Sophomore goaltender Morgan Cey stopped a career-high 44 shots and Notre Dame got third-period goals from Cory McLean and Rob Globke to take a 2-1 win versus 14th-ranked Miami in front of a sellout crowd of 2,763 at the Joyce Center Saturday night.
Cey, the game’s first star, held Miami off the scoreboard until the 17:54 mark of the final period when Mike Kompon picked up his eighth goal of the season, batting the rebound of Matt Davis’ point shot past Cey.
The Notre Dame victory snaps Miami’s six-game winning streak and ends a four-game (0-3-1) winless streak for the Irish. Notre Dame is now 4-3-2 overall and 3-3-0 in CCHA play. Miami goes to 9-3-0 on the campaign and 6-2-0 in league play.
Goaltending was the name of the game for the first two periods as Cey and Miami’s David Burleigh turned away shot after shot. Cey made 21 in the second period alone and going into the third stanza had 32 saves to Burleigh’s 17.
Cey played the game as if he wasn’t going to give up a goal.
“This was a tremendous personal battle for Morgan,” said Irish head coach Dave Poulin. “David Burleigh is off to a great start this season. Morgan believes that he [himself] is one of the top goaltenders in this league and he had something to prove. He really answered the challenge tonight.”
Cey was quick to credit his defensemen for a big assist in the winning night in goal.
“Miami came out hard and got some good shots early. That got me into the game. My defensemen did a great job in clearing the rebounds. It’s great to get a big win going into the week off,” said Cey.
The sophomore from Wilkie, Sask., added with a laugh, “I was tired of seeing the other goaltender being first star every night. I wanted to do whatever it took to get us a win tonight and 2-1 is what got it done. This was a big win for us.”
After going 0-for 21 on their previous 21 power-play chances over a four-game span, the Irish broke through with the man-advantage at 7:53 of the third. Burleigh stopped Neil Komadoski’s shot from the point, but the rebound went to McLean camped on the right side of the goal. He banged it in for his second of the year to give the Irish a 1-0 lead.
“We changed some things up tonight,” said Poulin. “We moved some people around to different spots, but didn’t change what we were doing. Cory was right there for the rebound. We stressed winning the battle of special teams and tonight we did.”
Globke upped the lead to 2-0 at 14:02 on a highlight-reel goal. Evan Nielsen found the junior right wing with a lead pass through center. Globke beat the Miami defensemen first deking to the outside, then beating them inside before firing the puck past Burleigh for his seventh of the season.
The RedHawks weren’t done though. With Burleigh pulled for a sixth attacker with 2:20 left in the game, Miami controlled a faceoff in the right-wing circle. Chris Michael won the draw back to Matt Davis at the right point. His shot through a screen was stopped by Cey, but Kompon controlled the rebound and tucked it behind Cey at 17:54. The goal extended Kompon’s scoring streak to 10 consecutive games.
The win was a big one for the Irish as they have a bye week next week before travelling to Michigan on Nov. 22-23.
“I told our guys between the second and third period that whoever made the plays was going to win the game,” said Poulin. “Miami is a very good team. Tonight we found a way to win. It’s nice to go into the two-week break on a positive note.”
On the night, Miami outshot Notre Dame by a 45-25 margin. Burleigh finished with 23 saves on the night as his personal six-game winning streak came to an end.
Miami returns to action next week (Nov. 15-16) with a home-and-home series with non-league foe Findlay.
