The calendar has turned to February, which means Notre Dame hockey’s final stretch of the season has arrived. After getting last weekend off on a bye, the Irish (9-16-1, 3-12-1 Big Ten) will start the beginning of the end this weekend by welcoming No. 9 Ohio State (16-8-2, 9-6-1 Big Ten) to Compton Family Ice Arena for games Friday and Saturday.
“Hopefully [the weekend off] gives us an opportunity to refocus and prepare for the stretch run,” Irish head coach Jeff Jackson said Wednesday. “We gave them a couple of days off — it’s about fatigue and recovering from injuries, getting healthy.”
Notre Dame finds themselves looking up from last place in the Big Ten conference. With just eight games remaining to climb out of the basement, the Irish are hoping their best shows up when it matters most.
It’s no secret that this season has been an inconsistent one. Notre Dame squandered four separate chances to turn their season around in January, including a split with Lindenwood before this most recent bye. The upcoming weekend represents a fifth, and potentially final, opportunity for the Irish to put their inconsistencies behind them.
“Consistency is such a critical thing,” Jackson said. “And a lot of that comes from maturity and guys understanding [that] we have to be prepared to play every minute of every game.”
Starting off on the right foot against the Buckeyes will be critical. The Irish have lost each of their last three series openers and have not won consecutive contests since rattling off three in a row to start the season back in October. Notre Dame has yet to earn points on both nights of a Big Ten series this season. To do so against top-10 Ohio State will present a major challenge. Even though the Buckeyes endured their most difficult month of the season in January, finishing 3-4-1, Ohio State has established themselves as a surprise national tournament contender.
Picked last in the Big Ten preseason coaches poll, the Buckeyes have seen a resurgence this year under the leadership of four key graduate students, two of whom are fifth-year transfers. Former Northeastern Husky Gunnarwolfe Fontaine leads the team in goals and points with 12 and 27, respectively, and former Rochester Institute of Technology Tiger Aiden Hansen-Bukata leads all defensemen in points. Fifth-year Buckeye forwards Patrick Guzzo and Joe Dunlap have provided an impact, too.
Ohio State’s greatest strength, though, may lie in goal. The tandem of sophomore Kristoffer Eberly and senior transfer Logan Terness has yielded stingy results for the Buckeyes. Eberly boasts a .917 save percentage and Terness a .914, but both have goals against averages below 2.5. Eberly started both games against Notre Dame when the two teams met in December, allowing only two goals. The Irish only managed 32 shots total between the two nights, though. In fact, Ohio State outshot Notre Dame 80-32 throughout that series, with both games ending in 2-1 Buckeye victories.
The rematch begins at 7 p.m. Friday night. Game two on Saturday will start at 6 p.m. Both games are available on Peacock or the Notre Dame Radio Network.
