March 16, 2007

Box Score

DETROIT, Mich. - The top-seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish emerged with the 3-0 victory over the Lake Superior State Lakers in the CCHA tournament semifinals on Friday (March 16) at Joe Louis Arena. Senior netminder and RBC Financial Group CCHA Player of the Year David Brown earned his sixth shutout of the year, while alternate captain Wes O'Neill tallied the game-winning goal for the Irish.

Notre Dame advances to the CCHA championship game for the first time since 1982 and will face the winner of the Michigan-Michigan State match-up in an attempt to win the first CCHA postseason title in its history. Puck is scheduled to drop at 7:05 pm, and the game will be televised on FSN Detroit.

Notre Dame took advantage of the first power-play opportunity of the night, capitalizing at 9:46 of the opening period. Senior defenseman Noah Babin dumped the puck down to junior forward Mark Van Guilder just outside of the left face-off circle. Van Guilder made a no-look backhand pass to senior defenseman O'Neill, who roofed a one-timer over LSSU senior goaltender Jeff Jakaitis' glove for the 1-0 lead.

After 20 minutes of play, Notre Dame outshot Lake Superior by a 14-4 margin.

The Lakers and Irish traded quality scoring chances midway through the second stanza, but neither team could put the puck in the net.

Lake Superior's freshman center Nik Sellers skated the puck the length of the ice before dishing to freshman forward Nathan Perkovich. The right winger was stonewalled by Brown to preserve the Notre Dame lead.

The Fighting Irish answered back with a chance of their own when senior left winger Josh Sciba threw a shot on net that fooled Jakaitis. The puck dribbled past the goalie, but went just wide of the net.

Notre Dame pushed its lead to 2-0 on defenseman Brock Sheahan's third goal of his junior campaign. Freshman forward Ryan Thang won the face-off in the LSSU end, and the puck found the stick of sophomore right wing Erik Condra. Condra threw the puck back to Sheahan at the point, and the rearguard blasted a shot that found the back of the net at 8:46.

ND extended its shot advantage, putting up 20 shots to the Lakers' nine through two periods.

Lake Superior pulled Jakaitis with just under three minutes left in the game in an effort to pull within a goal, but sophomore center Christian Hanson put the game out of reach on an unassisted empty-net goal at 17:33 of the final frame.