Only six games into his career, David Brown is already putting his name in the record books.
The freshman goaltender collected his record third straight shutout and increased his record shutout streak to 186 minutes, 15 seconds as the Irish (5-2-0, 4-2-0 in the CCHA) won their fourth game in a row Friday with a 2-0 victory over Nebraska-Omaha.
The 18-year old is also three-fourths of the way to setting the Notre Dame career shutout record, currently held by his teammate Morgan Cey. At the start of the season, Cey's recovery from off-season surgery opened the door for Brown to impress the Irish coaches in his short emergency stint.
Even though Cey has returned, Brown continues to get starts in goal and is taking advantage of his chances. The freshman currently leads the CCHA with a .964 save percentage and 1.15 goals against average.
"I just tried to come in and play like I had been," Brown said. "The defense was great again tonight. They let me see the shots and cleared the rebounds when they were there.
"We really wanted to sweep our first series of the year and our defense played really well."
Brown's teammates gave him a lead early in the game, with Michael Bartlett scoring early in the first period. It would be all that the goalie would need, but his team added an insurance goal on the power play just ten minutes later as defenseman Neil Komadoski scored his first goal of the season.
It was perhaps one of the best periods offensively and defensively for the Irish, as they outshot the Mavericks 18-4 in the first stanza.
"I thought our first period was one of the best we played all year," said head coach Dave Poulin. "We did all the little things well. It really was about as well as we could play."
The Mavericks countered Brown with a freshman of their own, Chris Holt, who came into the game with a goal against average of over 6. It didn't take long for the Irish to beat the rookie.
Bartlett forced a turnover by a Maverick defenseman and skated in on Holt. He wrested a quick shot past the goalie, beating him high to the glove side for the first Irish goal just 2:11 into the game.
Notre Dame would then take advantage of two Maverick penalties, scoring a power-play goal with the two-man advantage on a tic-tac-toe play.
Defenseman Brett Lebda took the puck into the offensive zone, then sent a perfect cross to Globke, who followed with a cross back to Komadoski, who had set up on the right post.
