Playing without a lead for all 120 minutes, Notre Dame hockey lost both games at Penn State this weekend. The Irish (9-20-1, 3-16-1 Big Ten) dropped 5-3 and 3-2 contests, guaranteeing themselves the No. 7 seed for the Big Ten Tournament.
No. 18 Penn State, meanwhile, remained a team on a mission with its second consecutive sweep. The Nittany Lions, currently one of the first four teams out of the NCAA Tournament picture, are 9-2-3 in the new year after starting Big Ten play 0-8. The Nittany Lions (16-11-3, 7-10-3 Big Ten) passed Wisconsin for fifth place in the conference standings with their six-point series.
Friday: Notre Dame 3, Penn State 5
Penn State wasted little time putting the Irish on their heels in front of 6,606 at Pegula Ice Arena on Friday. The Nittany Lions sent waves of odd-man rushes in the direction of junior goaltender Owen Say, hitting the post twice in the first period.
Finally, with four minutes to play in the opening frame, Penn State sent numbers into the offensive zone and broke through. With a 50-50 puck available in neutral ice, junior defenseman Michael Mastrodomenico stepped up to pinch at the red line as Notre Dame’s last line of defense. However, the decision of Mastrodomenico, who played for the first time since Jan. 11, didn’t work out. Penn State chipped the puck around Mastrodomenico, cashing in a 3-on-0 with a one-timer goal by Reese Laubach.
The Nittany Lions would follow Laubach’s 14th goal of the season with another tally 41 seconds later. On a 2-on-2 zone entry, Simon Mack fluttered a deflected centering pass into the slot. There, junior defenseman Axel Kumlin unluckily lifted the stick of Matt DiMarsico right into the path of the puck. The chest-high redirection surprised Say, resulting in DiMarsico’s 10th goal of the year and a 2-0 Penn State lead.
Period one would end in frustration for the Irish, who went on the penalty kill in the final minute and conceded a third goal in controversial fashion. As Mack shot from the left point, Dane Dowiak attempted to screen Say but ran into him at the top of crease. As Say spun down the ice, Dowiak flagged down the Mack wrister, sliding the puck past the defenseless Irish netminder for his 7th tally of the season. The officials reviewed the play for potential goaltender interference but confirmed the call of a good goal, infuriating Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson.
The Irish refused to roll over at the sight of a three-goal deficit after 20 minutes, outshooting the Nittany Lions 23-22 across the final two periods. Five minutes into the second frame, an effective dump-in from graduate winger Grant Silianoff set up sophomore forward Carter Slaggert to walk in from the right dot. For his 4th goal of the season, all in the new year, he slipped the puck through the five-hole of Penn State netminder Arsenii Sergeev, bringing the Irish within a 3-1 deficit.
Notre Dame would keep the pressure on into the middle of the period, grabbing another goal at 8:41 of the second. Sophomore winger Brennan Ali entered the offensive zone from the right side, dash into the slot. The left-handed shooter then lasered a shot across his body and inside the right post, beating Sergeev glove-side for his 6th goal of the campaign.
The Irish eventually went on the power play with 16 seconds remaining in the period and a chance to tie the score. However, Penn State reversed the opportunity, scoring its Big Ten-high 8th shorthanded marker of the season to restore its two-goal lead. With a loose puck sitting between sophomore center Cole Knuble and sophomore defenseman Paul Fischer near the blue line, Dowiak chipped it around Fischer and went on a breakaway the other way. The left-handed shooter snapped his release past Say’s blocker side, making it 4-2 with 3.1 seconds to play.
Notre Dame again responded to Penn State’s late-period gutpunch to start the third, scoring on the same power play just 53 seconds in. A low-to-high centering feed from senior winger Justin Janicke hit the skate of a Nittany Lion defenseman, careening to an open space inside the right circle. Graduate winger Blake Biondi got to the free puck first, slapping it above the lunging Sergeev for his 11th tally of the season and team-leading 6th on the man advantage. The tally extended Fischer’s career-long point streak to five games.
The game evened out throughout the rest of the third period, with Say keeping the Irish in the game with several difficult stops. Jackson eventually got him to the bench for an extra attacker with 90 seconds to play, but the 6-on-5 sequence didn’t last long. Attempting to clear the puck off glass and out of his defensive zone, Penn State’s Cade Christenson banked a 180-footer all the way down the ice and into the empty net, bringing the game to its final score of 5-3.
Say finished with 32 saves on 36 shots faced while Sergeev, the reigning Big Ten First Star of the Week, stopped 24 of the 27 shots he saw.
Saturday: Notre Dame 2, Penn State 3
On night two, Jackson went back to Say to start both games of a Big Ten series for the first time since Nov. 8-9 at Michigan. The game opened similarly to Friday’s with no goals through the first 16 minutes, although Notre Dame carried play for the most part. Penn State once again struck first, scoring with 2:23 to play in the first period. It happened when graduate defenseman Zach Plucinski mishandled an airborne puck in the Irish slot, creating a Nittany Lion 2-on-1. National points per game leader Aiden Fink slid the puck over to the waiting Danny Dzhaniyev, who one-timed it home for his 10th goal of the year.
Notre Dame would go into the first intermission down a goal before receiving a golden opportunity to tie the game early in the second. Laubach was tabbed with a replay-confirmed 5-minute major and game misconduct for high-sticking senior forward Tyler Carpenter, putting the Irish on a long power play. They capitalized with 15:27 left in the period, as Biondi stuffed home a Knuble-induced rebound for his team-best 12th goal of the season. However, Sergeev’s work would help the Nittany Lions kill off the remaining three-plus minutes of the power play, keeping the contest level at 1-1.
As both teams racked up the shots, putting 15 apiece on goal in the second period, Penn State took the lead with 4:55 remaining until the final intermission. Nittany Lion extra skater Nicholas DeGraves tipped a long-range shot from Dzhaniyev for his 2nd goal of the year. Penn State would add another 6:37 into the third after sophomore center Danny Nelson was kicked out of the game for cross-checking. Just 28 seconds into the 5-minute power play, Fink wired a wrister into the top corner of the net, extending the home team’s advantage to 3-1 with his 22nd goal of the season.
Penn State’s 5-on-4 would spiral from there, as Notre Dame scored shorthanded less than three minutes after falling behind by two. During a 3-on-2 rush, Knuble slipped a pass through to the hash marks for Janicke, who roofed a shot for his 11th tally of the season — his second of the shorthanded variety. Knuble’s primary assist moved him to 30 points on the year with 9 goals and 21 helpers.
After Penn State’s long power play ended abruptly with a penalty, Notre Dame severely tested Penn State’s lead-holding abilities. The Irish put 16 shots on target in the third period, the most by either team in a single frame all weekend. However, Sergeev lived up to his first-star billing, upholding Penn State’s lead through the final horn. He finished the night with 36 saves on 38 shots against, while Say denied 25 of the 28 shots he faced.
Next weekend, the Irish will play their final road series of the regular season against Wisconsin. The Badgers have lost six consecutive games and will host both contests at 8:30 (7:30 CDT) at the Kohl Center.
