Notre Dame Hockey: Irish Shut Out Buckeyes 3-0 for Sweep

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish ended their series against the Ohio State Buckeyes Saturday in South Bend with a 3-0 shutout. Level-headed Irish offense and confident young talent fueled the Irish to victory. This win followed Notre Dame’s 4-1 victory against the Buckeyes on Friday.

Game Summary (Irish 3, Buckeyes 0)

First Period

An interference call on Ohio State’s Cam Thiesing left room for the Irish to set the tone early. The Irish got things going with collected, cohesive offense; fans saw only one stoppage of play in the first five minutes. Another interference call for the Buckeyes followed just about four minutes after the first. The Buckeyes killed off their second penalty of the night, even as Ohio State’s Mason Klee and Patrick Guzzo lost their sticks in the action. Irish scoring opportunities followed in shots from Patrick Moynihan and Cole Knuble, but the two teams remained scoreless. Ohio State forward Stephen Halliday fired an explosive shot in front of the net which Irish netminder Ryan Bischel quickly denied. A holding penalty on Notre Dame’s Paul Fischer gave the Buckeyes their sole power play opportunity. With the two teams back to even strength and just two seconds left on the clock, Moynihan found the back of the net to bring it to 1-0, Irish, and score his first Irish goal.

Second Period

Riding high on his first-period success, Moynihan notched another goal to double his team’s score soon after the period reached its halfway point. The Buckeyes narrowly outshot the Irish 13-10 by the end of the second period.

Third Period

The two teams matched with nine shots each by the end of the third. After some initial back and forth, Bischel trapped a shot from Ohio State forward Matt Cassidy with the right pad and denied a major scoring opportunity for the visitors.

Buckeyes pulled goalie Logan Terness with nearly three minutes to go in the third period. Knuble wasted no time and topped it off with the empty netter for the third Irish goal of the night and the first of his college career. Knuble had notched an assist, his first Irish point, on Moynihan’s first goal of the night.

Scoring

Notre Dame: Patrick Moynihan at 00:02 in the 1st with assists from Cole Knuble and Landon Slaggert

Notre Dame: Patrick Moynihan at 09:53 in the 2nd with assists from Landon Slaggert and Danny Nelson

Notre Dame: Cole Knuble at 03:12 in the 3rd with an assist from Landon Slaggert

Penalties

Ohio State: Cam Thiesing for interference at 19:38 in the 1st

Ohio State: Theo Wallberg at 15:19 in the 1st

Notre Dame: Paul Fischer for holding at 02:19 in the 1st

Notre Dame: Paul Fischer for broken stick at 13:45 in the 2nd

Notre Dame: Jake Boltmann for holding at 08:30 in the 2nd

Ohio State: Michael Gildon for tripping at 01:15 in the 2nd

Notre Dame: Tyler Carpenter for holding the stick at 10:25 in the 3rd

Goalies

Notre Dame: Ryan Bischel, 27 saves

Ohio State: Logan Terness, 28 saves

Moving Forward

The Irish will take on the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers at 8 p.m. on Friday, November 17 in Minneapolis.

Follow me on Twitter.