I won't try to give many specifics because I lost my pen and was involved
in conversations half the game, but...
 
Notre Dame played right with the Lakers for much of this game.  It was 2-1
Lakers until LSSU broke it open in the second with 3 goals.  ND also looked
fairly strong in the 3rd, but the Lakers were playing pretty cautiously and
concentrating on slowing the ND forwards down.  We saw a great deal of the
"clutch and grab" style that has made the Lakers the most loved team in the
CCHA.
 
The goal scorers were - to the best of my memory:
 
     ND:  Harbert, Andrusiak, and Noble.
     LSSU:  Aldrich(2), Battaglia, Tallaire (Shawn?), Trzcinski, and
            Strachan (empty netter at 59:57)
 
     Goalies:  ND: Salzman (1st and 2nd - 5 GA) Eisler (3rd - 0 GA) - one
               empty net goal
 
               LSSU:  Kullick
 
Don't bet the farm on any of these numbers.  Wait for the box!
 
The Irish had some luck early on in the LSSU zone.  The Lakers were trying
to tie everything up along the boards, but this left the center of the ice
fairly open.  The Irish have the fast forwards who can take advantage of this.
It looked to me like the Irish almost blindly threw the puck toward the slot
a few times from where ever they were - behind the net, along the side boards.
More often than not an Irish forward got to the puck first and made a play
out of it.  The Irish scored first (Harbert) on a play like this from behind
the net.  Overall, I would say that the Irish just outworked LSSU for about
the first ten minutes, and the Lakers were not playing all that poorly.  Once
the Laker machine got rolling, they got thigns under control.
 
On the other end of the ice, the Irish defense held fairly well, except for
about a 10 minute complete collapse early in the 2nd.  That cost them 3 goals.
They were susceptible to this all last year.  This is still a young team that
will have these mental collapses, but if they want to run with the big dogs
in this league, they better grow up fast.  Outside of the early second, they
held up fairly well.  In some ways, they could handle the Lakers' offense
better than they did Waterloo last weekend.  The Lakers did not make a lot
of long passes and were fairly slow and methodical bringing the puck down
the ice.  This gave the ND defense time to regroup and get in the play.
 
This Laker team was much more conservative than what I have seen recently.
In the last couple of years, it looked like Coach Jackson was trying
to open up the team's offense a little with longer passing and a faster
transition.  They even used a "cherry picking" play a few times quite
successfully.  There was none of that tonight.  This was old fashioned
Laker hockey, bump and grind a la Frankie Anzalone.  I think that is good
for the team although it might be less fun to watch.
 
James Old