Jan. 16, 2010
Notre Dame, Ind. – Senior captain Ryan Thang scored two goals, including the game winner, freshman left wing Nick Larson scored a pair and Dan Kissel added a short-handed goal as Notre Dame rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the second period to hand No. 6/7 Michigan State a 5-2 loss in front of a sellout crowd of 3,007 at the Joyce Center on Friday night.
Dean Chelios and Brett Perlini scored for the Spartans, staking the visitors to a 2-0 lead by the 3:57 mark of the middle stanza.
The Irish peppered Michigan State goaltenders Drew Palmisano and Bobby Jarosz with 46 shots in the game, including 19 in the first period with Palmisano stopping all 19. Notre Dame chased the Spartan starter after 48:57 as he gave up five goals while making 34 saves. Jarosz played the final 11:03, stopping all seven shots he faced.
Notre Dame’s Mike Johnson stopped 24-of-26 on the night in the win for the Irish.
The Notre Dame victory snapped a two-game losing streak and evened the Irish record at 10-10-5 on the year and 6-7-4-2 in the CCHA, good for 24 points and a share of sixth place with Michigan. Notre Dame is now 5-0-2 in its last seven meetings with the Spartans. Michigan State saw its six-game unbeaten streak snapped as the Spartans fall to 15-7-3 overall and 10-4-3-0 in conference play, good for 33 points and third place in the league standings.
The Irish came out shooting in the opening period as they equaled a season-high for shots with 19 but it was Michigan State who got the lone goal of the period at 5:25.
Trevor Nill moved the puck from the right boards to Chelios in front of the goal. The freshman left wing moved to his backhand and tucked it over Johnson’s pads for his third goal of the season. Defenseman Matt Crandell also got an assist on the goal.
The Michigan State lead would go to 2-0 just 3:57 into the second period as the Spartans were able to keep the play alive in front of Johnson before Perlini fired a loose puck past the Irish goaltender for his fourth of the season.
Again, Nill was involved in the play as his initial shot was stopped by Johnson with the rebound coming back to him. He lost the puck in a scramble in front but it popped loose to Perlini near the right circle and he fired a wrister past Johnson for the two-goal lead.
Larson led the Notre Dame comeback as he scored the first two goals of the game for the Irish and added an assist for the first three-point game of his career.
The freshman from Apple Valley, Minn., got his first at 7:02 of the period with his own persistence resulting in a goal. Fellow freshman Kyle Palmieri put Larson in alone on goal with a pass just inside the MSU blue line. Palmisano stopped Larson, but he tracked down the puck along the right boards, carried it out towards the blue line before turning and firing a shot over the Michigan State goaltenders glove hand near the right post for his third of the season.
He would make it 2-2 a little over seven minutes later when he and defenseman Kyle Lawson (his second assist) combined on a 2-on-1 with Larson finishing the play by snapping a shot over Palmisano at 14:36 for his fourth of the year. Ryan Guentzel made a nice play to put Lawson and Larson in on a 2-on-1 as he pulled up along the left wing boards and took a hit before dishing the puck to Lawson who did the rest.
The score would stay at 2-2 until the 4:40 mark of the third when Thang would get his first of the night and the first of three Irish goals in a 4:17 span to break the tie and put Notre Dame ahead to stay.
With time running out on a Notre Dame power play, Larson moved the puck back to Ian Cole at the left point. The junior defenseman cranked up a blast that Thang was able to deflect past Palmisano with one second left on the power play for his fourth goal of the season.
It would take just 1:19 for the Irish to take a two-goal lead and this one would come short-handed off the stick of Kissel. Defenseman Brett Blatchford broke up a Michigan State rush in the slot in front of Johnson and Kissel picked up the loose puck. He raced down the left wing and unleashed a blast from the top of the left circle that flew over Palmisano’s glove hand and up under the crossbar at 5:59 for Kissel’s third goal of the season.
Thang would close out the Notre Dame offensive barrage at 8:57 with his second goal of the night off a nifty move by Blatchford. Senior Kevin Deeth left the puck for Blatchford in the neutral zone and the senior defenseman worked his way through a pair of Spartan defenders, sliding the puck ahead to Thang as he broke in on goal. Thang tucked the puck between Palmisano’s pads for his fifth of the year and a 5-2 Irish advantage.
The goal chased Palmisano and Jarosz came in to play the final 11:03 for Michigan State. The Spartans were 0-for-5 on the power play while Notre Dame was 1-for-6.
The two teams will close out the regular-season series on Saturday at Munn Arena with game time set for 7:05 p.m.
IRISH NOTES:
** Notre Dame’s five-goal outburst was the second of the season for the Irish as they also scored a 5-2 win over Colgate in the Shillelagh Tournament on Jan. 2.
** Brett Blatchford extended his personal scoring streak to a career-best six games with two assists on the night. In his streak he has eight assists for eight points. Defenseman Ian Cole now has a career-high five-game point streak with two goals and three assists for five points in his run.
** Ryan Thang’s game-winning goal was the 14th of his Notre Dame career and snapped a four-way tie for first on the all-time game-winning goal list. He is now the career leader in that department.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#6/#7 Michigan State (15-7-3/10-4-3-0) 1 1 0 - 2Notre Dame (10-10-5/6-7-4-2) 0 2 3 - 5
Scoring
First Period: MSU: Dean Chelios 3 (Trevor Nill, Matt Crandell), 5:25.
Penalties: MSU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: MSU: Brett Perlini 4 (Nill, Zach Josepher), 3:57; ND: Nick Larson 3 (Kyle Palmieri, Kyle Lawson), 7:02; ND: Larson 4 (Lawson, Ryan Guentzel), 14:36.
Penalties: MSU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Ryan Thang 4 (Ian Cole, Larson), PPG, 4:40; ND: Dan Kissel (Brett Blatchford), SHG, 5:59; ND: Thang 5 (Blatchford), 8:57.
Penalties: MSU: 3 for 6 minutes; ND: 3 for 6 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Michigan State 8 - 12 - 6 - 26Notre Dame 19 - 14 - 13 - 46
Goaltender Saves:MSU: Drew Palmisano (48:57) 19 - 12 - 3 - 34 Bobby Jarosz (11:03) x - x - 7 - 7ND: Mike Johnson (60:00) 7 - 11 - 6 - 24
Power Plays:MSU: 0 for 5ND: 1 for 6
Attendance: 3,007 (sellout)