Irish Hockey came up just short in both meetings at Penn State this past weekend, extending their losing streak to four.
Photo via Notre Dame Athletics
Friday: 3-5 Loss
The story of the first period was six penalties called, including four on the Irish in what was a testy twenty minutes. Despite struggling to generate any offense, Notre Dame played well until the last four minutes of the frame. With 3:59 remaining, the Nittany Lions scored two goals in 41 seconds. They then added a power play goal with 10 seconds left in the period following a roughing penalty on Brennan Ali to extend their lead to three. While being on the penalty kill for nearly half the period, the Irish offense notched just four shots on goal in the frame.
Notre Dame found their offense in the second period when Carter Slaggert found the back of the net just over five minutes into the frame. Hunter Strand and Grant Silianoff, who was playing in his 150th game with the Irish, were credited with assists.
Under four minutes later, Ali beat the Nittany Lions’ goalie to cut the Irish deficit to 2-3. Jimmy Jurcev and Ian Murphy earned assists on the confidence-boosting goal nearly midway through the period.
With just three seconds remaining in the second period, the Irish gave up a shorthanded goal to Penn State’s Dane Dowiak, his second score of the game, to extend the Nittany Lions lead to 4-2 entering the final frame.
The Irish answered right away in the third period when Blake Biondi netted a power play goal under a minute into the frame. Biondi’s 11th goal of the season made it a 3-4 game, and Justin Janicke and Paul Fischer were credited with assists.
Unfortunately, Penn State owned the remainder of the period as they outshot the Irish 10-9 and added an empty-netter with 1:08 left to secure the Nittany Lions 5-3 victory.
Irish Star(s):
Owen Say: 4 goals against, 32 saves
Key Stats:
Shots: PSU (37) - ND (27)
Power Play Success: ND (1-4) - PSU (1-5)
Penalty Minutes: ND (10) - PSU (8)
Faceoffs Won: PSU (33) - ND (26)
Blocked Shots: PSU (12) - ND (9)
Saturday: 2-3 Loss
Notre Dame failed to take advantage of a mistake-driven Nittany Lions squad in the first period. Penn State tallied just five shots in the frame; however, with 2:23 to play, Danny Dzhaniyev put the home squad on top 1-0 as he got one past Say. The Irish managed just seven shots in the period and failed to capitalize on two power play opportunities (the latter penalty continued into the second period).
The Irish flipped the script in the second period as Biondi added his second power play goal of the weekend following a game misconduct called against Penn St. This game-tying goal was assisted by Cole Knuble and Danny Nelson.
Penn State responded with 4:55 remaining in the period as they claimed a 2-1 advantage following Nicholas DeGraves’ goal.
In the final period, Nelson matched Penn State’s game misconduct about six minutes into the frame when he was tossed for an illegal cross check. The Nittany Lions made the Irish pay for this as they netted one past Say less than 30 seconds after the penalty to extend their lead to 3-1.
With the Irish still shorthanded following Nelson’s major penalty, Janicke gave the visitors some life when he finished a nice pass from Knuble to cut their deficit to one with about ten minutes left in the contest. Along with Knuble, Michael Mastrodomenico was awarded an assist on Janicke’s second score of the year.
Notre Dame failed to find another game-tying goal in the last ten minutes despite outshooting the Nittany Lions 16-8 in the period.
Irish Star(s):
Cole Knuble: 2 assists, 3 shots, +1
Key Stats:
Shots: ND (38) - PSU (28)
Power Play Success: PSU (1-3) - ND (1-4)
Penalty Minutes: PSU (21) - ND (19)
Faceoffs Won: PSU (38) - ND (22)
Blocked Shots: PSU (14) - ND (9)
The Irish travel to Madison next weekend for a series with the Wisconsin Badgers.
Click to Join! - https://www.facebook.com/groups/legionoftheleprechaun
Comments