Notre Dame Hockey: Irish Win a Thriller in Hockey Valley

After a season in which they suffered a huge upset then responded with a 5-0 thrashing of the Niagara Purple Eagles, the no. 16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish headed to the Keystone State on Friday to take on the no. 20 Penn State Nittany Lions. The game was the first Big Ten matchup of 2022 for both schools.

First Period

The first man advantage of the evening went to the Nittany Lions when Zach Plucinski was called for tripping. Penn State came into the contest scoreless in its last ten power-play attempts, and the trend continued as Ryan Bischel made three saves to keep the game scoreless. Despite some great scoring chances, the Irish also failed to get on the board.

Second Period

Max Ellis got the scoring started just 37 seconds into the period, thanks to an assist from Jake Pivonka. After a kneeing call put them on the power-play, the Irish doubled their lead when Grant Silianoff buried another another back door goal.

An Adam Pilewicz slapshot from the point cut the Notre Dame lead to 1, Just a few minutes after the Irish killed off a penalty that was a result of a tripping call on Solag Bakich, the Nittany Lions tied the contest with a top-shelf goal from Tyler Paquette with less than a minute to go in the period.

Third Period

Landon Slaggert broke with tie with 6 minutes left in the final period. However, it appeared the puck may have hit the net out of play. After a review by the officials, it was deemed a good goal. Ellis then book-ended the Notre Dame scoring with his second of the night, on an empty-netter. The goal was his Big Ten-leading 13th of the season.

Game Summary

Scoring

Notre Dame: Max Ellis at 00:37 in the 2nd, assisted by Jake Pivonka and Jesse Landsdell

Notre Dame: Grant Silianoff (PPG) at 03:01 in the 2nd, assisted by Jesse Landsdell and Spencer Stastney

Penn State: Adam Pilewicz at 04:23 in the 2nd, assisted by Connor MacEachern and Connor McMenamin

Penn State: Tyler Paquette at 19:20 in the 2nd

Notre Dame: Landon Slaggert at 13:02 in the 3rd, assisted by Adam Karashik and Jake Boltmann

Notre Dame: Max Ellis (ENG) at 18:09 in the 3rd

Penalties

Notre Dame: Zach Plucinski for tripping at 10:50 in the 1st

Penn State: Carson Dyck for kneeing at 02:19 in the 2nd

Notre Dame: Solag Bakich for tripping at 15:21 in the 2nd

Penn State: Tyler Gratton for slashing at 04:40 in the 3rd

Notre Dame: Landon Slaggert for hooking at 19:17 in the 3rd

Penn State: Chase McLane for slashing at 19:24 in the 3rd

Goalies

Notre Dame: Ryan Bischel, 38 saves

Penn State: Oskar Autio, 30 saves

Moving Forward

The Irish will conclude their series with Penn State on Saturday, January 8, at 5:00 PM ET. The game can be streamed on Big Ten Network Plus.