No Mike Walsh, no problem.The junior forward, who scored the only goal in Notre Dame's 1-0 upset victory over No. 1 Boston College last year, missed Friday's game against the Eagles with an injury. But it didn't matter.Forward T.J. Jindra scored the game-winning goal and goalie Morgan Cey made a career-high 50 saves to help the Irish again upset No. 1 Boston College by the score of 3-2 for Notre Dame's first win of the season.Wes O'Neill and Evan Rankin scored the other two Irish goals. Notre Dame took an early 2-0 lead, only to see the Eagles score two goals 15 seconds apart in the third period. But Jindra's shorthanded goal with less than 15 seconds left proved the difference maker."We're a pretty sound defensive team and have good penalty killing, so we're going to have to win a lot of close games like this," Irish coach Dave Poulin said. "T.J. has a knack for scoring big goals, and he did it again tonight."With the score tied 2-2 late in the third period, Notre Dame's Tim Wallace was called for a charging penalty with less than a minute to go. Boston College coach Jerry York called a timeout in hopes of setting up the Eagles' game-winning power play goal. Jindra had other plans. After the timeout, Boston College lost the puck in the neutral zone after Irish defenseman O'Neill broke up a pass. O'Neill then waited a few seconds before sending a perfect pass toward the streaking Jindra, who skated in a few strides down the left side and beat Boston College goalie Matti Kaltiainen with a slap shot to the short side."[Kaltiainen] just left a little opening on the far side and I shot it and was lucky to deflect it off the post and in," Jindra said of the winning goal. "This is a pretty big win. Anytime you play BC and can beat them it's great for us; it's especially nice to just get a win under our belts after having a few close losses this season."Jindra's late-game heroics would never have happened without the play of Cey, who continued his terrific play at home with 50 saves, including 20 in the first period - when the Irish were forced to kill five Boston College power plays. The goalie kept the Eagles off the board in that difficult period, giving his team momentum and earning a standing ovation from the Irish fans as Cey and the rest of the team skated off for the first intermission."We took four really dumb penalties in the first period and made things harder for us than they should have been," Poulin said. "After that first period we had a two-pronged momentum - Morgan Cey had momentum and our penalty killing had momentum."Morgan definitely helped win that game in the first period, but he helped us win in the second and third periods as well."In two games at the Joyce Center this season, Cey has made 88 of 92 saves, for a .957 save percentage. Both games have been against teams ranked in the top four in the country - Boston College and No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth.
Miami of Ohio 5, Notre Dame 0Brandon Crawford-West made 23 saves as the Red Hawks blanked the Irish 5-0 on the road Oct. 16. David Brown made 38 saves for the Irish in the loss.Christie, Michael, Guerin, Taylor Hustead and Stephen Dennis all scored goals for Miami. For the second straight game, the Irish allowed three power play goals.
Miami of Ohio 4, Notre Dame 2The Irish allowed three power play goals as Miami of Ohio defeated Notre Dame 4-2 on the road Oct. 15.Cey made 34 saves in the loss, and Wallace and forward Josh Sciba scored goals for the Irish. Chris Michael, Todd Grant, Matt Christie and Marty Guerin scored for the RedHawks.
