The Notre Dame Fighting Irish hosted the Mercyhurst Lakers for a two series at the end of last week. Building confidence ahead of conference play, the Irish came away with a sweep.
Thursday: Notre Dame 4, Mercyhurst 3 (OT)
Notre Dame entered the rare Thursday night contest needing a rebound. Last Saturday’s 8-2 loss at the hands of Boston University stung. Unable to bear a repeat performance, the Irish learned a lesson in perseverance — and maybe a little about luck too — on their way to a 4-3 overtime victory.
“You’ve got to have a short memory in this business,” 19-season Notre Dame hockey head coach Jeff Jackson said postgame. “From Saturday to today to tomorrow … the wins fade quickly.”
Just as the wins fade, at times the losses do too. Last Saturday’s sting certainly seemed to fade in the glow of the goal light behind Mercyhurst starting netminder Owen Say seven minutes into this contest. The Irish got off to the much-needed strong start, but Say was just as good. Indeed, the Laker sophomore was sensational the whole night, stopping no less than 50 of Notre Dame’s 54 shots.
The first of four he could not stop was senior forward and captain Landon Slaggert’s early goal, off a feed from freshman forward Maddox Fleming. The power-play goal continued Slaggert’s strong start to the season, his fourth goal of the year to that point. There would be more to come from the captain.
Things took a turn late in the first when Mercyhurst tied the game with a quick transition goal. Garrett Dahm created the play below the goal line, separating Paul Fischer from the puck and flinging a centering pass to the middle of the ice. Laker defenseman Mickey Burns found the pass coming off the bench and shot the puck off the body of Irish defender Henry Nelson and into the net.
Despite sustaining little offense in the first period, a lucky bounce for Mercyhurst left the game tied at the end of one period.
Then early in the second, the Lakers got another bounce to go their direction. With graduate student forward Trevor Janicke in the box for hooking, Laker defenseman Dustin Geregach scored off the ensuing faceoff. Again, the shot from the right point went off an Irish skater and into the net.
Philip Waugh put Mercyhurst up by two with a goal in transition roughly six minutes later. Waugh joined the rush off a defensive zone faceoff. Beating the Irish backcheckers up ice, Waugh took the pass from Spencer Smith and beat Irish starting netminder Ryan Bischel glove side.
At the end of two periods, Notre Dame was outshooting Mercyhurst 34-18. But they trailed by two goals, and had two big breaks go against them.
“We’ve had our share of bad luck,” Jackson said. “So, I guess it’s OK for us to once and a while get a break.”
The break Notre Dame so desperately needed would be coming. But they needed to get there first, which meant starting strong in the third. A lot rode upon the next 20 minutes of hockey for Notre Dame. But the atmosphere in the locker room remained upbeat.
“We are a pretty calm group,” assistant captain Trevor Janicke said. “ There was no panic.”
Junior centerman Tyler Carpenter provided the needed spark shortly after the puck dropped on the final frame, blasting a one-timer over Say’s gloveside shoulder. Freshman Maddox Fleming recorded his second assist of the game with the primary helper. Freshman forward Carter Slaggert also assisted on the goal, marking his first career point.
Compton Family Ice Arena revived, as the Irish were back to within one.
“Once [Carpenter] scored early in the third everyone was like, ‘We are winning this game,’” Janicke said. “You just knew it.”
Janicke would put his words into action, scoring the game tying goal less than three minutes later. Off an offensive zone faceoff, the Irish moved the puck quickly across the ice, with senior defenseman Drew Bavaro feeding Janicke for a one-timer. It was labeled for the top shelf. Janicke dropped to a knee in celebration, an emotional release indicative of the breakthrough moment that had just occurred — both for the team, and Janicke personally. Janicke, snakebitten throughout the early season, had his first goal. And it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.
“Not going to lie, it felt pretty good,” Janicke said.
Despite lady luck seemingly playing for their opponent tonight, Notre Dame did not let the breaks beat them. They pushed the game to overtime and finally got a break of their own.
As graduate student defenseman Ryan Siedem fought off a Mercyhurst forechecker in the defensive zone, Landon Slaggert (who else?) leapt over the boards. Siedem spun free with the puck, and wasted no time finding Slaggert with a pass.
Notre Dame’s captain and red-hot leading goal scorer was in alone. Slaggert stickhandled once, snapped the shot—and whiffed.
But the goal light went on. The puck had gone in anyways.
“I was thinking backhand, maybe five-hole, but I ended up kind of losing it,” Slaggert said. “The Hockey Gods thought it should go in. We definitely got a lucky bounce on that one, but we’ll take it.”
Sure, there may be something to be said about the mysterious machinations of the hockey gods in this game. But there may be even more to be said about Notre Dame’s mental toughness. Coming off their most difficult loss of the season, the Irish started well, but ultimately fell into a difficult hole. They climbed out of it, and that speaks volumes about the growth of this team.
“Winning fades but learning sticks with you,” Jackson said. “And if you learn from the mistakes you make, or you learn from the positive things you do, that’s how you get better. I think our guys probably felt that we deserved to be in a better spot than being down two goals, but we were, and we fought back, and that’s really really important.”
Friday: Notre Dame 5, Mercyhurst 0
Friday’s series finale represented an opportunity to build on momentum from Thursday’s overtime win. Gaining confidence, Notre Dame rode breakout performances from a few young guns and a classic outing from their seasoned netminder en route to a 5-0 win.
“As the season goes, we are going to get more and more mature,” Jackson said. “The young guys, coming back from playing really well, a few of them scored tonight. For us, it’s about them getting the experience of going through this.”
On a night where freshman defenseman Paul Fischer and forward Brennan Ali scored their first career goals, the Irish also got scoring from veteran Drew Bavaro and two more goals from Landon Slaggert.
“[Scoring] always helps because it builds confidence in guys,” Jackson said. “Guys feel better about themselves when they score, especially the forwards, but it helps build confidence.”
The Irish have also built confidence on the power-play, which struck for its fourth goal in four games on Friday. Fleming fed Bavaro, who snapped a wrist shot from the high slot past the Lakers’ freshman goaltender Simon Bucheler to open the scoring in the first. It was Bavaro’s second power-play goal of the season, and a team leading sixth assist for Fleming. Both have been a big part of the power-play’s recent success.
“It’s definitely coming together, it’s nice to see,” Bavaro said postgame. “I think the first few games we were struggling a little bit, fighting it a little bit, but it seems things are going our way.”
Notre Dame added to their lead on Fischer’s goal five minutes later. Fischer’s first career lamplighter was a play for the highlight reel. Fischer skated the puck out to the neutral zone and made a pass to Carpenter entering the offensive zone on the left. Fischer then broke for the net, taking the return feed from Carpenter and depositing it top shelf on Bucheler.
“It was good to have him back this weekend, he’s a talented young defenseman,” Jackson said of Fischer. “It was a great goal too — that’s where he’s a great skater, and it shows up in different ways. It showed up a couple times defensively tonight as well.”
Leading 2-0 after the first period, the Irish had to endure some pushback from Mercyhurst in the middle frame. The Lakers outshot Notre Dame 14-12 in the second period, including 11-5 over the final 13 minutes.
Allowing for growing pains is part of having a young team. No single player may be more important for ensuring this growth occurs in a winning environment than netminder Bischel, who stopped 33 shots tonight for his second shutout of the season. Over the course of the night, Bischel had to bail out the Irish defense by making a difficult save more than a few times. He was up to the task tonight, and earned his ninth career shutout to boot.
“He’s had a couple rough games, which is uncharacteristic for him,” Jackson said. “When I say rough, I’m not putting that on him alone. Just high tips and things he has no control over scoring on him, in some ways weird goals. It’s good to get him back on track, especially heading into Penn State where he’s going to have to be [good].”
Notre Dame broke through in the third, when Landon Slaggert scored two goals for the second consecutive night. For Slaggert, the four goal weekend brings his season total to 7 goals in 7 games. That number matches his goal total from all of last season. It also ties him for second in the nation in goals. Only Boston University’s Macklin Celebrini has eight.
“[Landon]’s playing like he needs to play to take that next step for his future, beyond here,” Jackson said. “If it continues that way throughout the year, it’s only going to propel him to a great opportunity.”
The Irish cashed in contributions of all kinds in this game: from their forwards, defense, and goaltender, from their veterans, and yes, from their ever-important youth. In that way, Brennan Ali provided a fitting ending to the evening, icing the series, and his first career goal, into an empty net.
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Irish rebound, sweep Mercyhurst
Freshman forward Brennan Ali scores his first career goal against Mercyhurst, contributing to an Irish 5-0 win against the Lakers on Friday Oct. 27.
