Notre Dame hockey dropped to 0-12 in Big Ten conference play this weekend, swept 4-1 and 6-3 at No. 8 Penn State. Despite facing a banged up Nittany Lions team, especially Saturday night, the Irish could not put an end to a season-long nine-game winning streak.
In the first meeting of the season between the two sides on Friday night, Notre Dame’s lack of discipline hurt them. The Irish conceded three power-play goals and an empty net goal in the 4-1 finish.
Chances came early for both teams. Penn State thought they had taken an early lead on senior defenseman Jarod Crespo’s seeing eye point shot 7:42 into the contest, but the puck rang iron and skittered along the goal line. The goal judge turned the light on, but the puck stayed out. A minute later, Notre Dame junior forward Danny Nelson hit the post himself.
The Nittany Lions opened the scoring with their first power-play goal of the night a few minutes after that. With Irish junior forward Jayden Davis in the box for interference, Penn State junior forward Matt DiMarsico finished off some tic-tac-toe passing with a one-timer in the slot that beat Irish sophomore netminder Nicholas Kempf to the glove side.
DiMarsico added to his total in the second period. With his team now on an extended five-minute advantage after Notre Dame freshman forward Cole Brown was removed from the game for a head-contact penalty, DiMarsico banked a half-wall pass off Irish junior defender Henry Nelson to put Penn State up two. Notre Dame junior forward Evan Werner responded on a 4-on-3 power play 3:25 later, beating Penn State freshman goalie Joshua Fleming with a high slot snapshot.
Notre Dame did not escape the second period with the game separated by a goal. A late-period roughing penalty against Irish senior forward Sutter Muzzatti led to Penn State freshman forward Luke Misa’s power-play goal with just 2:25 remaining in the period. Misa wired a one-timer from the slot to put Penn State up 3-1 after two periods.
Kempf gave Notre Dame a chance throughout the contest, but never more than at the beginning of the third frame. The Washington Capitals prospect made perhaps the best save of his career, and certainly one of the best in college hockey this season, sliding side-to-side to deny Penn State junior forward Reese Laubach with the blocker. The save gave Notre Dame a fighting chance with 13:30 remaining in the contest, still down by two.
But the Irish could not find a way to make the game closer. DiMarsico scored into an empty Irish cage with 1:42, completing his third career hat trick and a 4-1 victory for Penn State.
Despite facing the top team in the country in shots per game, Notre Dame threw nearly as many pucks on net as Penn State. The shots finished 43-42 in favor of the Nittany Lions on Friday night.
On Saturday, the first career multi-goal outing for this year’s No. 1 NHL draft prospect, Penn State freshman forward Gavin McKenna, doomed the Irish. After collecting two assists on Friday night, McKenna scored once in the second and again in the third to give Penn State a 6-3 win, despite the Nittany Lions only dressing 17 skaters.
A hectic first period saw Penn State score twice on their first five shots at the beginning of the frame and Notre Dame answer with two goals in 15 seconds at its end. The opening goal came off the stick of sophomore forward JJ Wiebusch, who streaked in behind the defense and beat Kempf on the backhand just 17 seconds into the game. Then freshman defenseman Jackson Smith’s long point shot got behind Kempf without a screen, and Penn State had a 2-0 lead just 7:06 in.
But Notre Dame showed resilience with a stunning response in the period’s last two minutes. A net drive by sophomore defenseman Jimmy Jurcev opened up the lane for Muzzatti to find junior forward Brennan Ali in the slot, who stuck a one-timer past Nittany Lion sophomore starter Kevin Reidler with 1:36 remaining. The next shift, sophomore defenseman Jaedon Kerr forced a turnover at the offensive blue line, and Danny Nelson found junior forward Cole Knuble behind the defense to tie the game.
Notre Dame would be forced to respond again when Penn State took the lead back on McKenna’s first goal early in the second. McKenna finished off a backdoor feed from Smith to make the score 3-2 Nittany Lions. But Notre Dame did respond, again, this time with a shorthanded goal by Muzzatti to tie the score for a second time.
When Penn State finally took the lead for good, it again came down to special teams. With Muzzatti and senior defenseman Michael Mastrodomenico both in the box at the end of the second, DiMarsico scored again on the 5-on-3, joining a scrum of Nittany Lions outnumbering the Irish at the net front and pounding the puck past Kempf. It was only for McKenna to put the game out of reach midway through the third, cleaning up yet another rebound after Kempf’s momentum carried him out of the net on the initial save. Senior forward Dane Dowiak finished the scoring with an empty-netter.
Twin missed opportunities on special teams haunted Notre Dame in their sixth winless Big Ten weekend. In Friday’s contest, the Irish allowed Penn State to score almost as many power-play goals as they had in their previous 10 games combined. The Nittany Lions entered the game four for their last 29 on the man advantage and went three-for-six, scoring all of their goals on the power-play. On Saturday, Notre Dame was better on the penalty-kill. But they did not respond in kind on the man advantage, fumbling away seven power-play opportunities in what was mostly a one-score game. For a power-play that entered the weekend clicking along as one of the nation’s best at 28.3%, Notre Dame likely should have gotten more than a 1-for-12 weekend performance.
There’s no doubt Notre Dame faced adversity this weekend, facing a Nittany Lion team at the top of Big Ten without their top defenseman, junior Paul Fischer. But the 0-12 record in conference play is beginning to look historically ugly, and the Irish have some soul-searching to do. Notre Dame finishes the weekend tied for first nationally in penalty minutes per game and second-most nationally in goals against per game.
The picture in the mirror may become clearer over the course of the next month. After playing 15 of their 22 games up until this point against top-15 teams, the Irish will play their next four, and six of their next eight games, against opponents Ohio State (7-12-1, 3-7-0 Big Ten, Bowling Green (12-6-4, 9-4-3 CCHA) and Minnesota (8-14-1, 4-8-0 Big Ten). One way or another, February will begin on a hopeful note, or with some very difficult truths revealed.