Notre Dame loses lead, drops exhibition to Waterloo

A hat trick from fourth-year forward Justin Larson powered visiting Waterloo to a 5-4 victory in an exhibition contest over No. 10 Notre Dame on Sunday night at the Compton Family Ice Arena.

It took the Irish just over four minutes to get on the scoreboard as junior center Thomas DiPauli fired a shot past Waterloo second-year goaltender Mike Morrison with 15:58 to play in the first period. DiPauli carried in the puck from the blue line and slotted it past Morrison with assists on the play going to freshman defenseman Luke Ripley and sophomore winger Ali Thomas.

Sophomore center Vince Hinostroza — Notre Dame’s leading returning point-scorer — put the Irish 2-0 ahead fewer than three minutes later. Hinostroza wristed the puck past Morrison's glove side with the goal assisted by freshman defenseman Tony Bretzman and senior defenseman Robbie Russo.

The visitors from Canada (2-0 CIS) got one back at the 11:56 mark of the period, however, when fourth-year forward Justin Larson finished a two-on-one past Irish sophomore goaltender Chad Katunar. Waterloo fourth-year forward Chris Chappell carried the puck into the zone and fed the puck to Larson, who slid it under Katunar for the visitors’ first goal. Third-year forward Brett Mackie also picked up an assist on the goal. The Irish goaltender, meanwhile, finished with four saves on five shots in 30 minutes of work.

Hinostroza found the back of the net again with 4:19 to play in the first period when he converted a tight angle off of a rebound. Freshman defenseman Jordan Gross put a shot on goal from the blue line was turned aside by Morrison, but the puck fell right to Hinostroza, who put it away to restore Notre Dame's two-goal lead. Russo also picked up his second assist of the night in his return to the Irish after missing the second half of last season due to academic ineligibility.

“I thought Jordan Gross [whose shot provided the rebound opportunity for Hinostroza] did a nice job for his first game,” Irish coach Jeff Jackson said. “I liked his game at the point.”

After a change in goalies for both teams just before the midway point of the second period — third-year Chris Hurry entered for Waterloo while freshman Cal Petersen replaced Katunar for the Irish — the visitors gained a foothold in the game and used it to score four unanswered goals to take a 5-3 lead.

Larson got his second score of the game with 1:39 to play in the second period when he fired home a rebound after a sequence of Petersen saves, assisted again by Chappell and Mackie. The Warriors knotted the game up 18 seconds later when first-year forward Mitch Eliot put one past the Irish freshman goalie. Assists were credited to fourth-year defenseman Joe Underwood and first-year forward Phillip Fife. Both goals came during the final five minutes of the period, when Notre Dame took two penalties and saw momentum swing against them.

“We weren’t working quite as hard [at the end of the second period], and we were cheating a little bit,” Jackson said. “They got a couple of odd-man rushes that way, and they scored on both of them. That changed the whole game going into the third period.”

The Warriors — and Larson — picked up where they left off as the third period got underway when the forward completed his hat trick just 2:05 into the final period. First-year defenseman Adam Bignell and fourth-year defenseman Jeff Einhorn had assists on the goal as Larson beat Petersen and put a shot through the five hole to take a 4-3 lead.

Two minutes later — on just its tenth shot against Petersen — Waterloo went two goals ahead when third-year forward Matt Amadio fired another one home on a goal, assisted by fifth-year forward Kain Allicock and first-year defenseman Mike Moffat. Petersen finished with just nine saves on 13 shots in almost 30 minutes of work.

“I’m not going to evaluate [Petersen’s performance] too strongly,” Jackson said. “It’s hard to go in cold so I’m not going to evaluate that. I know he’s much better than that.

Notre Dame’s best chance in the next 10 minutes came when senior forward Peter Schneider had a shot denied with just fewer than 10 minutes to play by a sprawling stick save from Hurry. The Waterloo goaltender recorded 23 saves on 24 shots.

With 42 seconds to go, the Irish, already on the power play, got one back when Schneider finally beat Hurry with 42 seconds to play. Hinostroza’s initial shot was saved and Schneider put the puck in the back of the net on the goal also assisted by DiPauli. However, the Irish were unable to test Hurry the rest of the way and succumbed to their first exhibition loss in 10 years.

Jackson said that junior winger Mario Lucia and freshman center Connor Hurley were scratches due to “day-to-day” injuries while senior winger Garrett Peterson was on “academic sabbatical.”

Jackson cautioned that with a young team — there are 11 newcomers to the program — things will have to be different for the veterans this year.

“The big thing is that the veteran guys have to understand is that it’s not like where you have a veteran team when you can just respond like that,” Jackson said. “You’ve got a lot of new guys trying to figure it out.”

Notre Dame will open the regular season Friday when it takes on Rensselaer at the Ice Breaker Tournament — also featuring Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth — at the Compton Family Ice Arena at 7:35 p.m.