Back in the United States for the remainder of the season, Notre Dame hockey (6-10-0, 1-7-0 Big Ten) will take on No. 15 Ohio State (11-4-1, 4-2-0 Big Ten) this weekend in Columbus. Historically, the Irish have played the Buckeyes well, going 22-13-3 in their last 38 matchups with Ohio State dating back to the 2010-11 season.
Where the Irish stand
The games Notre Dame will play this weekend in Columbus are the only games it will play in December. The Irish took last weekend off after competing at the Friendship Four tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland. There, they claimed a runner-up finish by defeating Harvard, 5-2, and succumbing to a third-period comeback in a 4-3 loss to Boston University in the championship game.
While Notre Dame snapped its overall seven-game losing streak with the Harvard win, it still carries a seven-game skid in conference play. The last six of those seven losses came against teams ranked top-eight nationally at the time, with Minnesota sweeping the Irish in their last Big Ten series three weeks ago.
Notre Dame currently ranks sixth in the Big Ten standings, two points ahead of last-place Penn State. The Irish received seven votes in this week’s USCHO poll, making them the fifth team out of the rankings.
Notre Dame’s offense coming around
Despite their suboptimal record in November, the Irish have shown signs of better play, especially on the offensive end of the ice. They have at least three goals in six straight games for the first time since November 2021. Notre Dame hasn’t scored three or more in seven consecutive contests since the early part of the 2017-18 season.
With top-scoring sophomore forward Cole Knuble in and out of the lineup over the past month, nearly all of Notre Dame’s remaining top-six forwards have stepped. Fellow sophomore center Danny Nelson heads to Ohio State with a six-game point streak. His linemate, sophomore winger Brennan Ali, has registered all four of his goals in Big Ten play. Senior winger Justin Janicke tallied three points across two games in Belfast, and graduate winger Blake Biondi has a five-game point streak with nine points during that span.
Their contributions have also fueled a Notre Dame power play converting at a rate not seen in decades within the program. At a success rate of 28.0%, the Irish power play is off to its best 16-game start in the Jeff Jackson era. Notre Dame ranks seventh nationally and leads the Big Ten in power-play percentage heading into this weekend.
Generally speaking, Notre Dame has become a team that needs to score to win. The Irish have not won a game since scoring less than three goals since Game One of the Big Ten quarterfinals on March 3, 2023.
Catching up on the conference
With Notre Dame off last weekend, each of the remaining six Big Ten teams played a conference series, producing a few intriguing results. Ohio State swept Penn State in a Thursday-Friday set, moving the Nittany Lions to 0-8-0 within Big Ten action. Wisconsin gave No. 1 Michigan State a tough test in Madison, shutting out the Spartans on Friday before taking them to overtime in an MSU win on Saturday. With Sparty securing only two points, Minnesota became the nation’s new No. 1 with a dominant, two-shutout sweep of Michigan.
Still unbeaten in conference play, Minnesota leads Wisconsin by eight points for first place in the Big Ten with 23 points. The Golden Gophers will host the Spartans in a No. 1 against No. 3 matchup this weekend in Minneapolis. Meanwhile, the suddenly surging Wisconsin will travel to a snakebitten Michigan team, while Penn State takes the weekend off.
Breaking down the Buckeyes
The Buckeyes have been much better this season than last in year 12 under head coach Steve Rohlik. Ohio State ended up as the clear and obvious worst team in the Big Ten last year, going 3-18-2 in conference games with a 1-3-0 record against Notre Dame. However, the Buckeyes showed signs of life in March, upsetting No. 2 Wisconsin on the road in the Big Ten quarterfinals.
This season, Ohio State jumped out to an 8-0-1 start, capitalizing on a fairly weak non-conference schedule and sweeping Wisconsin in an early Big Ten series on Oct. 18-19. The Buckeyes have been all over the place since the start of November, though. They started the month by scoring 15 goals in a two-game sweep of Lake Superior but lost in sweeping fashion at Michigan State a week later. Ohio State then went to Lindenwood and swept before losing both games again at Princeton over Thanksgiving weekend. As previously mentioned, the Penn State series put the Buckeyes back on track a week ago.
Ohio State has significantly improved on both sides of the puck to start the season. Offensively, the Buckeyes have jumped from scoring 2.6 goals per game last season to 3.3 this year. Three newcomers have enhanced the Ohio State offense, with Alaska-Anchorage transfer forward Riley Thompson, Northeastern transfer forward Gunnarwolfe Fontaine and RIT transfer defenseman Aiden Hansen-Bukata checking in as the team’s top three scorers. The three entrants brought a combined six 20-point seasons with them to Columbus ahead of this season and have translated their success to the Big Ten, each producing at least 15 points in scarlet and gray. Sophomore Max Montes leads the Buckeyes with eight goals, one shy of his total from last year.
Defensively, Ohio State conceded 3.3 goals per game last year but now gives up only 2.1 on average. Rohlik has split goaltending duties between sophomore Kristoffer Eberly (7-1-0, 1.44 goals against average, .941 save percentage) and senior Logan Terness (4-3-1, 2.38 GAA, .912 SV%) for most of the year but gave Eberly an entire series for the first time last week. Notre Dame saw both netminders last season, giving Terness a difficult time in South Bend and putting five goals on Eberly in Columbus.
One Ohio State weakness Notre Dame must aim to exploit this weekend is special-teams play. The Buckeyes have been sound on the penalty kill, ranking 19th nationally, but their power play sits in the basement of the Big Ten and bottom 15 in college hockey with a success percentage of 15.5. Ohio State’s man-advantage unit has been better of late, scoring in six of the last seven games, but that’s more a byproduct of increasing opportunities than stronger play.
Notre Dame and Ohio State will drop the puck at Value City Arena at 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday, with the Big Ten Network airing the series finale.
