Box Score
HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL – Sophomore goaltender
Corey Milan turned away 24 shots in the Union College men's ice hockey 3-1 loss to top-ranked Notre Dame on Friday at the 2009 Shillelagh Tournament hosted by the Fighting Irish in the Chicago suburb.
Milan turned away eight shots in the first, 10 in the second and eight in the third, allowing the Dutchmen to hang with the number-one team in the country.
Senior defenseman
Brendan Milnamow registered his career-high seventh goal of the season and 14th of his career on an assist from junior defenseman
Mike Schreiber. The assist was Schreiber's sixth of the season.
The Dutchmen finished the game with 18 shots and went 1-for-1 on the power play. The Fighting Irish, who extended their winning-streak to a school record 15 games, unloaded 27 shots and went 1-for-3 with the man advantage.
The first period had a special teams overtone to it for the Dutchmen. Facing the second-ranked power-play unit of the Fighting Irish, which entered the game converting on 23.6 percent of the time, Union killed penalties 2:41 and 8:45 into the game.
With 3:04 remaining in the period, the Dutchmen went to work on a man advantage and after UND failed to clear the zone, Milnamow sent a wrist shot from the point past the glove hand of senior goaltender Jordan Pearce at 18:14. Schreiber kept the puck in the zone before sending a D-to-D pass to Milnamow.
The Fighting Irish fought back and took the lead during the second period. Sophomore Justin White registered his fourth of the season to make it 1-1 at 2:49 on a rebound from a shot from sophomore Ryan Guentzel.
At 12:04 sophomore Ben Ryan put UND up 2-1 with a goal setup by senior Erik Condra and junior Brett Blatchford. The goal was his fifth of the season.
Milan kept the score close with arguably his most spectacular save of the season. With the Irish on the power play junior Ryan Thang made a quick pass to junior Christiaan Minella on the doorstep. Milan went into the splits while sliding and nabbed the one-timer out of midair.
The save swung the momentum into Union's favor and the line of senior
Matt Cook, freshman
Kelly Zajac and junior
Mario Valery-Trabucco unloaded three shots during the final minute of action. However, Pearce had an answer for each try.
Union will face Hockey East foe UMass-Lowell in the consolation game on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 5 p.m. (EST).
