Notre Dame Hockey: Irish Take Down Badgers, Advance to B1G Semifinals

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish wrapped up their weekend and took the B1G quarterfinals 2-1 against the Wisconsin Badgers Saturday in South Bend. The clean Irish penalty kill and Notre Dame discipline showed up to earn a 4-2 win and a ticket to the conference semifinals.

First Period

Irish forward Jack Adams put the first point on the board about a minute and a half past the first period’s halfway point.

Soon after, a boarding penalty on Wisconsin’s Sam Stange set Notre Dame’s Landon Slaggert up to double the Irish score on the power play with his eleventh goal of the season. Barely half a minute after returning from the box, however, Stange found the back of the net for his team to bring it to 2-1, Irish. By the end of the first period of play, the Irish outshot the Badgers 10-5.

Second Period

The Irish wasted no time getting after it in the second. Notre Dame’s Jake Pivonka snagged his first goal of the season just less than two minutes into the period.

After some back and forth, Badger Daniel Laatsch responded as the clock ran down with his team’s second goal of the night to narrow the Irish lead.

Third Period

The Irish outshot the Badgers in the first two periods. However, Wisconsin surpassed Notre Dame’s six shots with nine of their own by the end of the third. A shot from Landon Slaggert nearly locked it in with just about five minutes to go, but only made it to the crossbar. Soon after, the Badgers pulled goaltender Jared Moe, only to leave room for Notre Dame’s Trevor Janicke to chalk up his team’s final goal with less than a minute remaining in the third for the second night in a row.

Game Summary

Scoring

Notre Dame: Jack Adams at 11:22 in the 1st with assists from Hunter Strand and Nick Leivermann

Notre Dame: Landon Slaggert at 14:14 in the 1st with assists from Graham Slaggert and Trevor Janicke

Wisconsin: Sam Stange at 16:01 in the 1st with assists from Liam Malmquist and Jack Gorniak

Notre Dame: Jake Pivonka at 01:55 in the 2nd with assists from Jesse Lansdell and Adam Karashik

Wisconsin: Daniel Laatsch at 15:22 in the 2nd with assists from Roman Ahcan and Dominick Mersch

Notre Dame: Trevor Janicke at 19:18.8 in the 3rd with an assist from Graham Slaggert

Penalties

Wisconsin: Sam Stange for boarding at 13:31 in the 1st

Wisconsin: Dominick Mersch for for tripping at 06:28 in the 2nd

Notre Dame: Nick Leivermann for 18:35 in the 2nd

Wisconsin: Jack Gorniak for cross-checking at 19:54.4 in the 2nd

Goalies

Notre Dame: Matthew Galajda, 24 saves

Wisconsin: Jared Moe, 29 saves

Moving Forward

The Irish will take on the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday, March 12 at 6:30 p.m. in Ann Arbor.

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