Final Box
HOFFMAN ESTATES, ILL. (1/2/2010)– Notre Dame broke open a one-goal game in the second period with three scores en route to posting a 5-2 victory over Colgate in a first-round matchup in the Shillelagh Tournament at Sears Center, Saturday evening.
Colgate, which fell to 7-7-4 overall, will play Niagara for the third time this year in Sunday afternoon's consolation game. The Purple Eagles fell to sixth-ranked North Dakota 3-1 in the opening contest. Face-off is set for 4:05 eastern standard time.
Up 1-0 after the first period on a power play goal by Calle Ridderwall, Notre Dame received another man advantage goal from Billy Maday just 19 seconds into the second period and then added back to back even strength scores from Sean Lorentz and Riley Sheahan to up the lead to 4-0.
Colgate finally solved the nation's top ranked goalie in terms of save percentage, Mike Johnson, at 16:13 of the second as David McIntyre (Pefferlaw, Ont.) netted his sixth of the year from Austin Smith (Dallas, Texas). With his goal, the senior moved into a four-way tie for 34th on the all-time point list at Colgate with Robert Meehan, Jon Smyth, and Earl Cronin.
Opening the third period with a two-man advantage, Colgate closed to within 4-2 as Brian Day (Danvers, Mass.) and Kevin McNamara (Chestnut Hill, Mass.) teamed up with Francois Brisebois (Montreal, Que.) 1:15 into the final period. It was the junior's ninth goal of the campaign, fourth on the power play.
After calling a timeout and pulling its goalie, Colgate fired four shots towards the net in a short time, two were saved; one blocked and one went wide. The Raiders' come back attempt was thwarted with 30 seconds left as Maday connected for his second of the evening, an empty netter, for his sixth of the year.
Colgate goalie Charles Long (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) kicked aside 16 shots in the defeat. The senior became the 17th netminder in Raider hockey history to post 1,000 career saves. Long notched his 1000th stop with 6:07 left in the third on a shot by Eric Ringel. Johnson turned aside 23 shots in the victory for the Fighting Irish.
Notre Dame, which was outshot by the Raiders 25-21, went two for six on the power play, while the Raiders converted once in six tries on the man advantage.
