By JIM MEENAN South Bend Tribune Staff Writer WSBT-TV

9:02 p.m. EST, December 8, 2011
SOUTH BEND –– As the first half of the season winds down, Notre Dame’s
hockey team seems like a student that was well on its way to an “A”
grade, but is just coming off failing a quiz.

Now, there is some concern as to where the Irish are headed after
being swept by Northeastern on its home ice last weekend, falling five
places in the national rankings to No. 7.

Irish captain Billy Maday was not about to let any excuse creep into
the conversation as he took a look back at the lost weekend at the
Compton Arena, where the Irish fell by a combined score of 11-3.

“There’s probably a lot of questions of what happened last weekend,
but I think the biggest issue is just our preparation, our mental
readiness for the game,” Maday said.

It was not school work bogging the Irish down either, he said.

“I’m not going to make any excuses because we’ve had school work when
we were unbeaten for 11 (games), too,” said the senior right wing. “I
don’t think anything really went into the weekend that was different
than what we’re used to. It’s just internal and we have to be ready
for the next weekend.”

As Ferris State (10-5-1, 6-5-1-0 CCHA) and Notre Dame (10-5-3,