The fifth-ranked Michigan Wolverines got two goals and two assists from freshman left wing Kevin Porter, and Jeff Tambellini added a pair of goals to pace the Michigan offense to an 8-0 win over Notre Dame at the Joyce Center on Saturday night.
T.J. Hensick, Chad Kolarik, Eric Werner and Jason Ryznar added solo goals as the Wolverines scored five times on the power play and outshot the Irish 47-16. The loss was the worst for Notre Dame since a 9-0 defeat to Michigan on Jan. 23, 2001 at Yost Arena. The last time Notre Dame lost at home by eight or more goals came in an 11-1 loss to Ferris State on Dec. 21, 1988.
The loss, the third in a row for the Irish, drops them to 3-8-4 overall and 2-7-3 in CCHA play. Michigan improves to 11-4-1 on the year and 9-1-0 in conference play.
Michigan wasted little time getting on the scoreboard as Hensick got his at 1:53 of the first period. Porter’s centering pass from the right-wing boards appeared to go off defenseman Matt Hunwick as he went to the net and went right to Hensick on the left side of the goal where he redirected the shot behind Morgan Cey.
Kolarik made it 2-0 with the first Wolverine power-play goal of the night as Porter set him up in front, where he fired a shot past Cey for his seventh goal of the year at 4:03.
Werner, a senior defenseman, scored on the power play at 19:32 of the opening period with his fifth goal of the year. That sent the two teams to the first intermission with Michigan in front, 3-0. The Wolverines outshot the Irish 20-8 in the first period.
Cey was pulled by head coach Dave Poulin to start the second period in favor of sophomore David Brown. Porter welcomed him with Michigan’s third power-play goal of the night, this one coming at 12:38.
Michigan scored 32 seconds later when Tambellini got into the act with some slick stickhandling and a nice move to beat Brown for his seventh goal of the year. The Wolverines led 5-0 after two periods.
In the third, Michigan added three more goals, two with a man advantage. Porter got his second of the game and fifth of the season at 4:54 when he forced an Irish turnover in the slot and beat Brown with a wrist shot under the crossbar.
Notre Dame’s Jason Paige was given a five-minute major penalty for butt-ending at the 6:00 mark and Michigan scored two more power-play goals in a 41-second span at 6:02 and 6:41.
Tambellini notched his second of the night from the right wing corner as he tried to center a pass in front. The puck went in off a defender’s skate and the Wolverines had a 7-0 lead. Ryznar closed the scoring with his third of the year as Michigan went 5-for-9 on the power play in the game.
Goaltender Al Montoya picked up his 12th career shutout in a Wolverine jersey, stopping all 16 shots. Cey finished the night with 17 saves in one period of action and Brown made 22 stops over the final two periods.
