A look at who in the CCHA had an unlucky — or at least, a particularly unfortunate — Friday the 13th last night:

• Obviously, the list starts with Notre Dame: The Irish seemed to fall asleep for just a short stretch of time in the third period last night against Western Michigan. In a game filled with controversial penalty calls, Notre Dame led the Broncos 2-1 before taking a bench minor penalty… which led to the tying goal by WMU sophomore Chase Balisy. Just 14 seconds later, senior Kyle O’Kane put Western Michigan ahead for good. It’s a tough loss for Notre Dame, as the Irish had been on the heels of first-place Ohio State, coming into the game with momentum after holiday-break wins against Boston University and Minnesota. Still, the Irish sit in 4th place in the Pairwise as of Saturday morning.

• Ohio State: Two days before their outdoor showdown with Michigan in Cleveland’s Progressive Field, the Buckeyes and Wolverines played in front of almost 10,000 indoors in Columbus. Unfortunately, Ohio State couldn’t give them much to cheer about, as 46 shots on goal were turned aside by Michigan senior goaltender Shawn Hunwick, who earned his eighth career shutout. The 46 saves were also a career high as Michigan is now unbeaten in eight games. The Buckeyes, meanwhile, hope they can rebound on Sunday in front of 4-5 times as many fans braving the winter elements outside. CHN will be in Cleveland with all the coverage, so stay tuned for that. And one last note about Michigan: check out Zach Helfand’s feature on Jon Merrill, who made his season debut last weekend after sitting out 22 games with a suspension. The sophomore defenseman already has four assists in three games.

• Northern Michigan goaltender Reid Ellingson: The senior netminder allowed five goals in just over 20 minutes of play before being pulled in favor of sophomore Jared Coureau, who kept Michigan State off the board for the remaining 40+ minutes of the game. The Wildcats and Spartans ultimately skated to a 5-5 tie, and as unfortunate as Ellingson’s night was, there was plenty of Friday the 13th “luck” to go around — the Spartans allowed NMU goals in the final minute of every period, including the third, when Wildcats senior forward Tyler Gron scored an extra-attacker goal with 26 seconds left in the game.

• Lake Superior forward Nick McParland: The junior is leading the Lakers in scoring this season with 11 goals but was ejected from last night’s game (major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct0 against Miami with just 10:44 gone by in the first period. The Lakers offense sputtered the rest of the way, as Miami came away with a 2-1 victory — the RedHawks’ seventh one-goal win of the season. Miami is now in a three-place tie for 10th in the Pairwise with Cornell and CCHA rival Michigan.

Saturday, January 14th, 2012 - 1:32 pm | CCHA, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings