tie extended Notre Dame’s current unbeaten streak to four games (2-0-2) and gives the Irish an 8-21-7 overall record and 5-14-6 mark in the CCHA, good for 16 points. Alaska-Fairbanks is now 9-16-7 on the year and 7-13-7 overall which gives the Nanooks 21 points.
Bowling Green moves ahead of Notre Dame in the battle for the final playoff spot with its 4-2 win over Western Michigan on Friday night. The Falcons have 17 points in league play. The Irish are now tied for 11th in the league standings with Lake Superior State as the Lakers defeated Michigan, 2-1, on Thursday night. Bowling Green, Notre Dame and Lake Superior State each have three regular season games left.
For the fifth straight game, the Irish scored first. With UAF’s Ryan Reinheller off for elbowing, Dan Carlson scored on the power play at 3:39. Carlson, Notre Dame’s top scorer redirected Connor Dunlop’s slapshot from the center point past Alaska-Fairbanks’ goaltender Preston McKay for his 15th of the season and a 1-0 Irish lead.
The Nanooks tied the game on their first of two first period power play goals when left wing Cam Keith banged a rebound shot past ND’s Tony Zasowski for his eighth of the season at 7:21.
The Irish would take a two-goal lead in the period on goals by Matt Van Arkel and David Inman. Van Arkel picked up his third goal of the season at 10:40. Defenseman Brett Lebda set the play in motion with a shot high in the slot. John Wroblewski deflected the shot, but McKay made the stop only to see Van Arkel pounce on the rebound for a 2-1 Notre Dame lead.
Great forechecking by Carlson helped set up the third Irish goal. With Carlson in pursuit of the puck down the right wing boards, the UAF defender lost control of the bouncing puck to Rob Globke who pulled the defenseman towards him and fed the puck to Inman coming down the left side. Inman one-timed a shot past McKay for his 10th goal of the season.
The Irish couldn’t hold the two-goal lead though as Keith got his second goal of the night at 18:36 of the period as he tucked a rebound of Felipe Larranaga’s shot under Zasowski for his ninth of the season and fifth goal in the last three games for Alaska-Fairbanks.
Notre Dame kept the pressure on in the second period, but UAF broke through to tie the game at 10:10. Defenseman Chad Hamilton carried the puck over the Irish blueline and wristed a shot at the Notre Dame goal. The shot went off Zasowski’s glove for Hamilton’s first goal of the season and the game was tied at 3-3.
The Irish got the lead back at 12:48 as the teams skated four-on-four on a highlight reel goal by Globke. The high scoring freshman caught up to a long cross rink pass from Evan Nielsen on the left wing boards. With a burst of speed he got around the Nanook defenseman, cruised in front of the net and slid the puck under McKay’s pads for his team-high 16th goal of the season.
Notre Dame fired 20 shots on goal in the period to just six for Alaska-Fairbanks.
The Irish were forced to make a change in goal at the start of the third period as Zasowski went out with blurred vision due to a goalmouth collision during the second period. Jeremiah Kimento came in to play the final stanza and the overtime period.
Rask’s game-tying goal came of a shot from the bottom of the left wing circle that snuck past Kimento inside the left post. For Rask, it was his fifth goal of the season.
On the night, Notre Dame outshot Alaska-Fairbanks by a 43-31 margin. McKay made 39 saves in goal for the Nanooks. Zasowski made 17 saves in 40 minutes of action while Kimento made 10 in the final 25 minutes of action.
Notre Dame resumes its battle for the final CCHA playoff spot on Saturday night (Feb. 24) when the Irish face-off against Alaska-Fairbanks in the final game of the series which will begin at 7:05 p.m. in Fairbanks, 11:05 p.m. EST.
Game Summary: 1 2 3 OT F
Notre Dame (8-21-6/5-14-5) 3 1 0 0 4
Alaska-Fairbanks (9-14-6/7-14-6) 2 1 1 0 4
Scoring
First Period: ND: Dan Carlson 15 (Connor Dunlop, Brett Lebda), PPG, 3:39, UAF: Cam Keith 8 (Ryan Lang), PPG, 6:55, ND: Matt Van Arkel 3 (John Wroblewski, Lebda), 10:40, ND: David Inman 10 (Rob Globke), 13:36, UAF: Keith 9 (Felipe Larranaga, Scott Farrell), PPG, 18:36.
Penalties: ND: 6 for 12 minutes, UAF: 5 for 10 minutes.
Second Period: UAF: Chad Hamilton 1 (Bobby Andrews, Aaron Grosul), 10:10, ND: Globke 16 (Evan Nielsen), 12:48.
Penalties: ND: 6 for 12 minutes, UAF: 7 for 14 minutes.
Third Period: UAF: Cory Rask 5 (Tom Herman), 4:27.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes, UAF: 0 for 0 minutes.
Overtime: No Scoring
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes, UAF: 0 for 0 minutes.
Shots On Goal:
Notre Dame 14 – 20 – 6 – 3 – 40
Alaska-Fairbanks 14 – 6 – 6 – 5 – 31
Goaltender Saves: Notre Dame – Tony Zasowski (40:00) 12 – 5 – x – x – 17
Jeremiah Kimento (25:00) x – x – 5 – 5 – 10
Alaska-Fairbanks – Preston McKay (65:00) 11 – 19 – 6 – 3 – 39
Power Plays:
Notre Dame: 1 for 6
Alaska-Fairbanks: 2 for 5
Attendance: 3,460