Notre Dame Hockey: Clarkson Series Preview

Now that the calendar has turned to October it is officially time for Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey season and the Irish open it up this weekend with a series against the Clarkson Golden Knights. Notre Dame enters the season ranked #19/20 and will be looking to start the season off strong against a non-conference opponent.

Where, When, How to Watch

• Where: Compton Family Ice Arena, Notre Dame, IN
• When: Saturday October 7, 6pm ET; Sunday October 8, 5pm ET
• How to Watch: Both games will be streaming on Peacock

Notre Dame finished last season below expectations, finishing the season with a 16-16-5 record, losing in the Big Ten Tournament and failing to make the NCAA Tournament. The Irish have 17 players with game experience returning this season, including a strong leadership core. Among the returning team members are new Captain Landon Slaggert and Alternate Captains Ryan Bischel, Trevor Janicke, and Jake Boltmann.

Slaggert struggled last year for Notre Dame, scoring only 13 points in 35 games. His experience in previous Irish seasons and with Team USA though is a depth of experience that few on this roster can match. Throw in the Captain’s ‘C’ and Slaggert becomes one of the most important players to the Irish this season. Returning in goal is Ryan Bischel, the reigning Big Ten Conference Goaltender of the Year. Bischel spent his first few seasons at Notre Dame on the bench or splitting duty, but he took hold of the starter’s role last season and became the next in a long line of award winning Irish goaltenders. In his fifth season he is poised to take another step forward and add more trophies to his cabinet. Trevor Janicke and Jake Boltmann round out the captains. Janicke is in his fifth year and his second season wearing an ‘A’ while Boltmann joins the captains group for the first time in his fourth season with the team.

Notre Dame and Clarkson have a limited history, meeting only four times. They’ve split those four games evenly with a 2-2 record. That last time these two teams met was a close game, ending in a 3-2 overtime win for Notre Dame in the 2019 NCAA Tournament. The last time Clarkson made the trip to South Bend though they left with a 2-0 win. With two games this weekend one team has a chance to take control of the all time series.

Prediction

It’s been a long offseason for Notre Dame and they’ll be looking to start the season strong before getting into the meat of their schedule. The fact that this is a home series for the Irish gives them an advantage that they’ll be looking to exploit. Notre Dame has a chance to hit the ground running with two wins this weekend, which would go a long way towards building on last season. Unfortunately Notre Dame had a habit of splitting series last season and they’ll need to reverse that trend early, hopefully starting this weekend.