The swell of hope came crashing down to disappointment again this weekend for Notre Dame hockey. Swept on the road by No. 1 Michigan State, the Irish competed fiercely in a 4-2 loss Thursday, only to see their missed opportunities turn into an 8-2 thrashing on Friday at Munn Ice Arena.
Results aside, Notre Dame (6-22-4, 2-17-1 Big Ten) entered this series hoping to build off the momentum it found with a 1-0-1 weekend against Minnesota. In the lead-up to their showdown with the top-ranked Spartans (24-6-0, 15-5-0 Big Ten), the Irish consistently stated that their focus was on building towards the Big Ten Tournament in two weeks, which all Big Ten teams qualify for.
And after conceding the first goal of the game for the 25th time this season on Thursday night, Notre Dame seemed to make good on that aim. Once Spartan junior defenseman Maxim Štrbak walked down the slot and roofed the first chance of the game past Irish sophomore starting goaltender Nicholas Kempf, Notre Dame took over the play. The Irish responded just over two minutes later when freshman forward Dashel Oliver’s first career goal beat Spartan junior goaltender Trey Augustine.
The Spartans again took the lead early in the second period, and the Irish again answered within two minutes. After Michigan State senior forward Charlie Stramel potted his 19th goal of the season on the power play, Irish junior forward Cole Knuble scored on a man advantage of their own to underscore Notre Dame’s resilience against the nation’s top team. The Irish had plenty of hope in this contest.
But the series’ most pivotal moment had yet to come. That moment arrived at 12:59 of the middle frame, when Spartan senior forward Tiernan Shoudy took a pass from freshman Anthony Romani and went hard to the blue paint, bumping into Kempf. Kempf would leave the game and did not return for the rest of the series.
Yale graduate transfer Luke Pearson entered the game in goal for Notre Dame and saw Spartan senior Gavin O’Connell’s shot go off his glove and into the net for a power-play goal with 1:38 to play in the period. O’Connell’s marker would become the game-winning goal. Freshman forward Porter Martone notched an empty-netter in the third, and the game finished 4-2. Notre Dame never led.
The Irish did not lose because of Pearson’s play. With only one full game of experience this season, Pearson still stopped eight of nine shots against the nation’s best team, and the Irish did well to limit the number of chances he had to face. Instead, Notre Dame’s failure to finish on its offensive chances again came back to haunt them. They failed to strike while the iron was hot – especially on the power play, where the Irish went one-for-five – and the Spartans eventually took the game back over.
Those missed chances looked especially unrealized in light of Friday’s contest, when the Spartans did what they do best: put teams away. After another 1-1 first period, Michigan State scored four second-period goals and three third-period goals en route to an 8-2 beatdown. Martone led the onslaught, scoring a hat trick to reach the 20-goal mark as a freshman. Fellow first-year forward Ryker Lee added a pair, while fourth-liners Tommi Mannisto and Griffin Jurecki also scored. Sophomore defenseman Owen West’s power-play goal with 1:02 to play in the second period provided the nail in the coffin, making the score 5-2 before two periods were complete.
With Kempf out of the game again, Pearson did not look good on several Spartan goals. It is fair to wonder whether the Irish would have fared better in Friday’s contest with their regular starting netminder between the pipes, but Notre Dame also did not play as well in front of Pearson as it had the night before. He faced 42 shots, the fifth most given up by Notre Dame all year.
The series was marred by penalty trouble on both nights. Big Ten officials doled out 83 penalty minutes over the course of the series, almost all minor penalties. That includes an absurd 17 individual penalties and 63 penalty minutes on Friday night. Both teams are top-five nationally in penalty minutes per game.
Kempf – who has started every game this season that he has been available for – was listed as day-to-day on Friday, indicating some hope that he can return this weekend for Notre Dame’s final home series against Penn State. The Irish will host Senior Night festivities during Saturday’s contest, when they usually wear their green alternate jerseys.
