Nebraska-Omaha center Shane Glover scored on a rebound with 1:12 left in the third period to give the Mavericks a 3-2 win over Notre Dame Friday night at the Joyce Center.
Glover, who won a faceoff inside the Irish blue line, followed right wing Andrew Wong to the net. Wong snapped off a 15-foot wrist shot but Notre Dame’s Morgan Cey made the stop. Glover swooped in and drilled the rebound past Cey for his 10th goal of the year.
“They won the draw inside our blue line and we missed a coverage,” explained Notre Dame assistant coach Andy Slaggert. “Morgan made the big first save to bail us out, but they beat us to the rebound.”
The loss drops the Irish behind the Mavericks in the CCHA standings as Notre Dame falls to 8-10-5 on the year and 6-7-4 in league play for 16 points. Nebraska-Omaha is now 13-9-3 overall and 7-7-3 in league play for 17 points. The two teams meet again on Saturday in a 7:05 p.m. game at the Joyce Center.
Notre Dame took a first-period lead at 15:10 of the stanza after dominating the play. Center John Wroblewski took a pass from Brad Wanchulak in the left wing circle and cut to the front where his shot eluded Mavericks’ goaltender Dan Ellis for his eighth goal of the year.
Ellis kept Nebraska-Omaha in the game as Notre Dame outshot the Mavericks 17-2 in the opening period.
The Irish again came out strong in the second period but a defensive error turned into a goal at 5:31. David Brisson was able to poke the puck away from a Notre Dame player and break in all alone on Cey. Brisson whipped the puck past the Notre Dame goaltender for his eighth of the year.
Nebraska-Omaha went ahead 2-1 midway through the second period on the power play. Jeff Hoggan won a faceoff to the right of Cey and got the puck to Brisson at the left point. Brisson moved it over to All-CCHA defenseman Greg Zanon, who blasted a shot past Cey from the right point for his sixth goal of the season.
The Irish tied the game at 13:02 of the third period with Connor Dunlop scoring on the power play. Brett Lebda moved the puck from the point into Dunlop, who was able to beat Ellis from in close for his sixth goal of the season.
Glover then put out the Irish hopes for a weekend in the final games of a six-game homestand with his rebound goal.
In the end, it was defensive lapses that cost the Irish.
“We turned the puck over and it led to a goal. We had breakdowns on two defensive zone faceoffs that lead to goals. That’s inexcusable. You can’t let down for a minute in the CCHA or it’s in the net,” said Slaggert.
For the night, the Irish outshot the Mavericks by a 43-18 margin. Ellis finished the game with 41 saves while Cey made 16 in the Notre Dame nets.
