Notre Dame Hockey: Irish Close Out Penn State Series With 5-4 OT Win

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish locked in the sweep Saturday in Nittany Lion country. Following Friday’s 4-2 W at Penn State, the Irish powered past an early 3-1 deficit to win it in overtime.

First Period

Irish forward Solag Bakich wasted no time getting after it and got Notre Dame on the board a little under two minutes into the game. A hooking penalty on Notre Dame’s Zach Plucinski about six minutes in wasn’t enough to snap the Irish momentum, but as the period started to reach its halfway point, Nittany Lion Kevin Wall tied it up with Penn State’s first goal of the game. A goal from Penn State’s Jimmy Dowd, Jr. just about five minutes later brought the score to 2-1, Nittany Lions.

As the period neared its end, a five-minute major and a game misconduct on Notre Dame’s Jesse Lansdell for contact to the head provided the penultimate power-play opportunity of the whole game for either team, but the score remained heading into the second. By the end of the first period, the Nittany Lions had just barely outshot the Irish 19-18 and each team had won 10 faceoffs.

Second Period

As the clock ran down on the Irish penalty, Dowd, Jr. found the back of the net for the Nittany Lions not even two minutes into the second for the only power-play goal of the game.

The Irish turned on the jets in the last half of the period. Jack Adams nabbed a second goal for the Irish and Nick Leivermann scored soon after giving Adams an assist. However, it was the Nittany Lions who had the last word as the third period approached. Penn State defenseman Clayton Phillips scored with less than two minutes left to go in the period to bring it to 4-3, Nittany Lions.

Third Period

The teams went through nearly 18 minutes of back and forth until Notre Dame’s Cam Burke scored to tie it up 4-4. This time around, the Irish more than doubled the Nittany Lions’ 12 shots with 27 in the period.

OT

With just 0.2 seconds left in overtime, Notre Dame’s Max Ellis snagged his team’s fifth goal of the night to win it on Penn State ice.

Game Summary

Scoring

Notre Dame: Solag Bakich at 01:35 in the 1st with assists from Adam Karashik and Cam Burke

Penn State: Kevin Wall at 08:16 in the 1st with assists from Ben Copeland and Christian Berger

Penn State: Jimmy Dowd, Jr. at 13:41 in the 1st with assists from Tyler Paquette and Chase McLane

Penn State: Jimmy Dowd, Jr. at 01:30 in the 2nd with an assist from Ben Schoen

Notre Dame: Jack Adams at at 11:54 in the 2nd with assists from Justin Janicke and Nick Leivermann

Notre Dame: Nick Leivermann at 16:05 in the 2nd, unassisted

Penn State: Clayton Phillips at 18:20 in the 2nd with assists from Ben Copeland and Kevin Wall

Notre Dame: Cam Burke 17:47 in the 3rd with assists from Landon Slaggert and Nick Leivermann

Notre Dame: Max Ellis at 05:00 in OT with assists from Spencer Stastney and Jake Pivonka

Penalties

Notre Dame: Zach Plucinski for hooking at 5:53 in the 1st

Notre Dame: Jesse Lansdell for contact to the head at 17:43 in the 1st, game misconduct

Notre Dame: Ryan Helliwell for roughing at 09:29 in the 2nd

Goalies

Notre Dame: Matthew Galajda, 35 saves

Penn State: Oskar Autio, 34 saves

Moving Forward

The Irish will take on the Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus on Friday, January 14 at 7:00.

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