CONCENTRATION: Notre Dame's Tom Dehr concentrates on a shot as Batavia's Tim Finnell attempts a deflection.
It was another full house at the Falleti Ice Arena Tuesday night as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish hosted cross town rival Batavia Ice Devils for the second match of the season.
It was an evenly matched game for most of the first period with each team taking their own share of penalties, until Batavia found themselves having to kill off a 5-on-3 power play. Notre Dame took control at that point and defenseman Beau Richter was able to capitalize and put the Irish up 1-0 on a play that was set up by Jason Harasimowicz. The two man advantage for the Irish didn’t go away for long as the Devils took another penalty to fall back to three skaters. The Irish almost took advantage of this opportunity again as Jack Nenni put the puck by Batavia goaltender Adam Kurek, but was denied the point, as the buzzer to end the period sounded half a second before the puck crossed the line.
Batavia took advantage of the first intermission and came out to start the second period with an early goal by forward Will Mulcahy. It was the 11th goal of the season for the senior forward who is currently leading the team in goals and points (13).
With just over a minute into the third period, Notre Dame’s Jack Nenni took a boarding penalty which gave Batavia the man advantage. Batavia’s Corey Kocent almost put Batavia up by a goal, but managed to be denied by the goal post.
With 2:40 left in the third period, Batavia junior forward Tim Finnell picked up a loose puck, that he took to the front of the net and was able to backhand it through the legs of Notre Dame goaltender Tom Dehr. That goal proved to be the game winner for the Ice Devils. Kocent and Mulcahy were credited with the assists on the play.
Adam Kurek ended the game with 26 saves for Batavia, while Tom Dehr stopped 14 shots for Notre Dame.
Notre Dame won the matchup earlier this season as they defeated Batavia 4-1 in Batavia’s David M. McCarthy Memorial Christmas Tournament. Batavia is now 6-7-1 and will play Brighton/East/HFL (5-7-1) on Saturday. Notre Dame falls to 11-4 and remains in first place in their division. They host Victor (9-4) Thursday at the Falleti Ice Arena.
(Photos courtesy of Bare Antolos)
Great game!!
Great game!!