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#11 Irish Fall To Clarkson 2-0 In Shillelagh Tournament Finale

Nov. 26, 2016

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By Joanne Norell

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The University of Notre Dame hockey team fell to Clarkson in the championship game of the 2016 Shillelagh Tournament, with the Golden Knights snaring a 2-0 victory over the 11th-ranked Irish on Saturday at the Compton Family Ice Arena (3,865).

Clarkson’s Devin Brosseau scored in the first period, while Sheldon Rempal added a goal in the second to round out scoring for the Golden Knights (8-5-3, 4-1-1 ECAC).

The Irish (7-5-2, 3-2-1 HEA) were shut out for just the second time this season, despite owning a 35-27 advantage on shots.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Clarkson provided the only goal of the first period, as Devin Brosseau gave the Golden Knights the early lead at 6:29 on his fourth goal of the season. Nico Strum chipped in his ninth assist of the season.

The second period saw the Irish kill three straight penalties, including 4:35 off a five-minute major penalty on Jake Evans that came at 7:02 of the period.

Clarkson added another goal, however, after concurring penalties made it 4-on-4 at 13:34 and Sheldon Rempal netted his fifth goal of the season at 15:22. Troy Josephs assisted on the play, his fifth helper of the year.

The Golden Knights killed seven penalties on the night, including a 5-on-3 chance for the Irish late in the third period.

Clarkson was 0-for-4 on the power play.

Irish captain Cal Petersen made 25 saves on 27 shots, while Clarkson’s Jake Kielly – who was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player – stopped all 35 shots that came his way.

It was the first meeting between the teams since the 1980-81 season when Notre Dame and Clarkson split a weekend series in upstate New York. The Golden Knights now own a 2-1-0 edge in the series.

COACH JACKSON’S THOUGHTS

On the momentum shift to Clarkson following Jake Evans’ penalty ââ’¬¦

“It did change the game. Usually those types of things do. I thought we were playing pretty well [despite] being down and I thought we were controlling the tempo of the game. We still have an issue of creating traffick situations at times where the goaltender sees it too much, but [Kielly] made some really good saves, too. But that did change the complexion of the game. It changes the lines; you lose your best faceoff guy, which is a huge factor after that because then we’re chasing all the time on faceoffs. It changes the power plays; it changes everything.”

On the chances that came on the 5-on-3 power play late in the third ââ’¬¦

“We got some chances on the 5-on-3, but you’ve still got to finish. Right now, that’s our biggest obstacle. We’re not shooting the puck enough; we’re playing too much on the perimeter; we’re not getting good body position in toward the net for rebounds. Early on, there were a lot of rebounds available that were just on the outside reaching in and we’ve got to have the courage to get inside those two defensemen who are underneath the point coverage. Right now, we’ve got one guy in there, but that’s it.”

UP NEXT

Notre Dame will go on the road to open the month of December with two games against UMass at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, next Friday and Saturday.

NOTRE DAME – CLARKSON NOTES

  • Junior goaltender Cal Petersen made his 64th-consecutive start in the Notre Dame net.
  • Jordan Gross skated in his 93rd-consecutive game, dating back to the first game of his freshman season.
  • Freshman defenseman Tory Dello and junior forward Anders Bjork were named to the All-Tournament team at the conclusion of Saturday’s championship game.
  • They were joined on the All-Tournament team by Yale’s Joe Snively (F), as well as by Clarkson’s Sheldon Rempal (F), Terrance Amorosa (D) and Jake Keilly (G).
  • Over two games, Keilly stopped 62 of the 64 shots he faced en route to being named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

— ND —


Joanne Norell, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2014 and coordinates communications efforts for the Notre Dame women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and fencing programs. Norell is a 2011 graduate of Purdue University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communication, and earned her master’s degree in sports industry management from Georgetown University in 2013.