Freshmen Phenoms
Six freshman have helped Notre Dame capture the CCHA regular- and postseason championships and a No. 1 seed in this year’s NCAA tournament.
The Fighting Irish rookie class — consisting of Kevin Deeth, Ryan Thang, Kyle Lawson, Brett Blatchford, Dan Kissel and Christian Minella — have contributed 49 goals and 78 assists through 41 games this season. The first-year crew has lit the lamp for a combined 12 game-winning goals, led by Thang’s six markers.
Thang turned in a two-goal performance tonight, and netted ND’s first-ever, NCAA game-winning tally.
Comeback Kids
The Chargers took three of their four postseason contests to overtime, including the CHA tournament’s title game. All three OT games have resulted in UAH come-from-behind efforts.
Quipped UAH goaltender Marc Narduzzi, “Last week, when we weren’t really sure who it was we were going to play, we were joking around the locker room that it didn’t matter who it was. We should spot them a two, three-goal lead and just start from there.”
In the CHA championship game, the Chargers were able to erase a four-goal deficit against Robert Morris. Senior David Nimmo had the game-winning, shorthanded goal in overtime.
Senior Seasons
Three Charger seniors have led the team in scoring this season. David Nimmo (14-22–36), Grant Selinger (17-16–33) and Brent McConnachie (12-16–28) are among the 10 UAH seniors who played their last game tonight.
“The seniors are the guys that really led our team out there tonight,” said UAH head coach Doug Ross.
Sweet Home Alabama
The UAH band made the trip…and made the game very entertaining for fans. Every time the Irish band began the Notre Dame fight song, the Charger band responded with a rousing rendition of “Sweet Home Alabama.”
The band repeated an interesting chant throughout the game as well. One person asked the group, “What do we want to do, boys?” to which the band responded, “Kill! Kill! Kill!”
When prompted with the question, “What melts the ice?” the band responded with, “Blood! Blood! Blood!”
The band also urged the Chargers to “Stab ’em with your skate!”
And at one point, the band spelled out, letter for letter, “University of Alabama-Huntsville,” as a prequel to the question, “What does that spell?”
