The University of Waterloo rallied from a 3-1 first-period deficit to hand the University of Notre Dame a 5-4 loss in preseason hockey action at the Compton Family Ice Arena on Sunday evening.
Justin Larson, the Warriors top scorer a year ago, scored three goals while Mitch Eliot and Matt Amadio had single goals in the win.
Vince Hinostroza led the Irish with two goals and an assist, while Thomas DiPauli scored once with an assist and Peter Schneider had a power-play goal in the loss. Senior defenseman Robbie Russo added a pair of assists.
Notre Dame peppered two Warrior goaltenders with 45 shots on the night while Waterloo had 17 versus the Irish. Mike Morrison stopped 18 of 21 in his 29:24 of action while Chris Hurry gave up just one goal on 24 shots over the final 30:25 to earn the win. Sophomore Chad Katunar got the start in goal for the Irish and stopped three of four shots he faced in 29:24. Freshman Cal Petersen surrendered four goals in 29:57, making nine saves.
This is the lone preseason game for Notre Dame, as they open regular-season play at 7:35 p.m. on Oct. 10 versus the Rensselaer Engineers in the second game of the Ice Breaker Tournament at the Compton Family Ice Arena. In the first game, set for 2:05 p.m., Minnesota will face off against Minnesota Duluth.
“I thought we fell asleep there a bit in the second period,” said Irish head coach Jeff Jackson.
” You can’t do that with a young team. They may have thought it was easy, because I thought we played that way. We weren’t working quite as hard and we were cheating a little bit. That’s how they got a couple of odd-man rushes and they scored on both of them. That changed the whole game going into the third period.”
The Irish came out flying and took the play to Waterloo through much of the first period, out shooting the Warriors by a 15-4 margin.
DiPauli got the scoring started at 4:02 of the first period when he drilled a wrist shot from the top of the right circle over Morrison’s glove to make it 1-0. Sophomore Ali Thomas and freshman Luke Ripley picked up assists on the goal.
Less than three minutes later, Hinostroza, Notre Dame’s top returning scorer from last season, notched his first of the night at 6:35 when he took a pass from defenseman Robbie Russo in the high slot and snapped it past Morrison for the two-goal lead.
Waterloo cut that lead in half at 11:56, as Larson teamed with Chris Chappell on a two-on-one, beating Katunar from the right side with a one-timer over his glove.
Hinostroza answered back at 15:41 to make it 3-1 when he banged the rebound of a Russo shot past Morrison for his second of the night to make it 3-1. Freshman defenseman Jordan Gross fired a shot from the left point that was blocked. The puck ended up on Russo’s stick and Morrison stopped his shot before Hinostroza finished things off to give Notre Dame the two-goal lead heading into the first intermission.
The jump the Irish had in the first period disappeared in the second and Waterloo roared back with a pair of goals late in the stanza to tie the game at 3-3.
The two teams changed goaltenders at the 9:24 mark of the middle period with Petersen taking over for Katunar and Hurry for Morrison.
Larson cut the lead to 3-2 at 18:21 when he again teamed with linemates Chappell and Brett Mackie to score his second of the night. The fourth-year forward took a shot from in front that Petersen stopped but he banged his own rebound past the Irish freshman to cut the lead to one.
Eliot would get the equalizer just 18 seconds later at 18:39 as he tucked the rebound of a Joe Underwood shot under Petersen to even the score at 3-3.
“We really lost our edge in the middle period,” said Jackson.
“The big thing is that the returning, veteran guys have to understand it’s not like you have a returning team and can change things. We have a lot of young guys who are trying to figure things out. We can’t afford to change our game with such a young group. I thought we moved our feet really well in the first period and then again in the last 10 minutes when we had that sense of urgency. “
Waterloo took the lead for good with a pair of goals in the first 4:05 of the third period. Larson closed out his hat trick at 2:05 when he deflected an Adam Bignell shot from the point through Petersen’s pads for a 4-3 advantage.
Two minutes later Matt Amadio closed the scoring when he took a feed from Kain Allicock and fired it past Petersen at 4:05 to make it a 5-3 game.
The Irish didn’t give up and turned up the heat on Hurry in the Waterloo goal, taking 20 shots in the final 20 minutes, but they could beat the six-foot, six-inch goaltender just once.
That goal came on the power play with 42 seconds left in the game when Peter Schneider drilled a wrist shot from the right-wing circle inside the right post and Hurry to cut the lead to 5-4. Hinostroza and DiPauli picked up assists on the goal.
Notre Dame was able to get Petersen off for a sixth attacker in the final 29 seconds, but could not put another one by Hurry, as Waterloo held on for the 5-4 win.
The Irish went one-for-six on the power play while Waterloo was none-for-four.
For Jackson, the loss is not something he and the team will dwell on, as they have just four days to get ready for the start of the season.
“It’s more of an evaluation, its an exhibition game, so I am not going to go crazy about it,” said Jackson.
“I saw some good things out of our young guys at times. It was a chance to play guys to get an evaluation.”
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - FUniversity of Waterloo 1 2 2 - 5#12/#10 Notre Dame 3 0 1 - 4
Scoring 1st Period: ND: Thomas DiPauli (Luke Ripley, Ali Thomas), 4:02; ND: Vince Hinostroza (Tony Bretzman, Robbie Russo), 6:35; UW: Justin Larson (Chris Chappell, Brett Mackie), 11:49; ND: Hinostroza 2 (Jordan Gross, Russo), 15:41.
Penalties: UW: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 0 for 0 minutes.
2nd Period: UW: Larson 2 (Chappell, Mackie), 18:21; UW: Mitch Eliot (Joe Underwood, Phillip Fife), 18:39.
Penalties: UW: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 4 for 8 minutes.
3rd Period: UW: Larson 3 (Adam Bignell, Jeff Einhorn), 2:05; UW: Matt Amadio (Mike Moffat), 4:05; ND: Peter Schneider (Hinostroza, DiPauli), PPG, 19:18.
Penalties: UW: 3 for 6 minutes; ND: 1 for 2 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Waterloo 4 - 9 - 4 - 17Notre Dame 15 - 10 - 20 - 45
Goaltender Saves:UW: Mike Morrison (29:24) 12 - 6 - x - 18 Chris Hurry (30:25) x - 4 - 19 - 23ND: Chad Katunar (29:24) 3 - 0 - x - 3 Cal Petersen (29:57) x - 7 - 2 - 9
Power Plays:UW: 0 for 4ND: 1 for 6
Attendance: 3,444
— ND —