IRISH VERSUS SPARTANS: Notre Dame and Michigan State meet for the 87th and 88th times in the all-time series with the Spartans holding a 50-29-7 edge in the all-time series. At East Lansing, Michigan State has a 29-13-1 edge. The two teams met last season in South Bend with the Spartans taking a 2-1 win and a 3-3 tie at the Joyce Center. In the last three meetings, the teams are even at 1-1-1, but the Feb. 9, 2002 win at Munn Arena is just one of three by the Irish since Notre Dame returned to the CCHA for the 1992-93 season. The Irish are just 3-23-6 versus the Spartans since returning to the CCHA. At Munn Arena, the Irish are just 2-14-0 and at the Joyce Center, the Irish are just 1-8-6 versus the Spartans.

MUNN MANIA: Michigan State's Munn Arena has been a house of horrors for the Irish since returning to the CCHA in 1992-93. The Irish are just 2-14-0 at Munn in that span. The last Notre Dame trip to East Lansing, Mich., was much different for the Irish than the previous nine years as the Irish split with the Spartans. The Irish dropped a 2-0 shutout to Ryan Miller and Co. on Feb. 8. The following night, Morgan Cey (Jr., Wilkie, Sask.) left his calling card as the Irish prevailed with a 3-2 victory that started them on a five-game winning streak. The Irish win that night snapped a 16-game losing streak to the Spartans in East Lansing that started during the 1981-82 season. It also snapped a 33-game home winning streak for Michigan State.

FAST START: Notre Dame's 5-2-0 record to start the season is the best start for the Irish since a 6-1-0 start during the 1998-99 season. The 4-2-0 mark in the CCHA is the team's best start in conference play since 1998-99 when Notre Dame started with a 5-1-0 mark in league play.

STREAKING IRISH: Notre Dame's current four-game winning streak equals the team's longest streak from the 2002-03 season and is the longest since a five-game winning streak from Feb. 9, 2002 to March 2, 2002. The last time the Irish won six in a row came at the start of the 1998-99 season when the Irish won their first six games from Oct. 2 through Oct. 23.

CCHA ROOKIE OF THE WEEK, PART 2: For the second time in the first four weeks of the season, Notre Dame freshman goaltender David Brown (Stoney Creek, Ont.) has been selected as the CCHA rookie of the week. Brown turned in his third consecutive shutout on Fri., Oct. 31, making 22 saves in a 2-0 win over Nebraska-Omaha. He also played the final 1:53 of the Thursday night game when Morgan Cey was injured in a goal-mouth collision. The shutout extended his consecutive minutes of scoreless hockey to 186:15, a Notre Dame record. His three consecutive shutouts and three shutouts in one season are also Notre Dame records. For the year, Brown is 3-2-0 with a 1.15 goals-against average and a .946 save percentage and three shutouts. He was selected rookie of the week for the week ending Oct. 19 when he started his shuout streak with a 40-save, 3-0 blanking of Bowling Green.

NEBRASKA-OMAHA RECAP: The Irish picked up their first series sweep this season with 4-2 and 2-0 wins at home over Nebraska-Omaha on Oct. 30-31. On Oct. 30, junior goaltender Morgan Cey (Wilkie, Sask.) made his first start of the season after recovering from July knee surgery and made 29 saves in picking up the 4-2 win versus Nebraska-Omaha. Cey played 58:07 before being injured on UNO's second goal of the night. Cey got all the offense he needed from Cory McLean (Jr., Fargo, N.D.) who had two goals and senior center Aaron Gill Rochester, Minn.) who had a goal and two assists for his second three-point game of the year. McLean scored the first and last Irish goals of the night. Gill's first-period goal made it 2-0 at 19:52 of the first period. After UNO's Brent Kisio cut the lead to 2-1 midway through the second period, Rob Globke (Sr., West Bloomfield, Mich.) scored the eventual game winner at 11:52 of the second period. Andrew Wong closed the scoring with a goal at 18:07 of the third period for the final score of 4-2. On the night, the Irish outshot the Mavericks, 33-32. Brian Haaland made 29 saves for Nebraska-Omaha. On Fri., Oct. 31, David Brown recorded his third consecutive shutout in the 2-0 win over the Mavericks. He got all the scoring help he would need in the first period as Michael Bartlett (Fr., Morton Grove, Ill.) got the game winner just 2:11 into the stanza and Neil Komadoski (Sr., Chesterfield, Mo.) scored on the power play at 12:52 of the first for the 2-0 score. The Irish outshot Nebraska-Omaha by a 32-22 margin and were 1-for-5 on the power play.

END OF THE STREAK: When Nebraska-Omaha's Brent Kisio scored at 10:02 of the second period on Oct. 30, it snapped a Notre Dame shutout string of 154:24, the longest in the hockey program's history. The string started over the final 4:22 of the Oct. 17 game vs. Bowling Green. Back-to-back shutouts by David Brown versus Bowling Green (10/18) and Boston College (10/24) added 120 minutes. Morgan Cey then held Nebraska-Omaha off the scoreboard for 30:02.

SHUTOUT STRING: It didn't take freshman goaltender David Brown long to get his name in the Notre Dame record book. After just six appearances and four starts, Brown has set the school record with 186:15 minutes of shutout hockey. He passed the previous record holder, current junior Morgan Cey (147:19), in his 2-0 shutout of Nebraska-Omaha on Oct. 31. That shutout also sets a Notre Dame record for consecutive shutouts and shutouts in one season with three. The career record for shutouts at Notre Dame is four and is held by Cey and Mark Kronholm.

STINGY ON DEFENSE: The Irish have surrendered just 12 goals in the first seven games this season. That's the fewest goals given up by a Notre Dame team since the 1998-99 season when that team gave up 12 in the first seven games. The Irish lead the CCHA with a 1.71 goals-against average to date.

NUMBER CHANGE: Notre Dame defenseman Noah Babin (Fr., Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) will wear numbr 14 this weekend versus the Mavericks. He is listed as number six in the Notre Dame hockey media guide.

IRISH ON CSTV: Notre Dame's win at Boston College was televised on College Sports Television (CSTV) as part of its weekly national game of the week package. The Irish are now 2-0 on CSTV as they downed Ohio State 5-2 on Oct. 10. The Irish are scheduled to appear on CSTV again on Dec. 27 when they play Cornell in the Everblades Collegiate Classic in Estero, Fla. If they win the first game, the championship game of that tournament will also be televised.

BEATING THE BEST: Notre Dame's 1-0 shutout win at Boston College on Oct. 24 came versus the Eagles while they were ranked first in the nation in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll. The last time the Irish knocked off the top team in the country came on Jan. 3, 1999 when they won 4-3 at North Dakota.

IRISH WINS VERSUS #1 TEAMS: The last time the Irish faced a top-ranked team prior to Oct. 24 was on Nov. 10, 2000 when the Irish faced Boston College at the Joyce Center. Notre Dame lost that game by a 5-3 score.

HE'S BACK: Irish goaltender Morgan Cey returned to the lineup on Oct. 30 after missing the first five games of the season while recovering from summer knee surgery. In his first start, he recorded a 4-2 win over the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks making 29 saves. The 6-3, 175-pound junior dressed for the Boston College game (Oct. 24) but did not play. Cey had started 71 of Notre Dame's 79 games as a freshman and sophomore. He was 15-15-6 last season with a 2.87 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage with two shutouts. Career-wise, Cey is 31-29-9 with a 2.79 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage with four shutouts. He is sixth on Notre Dame's all-time wins list with 31. His 2.79 goals-against average and .911 save percentage are tops in the program's history and his four shutouts tie him for first at Notre Dame.

ON THE SIDELINES: Defenseman Derek Smith (Jr., Marysville, Mich.) will miss the Michigan State series as he is sidelined with post-concussion syndrome. He suffered a concussion on Jan. 4, 2003 at Nebraska-Omaha and has been sidelined since.

FAST STARTING GLOBKE: Senior right wing Rob Globke (West Bloomfield, Mich.) is off to a fast start this season with five goals and three assists for eight points in his first seven games. He opened the season with a hat trick in Notre Dame's 5-2 win at Ohio State. The hat trick was the second of his career. After not getting a point in the second game of that series, Globke had a goal and two assists versus Bowling Green (Oct. 17-18). He now has 54 career goals (29th player in Notre Dame history to record 50 or more goals in his career). Globke's hat trick in the CCHA opener marked the first time since the 1995-96 season that a Notre Dame player recorded a hat trick in the first league game of the year. On Oct. 19, 1995, Brian Urick scored four goals in Notre Dame's 7-4 win at Alaska Fairbanks. That game was also the first victory (and second game for Dave Poulin as coach of the Fighting Irish).

MORE GLOBKE GOODIES: Rob Globke had the best season of his Notre Dame career in 2002-03, leading the Irish with 21 goals and 15 assists for 36 points. He now has 54 goals and 38 assists for 92 career points. He needs just eight more points to become the 40th player in school history to reach the 100-point plateau in his career at Notre Dame. Globke's 21 goals as a junior made him the first Irish player to score more than 20 goals in a season since Aniket Dhadphale had 25 during the 1997-98 season. The talented right winger opened the season with his first career hat trick in a 5-3 win at Minnesota-Duluth and then added two goals the following game in a 4-2 win versus Western Michigan. The five goals in two games was a first for a Notre Dame player since Tim Harberts had five in two games to open the 1994-95 season.

NICE GUYS: Notre Dame's Oct. 30 game with Nebraska-Omaha featured just one penalty. The Irish were not penalized at all while UNO picked up one minor for two minutes. Notre Dame was 0-for-1 on its only power-play chance.

SPECIAL TEAMS: There's good news and bad news when it comes to Notre Dame's special teams through the first seven games. When it comes to killing penalties, the Irish are among the best in the nation as they've given up just two power-play goals on 28 chances for a 92.9% success rate. After Nebraska-Omaha went 0-for-3 in two games last weekend, the Irish have now killed 16 consecutive opponent power-play chances. On the power play, the Irish snapped an 0-for-13 run versus UNO on Neil Komadoski's goal at 12:56 of the first period on Oct. 31. Overall, the Irish were 1-for-5 and are now 4-for-34 on the year for an 11.8% success rate. They rank first in the CCHA in penalty killing and 11th on the power play.,

CORY'S THE STORY: Junior right wing Cory McLean had the second two-goal game of his career in the Oct. 30 win over Nebraska-Omaha. On the season, he has scored in five of Notre Dame's seven games and is third in scoring with four goals and three assists for seven points. His season-opening four-game point scoring streak (2-3-5) was snapped at Boston College. He had a breakout year with the Irish in 2002-03 as he recorded 10 goals and seven assists for 17 points. Four of his goals came on the power play. As a freshman, McLean had just one goal and four assists for five points.

GILL THE THRILL: Senior center Aaron Gill turned in his second three-point game (1g, 2a) of the season in the 4-2 win over Nebraska-Omaha. He goes into tonight's game leading the Irish in scoring with two goals and six assists for eight points.

LEBDA FOR THE DEFENSE: Senior defenseman Brett Lebda (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) leads all Notre Dame defensemen in scoring with five assists. The speedy blueliner had three assists in the weekend series versus Nebraska-Omaha with eight shots on goal and was +3 for the weekend. In his career, Lebda now has 20 goals and 46 assists for 66 career points in 120 career games.

CONSECUTIVE GAME STREAK: Graduated defenseman Evan Nielsen ('03) set Notre Dame's record for consecutive games played last season with 114 in a row from 2000-03. Coming into this weekend with Michigan State, seniors Rob Globke and Brett Lebda have each played in 65 consecutive games and are the leaders among active players. The only games Lebda has missed in his career came in 2001-02 when he missed four games while playing at the World Junior Championships. He has played 120 of 124 career games.

POWER PRODUCER: Senior defenseman Neil Komadoski snapped an 0-for-13 Notre Dame power-play scoring drought in the Oct. 31 win over Nebraska-Omaha. For Komadoski, it was his first goal of the season. In 2002-03, he led Notre Dame defensemen in scoring with one goal and 23 assists for 24 points. His one goal that season also came on the power play. He has scored six goals in his career with two coming on the power play.

MR. CLUTCH: Need a goal in a tight situation??? Just call on left wing Mike Walsh (So., Northville, Mich.). The sophomore, who picked up his second game-winning goal of the year versus Boston College, now has scored three goals in his career with all three being the game-winning goal. The hard-charging forward turned in the first two-point night of his career with a pair of assists versus Nebraska-Omaha (Oct. 30).

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: Notre Dame's eight man freshman class has acquitted itself quite well through seven games this season. Every one knows the story of goaltender David Brown who has appeared in six of seven games this year and has three consecutive shutouts with a CCHA-leading 1.15 goals against average and a .964 save percentage. The remaining seven members have combined for four goals and seven assists for 11 points. Left wing Mike Bartlett leads the way with two goals and an assist for three points, including the game winner versus Nebraska-Omaha on Oct. 31. Linemate T.J. Jindra (Faribault, Minn.) got his first career-point as he set up Bartlett's game winner versus Nebraska-Omaha. Defenseman Wes O'Neill (Essex, Ont.) has a goal and an assist for two points and leads the Irish with a +6. Matt Williams-Kovacs (Calgary, Alb.) and Jason Paige (Saginaw, Mich.) have two assists each and Paige ranks second among Irish players, winning 56.1% of his faceoffs. Josh Sciba (Westland, Mich.) has a goal in the six games he's played and has won 68.8% of his faceoffs to lead the team. Defenseman Noah Babin (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) has played a steady defense, appearing in six of the team's seven games.

FIRING THE BISCUIT: Notre Dame peppered Bowling Green goaltender Jordan Sigalet with 59 shots in the Oct. 17, 5-3 loss to the Falcons. The 59 shots were the most by an Irish team since Feb. 22, 2003 when they fired 56 shots at Lake Superior's Terry Denike. Sigalet's 56 saves are the most since Denike made 50 in a 6-3 Notre Dame win. The Irish have been outshot in four of their five games this season.

THE CAPTAINS: Senior center Aaron Gill will serve as the team captain for the Irish in 2003-04. Gill was an alternate captain last season. As a junior, he finished fourth on the Irish in scoring with 13 goals and 12 assists for 25 points. Four of his 13 goals came on the power play and he recorded his first career hat trick on Oct. 19 in an 8-5 win over Western Michigan. Coach Dave Poulin announced his two alternate captains prior to the Western Ontario game (10/3). Serving as alternate captains this season are senior right wing Rob Globke and senior defenseman Neil Komadoski. Globke led the Irish in scoring last season with 21 goals and 15 assists for 36 points. Komadoski was Notre Dame's top scorer from the blue line last year as he scored a goal and added 23 helpers. His 23 assists and 24 points were career-highs for the veteran defenseman.

SEN-CEY-SATIONAL: Junior goaltender Morgan Cey is in his third season as Notre Dame's go-to-guy in goal. Coming into the 2003-04 season, Cey appeared in 71 of the team's 79 games from 2001-2003. As a sophomore, Cey was 15-15-6 with a 2.87 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage. He is already tied for sixth on Notre Dame's all-time win list with 30 career wins. His .911 career save percentage and last season's mark of .912 are school records. Cey is currently tied for first with four career shutouts. In the eight career postseason games, the Wilkie, Sask., native is 4-4 with a 1.66 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage. During the first round of the 2002-03 CCHA playoffs, Cey recorded back-to-back shutouts versus Miami (a first at Notre Dame) and set a then school record with 147:19 of shutout hockey.

OFFENSIVE DEFENSEMEN: Notre Dame's roster features three senior defensemen who excel at both ends of the ice. Neil Komadoski, Brett Lebda (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Tom Galvin (Miller Place, N.Y.) combined for 11 goals and 46 assists during the 2002-03 campaign. Komadoski led all Irish defensemen in scoring with a career-best 24 points (one, goal, 23 assists). Lebda tied for seventh in team scoring with seven goals and 14 assists for 21 points. He also led the team with 139 shots on goal (also led the team in 2001-02 with 150). Galvin added three goals and nine assists for 12 points after leading Irish defensemen the previous season with four goals and 19 assists.

FOR OPENERS: The Irish opened the 2003-04 season with a 5-2 win at Ohio State. That gives Notre Dame an all-time record of 19-16-1 in season-opening games in the 36-year history of the program. In home openers, Friday's 5-3 loss to the Falcons gives Notre Dame a 20-16-0 mark in first games at the Joyce Center. Last season, the Irish opened the home schedule with a 4-2 win versus Western Michigan. Head coach Dave Poulin is 5-4-0 in home openers and 4-4-1 in season openers.

NHL DRAFTEES: Notre Dame has three players on the 2003-04 roster that have been selected in the National Hockey League Entry Draft. Senior Rob Globke was a second-round choice of the Florida Panthers in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. Selected 40th overall, Globke's selection was the earliest any Notre Dame player has ever been chosen. Senior defenseman Neil Komadoski was selected in the third round of the 2001 draft by the Ottawa Senators. Sophomore left wing Mike Walsh was selected in the fifth round of the 2002 draft by the New York Rangers.

OH CANADA: Freshman defenseman Wes O'Neill was a member of Canada's Under-18 Select team that played in this summer's Under-18 Select World Cup tournament. O'Neill had a goal and four assists in helping Canada to a fourth-place finish. The former Green Bay Gambler also played for Team Ontario at the Under-17 World Championships in Feb. of 2003. There he had three goals and nine assists in six games. O'Neill was the second pick in the 2002 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Draft by the Kingston Frontenacs. He is the highest-drafted OHL player to decide to play college hockey.

BRAIN POWER: Senior defenseman T.J. Mathieson (Clarksville, Md.) is a candidate for Rhodes, Mitchell and Marshall Scholarships for postgraduate studies. Mathieson owns a 3.812 grade-point average in aerospace engineering in Notre Dame's School of Engineering. He is a two-time winner of Notre Dame's Rockne Scholar-Athlete Award. He spent the past summer working at General Electric Aircraft Engines in Cincinnati. There, he worked doing stress analysis of high-pressure turbines for commercial aircraft engines.

FAMILY MATTERS: After having as many as four players whose fathers played in the National Hockey League, only one remains for the 2003-04 season. That would be Neil Komadoski, Jr. (Sr., Chesterfield, Mo.), whose father, Neil Komadoski, Sr., played eight NHL seasons as a defenseman with the Los Angeles Kings ('72-'78) and the St. Louis Blues ('77-'80), totaling 16G-76A and 632 penalty minutes in 501 career games.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Two Irish sophomore hockey players - Rory Walsh and Mike Walsh - have fathers who attended Notre Dame. Rory Walsh's father, Brian ('77), was an all-American hockey player for the Irish. A center iceman, the elder Walsh is Notre Dame's all-time leading scorer after recording 234 career points on 89 goals and 145 assists. Mike Walsh's father, Max, ('74) was an offensive lineman on the Notre Dame football team and a member of the 1973 national championship team.

CLUSTEROLOGY: The Irish finished the 2002-03 season with a 7-4-1 record versus the three other teams in their schedule cluster. Notre Dame was 4-0 versus Bowling Green, 3-1-0 versus Western Michigan and 0-3-1 versus Ferris State. This season, the Irish will face Bowling Green, Lake Superior State and Northern Michigan four times.

FIT TO BE TIED: Notre Dame's 3-3 tie with Ohio State on Jan. 31, 2003 marked the sixth overtime game of the year for the Irish, with all six ending in ties (0-0-6). Since the start of the 1999-2000 season, the Irish have been involved in 33 overtime games and are 5-2-26 in those contests. The last time Notre Dame won an overtime game during the regular season was on Jan. 25, 2002, a 4-3 overtime win for the Irish at Miami. The Irish had two postseason games decided in overtime during the 2001-02 season (a 3-2 double overtime loss to Nebraska-Omaha and a 2-1 win versus the Mavericks).

PENALTY SHOTS: Notre Dame goaltender Morgan Cey has faced four penalty shots in his Irish hockey career, including three last season. On Feb. 28, in a 4-2 loss to Western Michigan, Cey stopped Bronco Vince Bellissimo at 14:06 of the third period. A month earlier, Jan. 25, in a 3-3 tie with Michigan State, Cey stopped Jim Slater at 16:23 of the second period. His first stop in 2002-03 came on Nov. 22 at Michigan. In that game, a 4-2 loss to the Wolverines, he stopped Milan Gajic at 12:36 of the second period. The first penalty shot Cey faced came during his freshman season when he stopped Bowling Green's Greg Day on Dec. 8, 2001. That stop came in a 4-2 loss to the Falcons.

FROZEN TUNDRA: The Irish have developed a pipeline with the Green Bay Gamblers of the United State's Hockey League. Three members of the current Notre Dame team have played in the Land of Lombardi. Junior defenseman Joe Zurenko (Arlington Heights, Ill.) played there during the '00-'01 season and freshmen blueliners Noah Babin (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and Wes O'Neill were teammates there last year. New assistant coach Layne LeBel also spent the past two seasons with the Gamblers.

FOURTH TIME: Morgan Cey's back-to-back shutouts (1-0 and 5-0) versus Miami in the first round of last season's CCHA playoffs made him the fourth goaltender to turn the trick.

THREE OUT OF FOUR: Notre Dame has advanced to Joe Louis Arena and the CCHA tournament in three of the last four seasons. Only two other CCHA teams - Michigan and Michigan State - have been there all four years since the 1999-2000 campaign.

U.S. JUNIOR NATIONALS: Sophomore right wing Tim Wallace was one of 43 players invited to USA Hockey's Junior Evaluation Camp held in Lake Placid, N.Y., in August. From those 43 players, USA Hockey will select its 2004 U.S. Junior National Team that will play in the World Junior Championships in Finland. Notre Dame has sent eight players to the World Juniors since 1996-97.

YOST BUSTERS: Notre Dame's 4-3 win at Michigan on Nov. 23 was the first regular-season win for the Irish at Yost Arena since they returned to the CCHA in 1992-93. Prior to that, the last time Notre Dame won in Ann Arbor was Oct. 22, 1982, a span of 14 regular-season games. The Irish did win a CCHA playoff game at Yost in the 1998 playoffs. In the regular season, Notre Dame is now 1-14-1 in the last 16 meetings and since 1992-93, the Irish are 2-18-1 versus the Wolverines at Yost Arena. Over the last three meetings, the Irish are 1-1-1 when playing in Ann Arbor.

GOLD MEDAL ASSISTANT: Irish assistant hockey coach, Andy Slaggert, served as an assistant coach with USA Hockey's gold-medal winning Under-18 Select Team in August at the World Under-18 Select tournament in the Czech Republic. The 11-year assistant at Notre Dame has been involved in coaching with USA Hockey since the 1996-97 season. This was his first time for coaching on the international level.

PATRIOTIC GROUP: Notre Dame's current roster includes eight players who have past experience with USA Hockey, as members of the National Team Development Program (NTDP) and/or the National Junior Team. Since the program began, the Irish have had a total of 13 NTDP alums grace their roster. The current contingent includes seniors Rob Globke, Neil Komadoski and Brett Lebda, junior Derek Smith (Marysville, Mich.), sophomore Tim Wallace (Anchorage, Alaska) and freshmen Noah Babin (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.), Michael Bartlett (Morton Grove, Ill.) and Josh Sciba (Westland, Mich.)

Former Irish players Brett Henning, Paul Harris, Michael Chin, Connor Dunlop and John Wroblewski are all alums of the U.S. Developmental Program.

CCHA ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM: Notre Dame saw it's streak of seven consecutive seasons with at least one player named to the CCHA all-Academic Team last season. The Irish have produced eight previous first-team CCHA All-Academic selections since rejoining the CCHA in '92-'93: Curtis Janicke and Carl Picconatto ('92-'93), Garry Gruber ('95-'96), Steve Noble ('96-'97, '97-'98), Forrest Karr and Aniket Dhadphale ('98-'99), Andy Jurkowski (99'-'00), Dan Carlson (2000-01) and David Inman (2001-02). During that 11-year span, only Western Michigan (12) has produced more CCHA All-Academic selections than Notre Dame's 10.

HOMETOWNS: The 2003-04 Notre Dame hockey team features players from 10 states and four Canadian provinces - Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan. In the eight-year tenure of head coach Dave Poulin, the Notre Dame hockey letterwinners have hailed from 20 different states and provinces.