No. 4 Colorado College peppered Notre Dame’s net with 40 shots en route to a 3-1 victory Friday night.
After a level first period, the ice began to tilt towards the visitors net as the Tigers (4-1-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) – who already had already played four games, three against ranked opponents – attacked an untested Notre Dame (0-1-0, 0-0-0 CCHA) squad.
“We played a little sluggish at the start, but as the game went on we got better and I think they wore down,” said Colorado College coach Scott Owens. “I think the fact that we had four games under our belt really helped.”
Trevor Frischmon notched Colorado College’s first goal of the night late in the second period. The senior raced into the Notre Dame end on a vigorous forecheck, helping to create a turnover and bury an open shot from inside the left circle.
The Tigers took a 2-0 lead at 17:53 of the second period on Marty Sertich’s second goal of the season. Last year’s Hobey Baker winner received a pass from fellow standout Brett Sterling in the left corner and skated around three Irish defenders before driving to the net and firing the puck over sprawled Notre Dame goaltender David Brown.
After two periods, the Tigers had accumulated 29 shots. Meanwhile, after firing nine shots in the opening frame, the Irish managed to get only one puck to the Colorado College net in the second period.
“It was our first game against a high-caliber team on the Olympic sheet. But to me those are all excuses. We need to learn from what we did wrong and what we did right to try to build for tomorrow night.”
Colorado College extended its lead to 3-0 just 32 seconds into the third period on the power play. Sertich’s wrap-around attempt slid through the Notre Dame crease to an open Joey Crabb who powered the puck into an open side for his first goal of the year.
Notre Dame ended Tiger goaltender Matt Zaba’s bid for a shutout with just six minutes remaining in the game. Victor Oreskovich crashed the Colorado College net and batted a rebound off of Irish captain T.J. Jindra’s initial shot past Zaba to cut the home team’s lead to 3-1.
The Irish failed to mount a serious comeback, however, and dropped their opening game of the season. Notre Dame will travel north to face No. 9 Denver tomorrow night. Meanwhile, Colorado College hosts Air Force for its sixth straight home game to start the season.
