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The No. 16-ranked Northern Michigan University hockey was defeated for the second night in a row by No. 9 Notre Dame on Saturday (Oct. 27) from the Berry Events Center. The Fighting Irish scored two goals after NMU tied it up at one in the second period. The Wildcats cut the lead to one in the third but Irish goaltender Mike Johnson stood tall at the end to earn the 3-2 win.

NMU is now 3-3 overall and 0-2 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Notre Dame moves to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the league.

“I thought we played really well tonight,” NMU coach Walt Kyle said. “We’re in the business of winning games, the guys understand that, and nobodies happy with the result but our quality of play was much better tonight.”

Freshman forward Cohen Adair evened the score at one with his third of the season 7:56 into the second period. Assisting on the goal was senior forward Matt Thurber and freshman forward Ryan Aynsley as Adair picked the puck up behind the net and wrapped it around behind Johnson.

Steven Fogarty scored two goals in the second to put Notre Dame up by two. He scored at 9:02 with a shot through junior goaltender Jared Coreau’s legs. He added a power-play goal with less than two minutes left in the period for the 3-1 lead.

Freshman forward Darren Nowick scored his second of the season as he went five hole on Johnson 5:46 into the third. Assisting on the goal was sophomore forward Reed Seckel and senior defenseman Kyle Follmer.

NMU added the extra attacker and had chances down the stretch. Aynsley was open in front of the net with 30 seconds left but couldn’t get a good shot off.

Nick Larson opened the game’s scoring with his first of the season as he beat Coreau on the blocker side on a two on one rush.

Notre Dame outshot NMU 32-28. Johnson finished with 26 saves for his first win of the season for ND. Coreau had 29 saves for the ‘Cats.

The ‘Cats were 0-for-1 on the man advantage while the Irish were 1-for-5.

Northern hosts the University of Michigan form the Berry Events Center next weekend (Nov. 2-3) to continue CCHA play. The puck drops at 7:35 p.m. both nights.