Notre Dame Hockey Loses Opener to Penn State 5-2

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team and the Penn State Nittany Lions played for the first time this season last night, with the #19 ranked Irish welcoming the #5 Nittany Lions to south Bend for a conference matchup. It was a close affair for most of the game, with the teams trading leads until Penn State pulled ahead for good at the very end.

Game Summary (Notre Dame 2 - Penn State 5)

First Period

Penn State came out of the gate firing, putting 18 shots on goal in the first period. Despite the push from their opponent though it was Notre Dame who scored first more than halfway through the opening period.

Jesse Lansdell picked up a loose puck in the corner, emerging from a mini scrum with control. He made his way to the front of the net mostly uncontested and found an open lane to roof a backhand shot into the net from the top of the crease.

Eventually though the Penn State offense was rewarded for their pressure, twice. The Nittany Lions managed to score two goals at the end of the period within 1:15 of each other and took a 2-0 lead into the break.

Second Period

After the first period, the second was relatively quiet. Shots were down and there were no goals until Notre Dame tied it up late on the power play. The Irish controlled possession with the man advantage and cycled the puck at the top of the zone. Eventually it found its way to Ryder Rolston at the point with room in front of him. He skated to the top of the faceoff circle being letting a wrist shot go that found the back of the net to tie the game.

The goal was a big one for Notre Dame. It came on the power play, an area where they’ve struggled all year, but it was also the fifth goal of the season for Ryder Rolston, tying him for the team lead with Nick Leivermann. It was Rolston’s first goal in the last 11 games though and getting him going could be huge for the Irish offense.

Third Period

The third period started much like the second period went. Both teams traded chances and the goaltenders took turns making big saves, but no goals would come and we looked destined for overtime. That changed with under eight minutes to go though when Penn State found the leading goal, capitalizing on their continued pressure. They added two more goals late in the period with an empty net to make the final score look a lot more lopsided than the game actually was.

Scoring

Notre Dame: Jesse Lansdell (3) at 13:28 in the 1st with assists from Trevor Janicke and Jake Boltmann

Penn State: Connor McMenamin (4) at 17:30 in the 1st with an assist from Ture Linden

Penn State: Paul DeNaples (2) at 18:44 in the 1st with assists from Tyler Paquette and Christian Berger

Notre Dame: Ryder Rolston (5) on the power play at 18:08 in the 2nd with assists from Nick Leivermann and Chase Blackmun

Penn State: Connor MacEachern (7) at 12:14 in the 3rd with assists from Kevin Wall and connor Mcmenamin

Penn State: Dylan Gratton (2) in the empty net at 17:50 in the 3rd with assists from Ryan Kirwan and Xander Lamppa

Penn State: Paul DeNaples (3) in the empty net at 18:29 in the 3rd unassisted

Penalties

Notre Dame: Landon Slaggert, 2 for tripping at 8:38 in the 2nd

Penn State: Jimmy Dowd Jr, 2 for interference at 17:54 in the 2nd

Notre Dame: Chase Blackmun, 2 for interference at 0:44 in the 3rd

Notre Dame: Justin Janicke, 2 for roughing at 19:43 in the 3rd

Goalies

Notre Dame: Ryan Bischel made 34 saves against 37 shots in the loss

Penn State: Liam Souliere saved 29 of 31 shots for the win

Up Next

These two teams meet again tonight to close out their series as well as the first half of the season.