FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Head coach John Danowski and his coaching staff didn’t decide on their starting goalie until nearly midnight before Duke’s quarterfinal matchup against Notre Dame. Just hours later, their decision paid off.
After sustaining a concussion in practice last week and missing the first round of the NCAA Tournament, goaltender Dan Wigrizer showed no rust Sunday in leading fifth-seeded Duke to a 7-5 victory over the fourth-seeded Fighting Irish at Gillette Stadium.
Wigrizer made 14 saves in the game, including six key first quarter stops that prevented Notre Dame from opening up a big lead.
“Having Dan back in the goal was terrific,” Danowski said. “Mike Rock did a great job, but Danny has been our starter all year so it was great to have [him] back.”
The Fighting Irish broke out to an early 2-0 lead behind scores from Eric Keppler and Westy Hopkins, but Wigrizer quickly rebounded with a string of saves.
The Blue Devils finally got on the board with 2:26 left in the opening period when freshman Christian Walsh fired a low shot past Fighting Irish goaltender John Kemp. However, Hopkins answered with his second goal of the game with just 11 seconds left to put Notre Dame back up by a pair.
With the Fighting Irish held at bay in the second period by the Duke defense, the Blue Devil offense took advantage with goals from midfielders Justin Turri and David Lawson to send the teams into the locker room tied at halftime.
“Our defense did do a great job, and Danny especially, of keeping us in the game and going into halftime 3-3,” Turri said. “We knew that looks were going to fall, we knew we were going to open some stuff up in the second half and our defense allowed us to do that.”
After the break, Duke’s stellar defense continued to thwart the Notre Dame attack, but the Fighting Irish also offered few chances for the frustrated Duke offense.
“I remember it was 3-3 for quite a while,” Wigrizer said. “It’s just [about] staying with the flow, not dwelling on the three goals and not thinking about a save I had. There are times when I can get really excitable and for me, I just wanted to stay relaxed.”
Duke took the lead with 4:21 left in the third period when Turri beat Kemp for his second goal of the game.
The lead lasted only a few minutes though, until an undisciplined penalty by senior Tom Montelli gave the Fighting Irish a man-up opportunity. Junior Max Pfeifer fired a shot past Wigrizer to tie the game, breaking a 28-minute scoreless drought for the Fighting Irish.
The teams entered the final 15 minutes tied at four goals apiece and Wigrizer made sure to stay calm in the net.
“You can’t let anything get into your mind because the second you start thinking is the second you’ll start letting in goals,” Wigrizer said. “You’re thinking on a shot and just like that, you’re a second too late.”
Freshman Jordan Wolf put Duke back on top early in the fourth quarter and Tucker Virtue doubled the lead at the 10:57 mark on a bounced shot that snuck past Kemp.
“Once the goals start racking up, it kind of takes a little bit off of you,” Wigrizer said. “You want to stay poised because three goals... is nothing.”
With 3:41 left in the game, Robert Rotanz sealed the win on a de-facto man-up opportunity created when Notre Dame’s Keppler went down with an injury but play was not stopped.
Notre Dame’s Hopkins completed his hat trick with 16 seconds remaining in the contest, but it was too little too late for the Fighting Irish as Duke advanced to the Final Four for the fifth consecutive season.
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