Oct. 13, 2017
By Joanne Norell
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – A spirited contest did not disappoint as a rematch between the No. 4/6 Notre Dame hockey team and No. 1 Denver ended in a 2-2 overtime tie in Friday’s series lid-lifter at the Compton Family Ice Arena (4,478).
The Irish and Pioneers battled to a tie as Notre Dame matched an opportunistic attack and excellent goaltending with Denver’s high-powered offense.
Freshman netminder Dylan St. Cyr stood out as the game’s No. 1 star, totalling 46 saves — including four critical stops on a late Denver power play.
Denver bested Notre Dame 48-29 in shots on goal. The Irish made theirs count, however, as Jake Evans and Andrew Oglevie each tallied their third goals of the season.
Also notching points for the Irish were Cam Morrison, Justin Wade, Bobby Nardella and Jordan Gross, each with assists.
Denver was led by a two-goal performance by Henrik Borgstrom. Goaltender Tanner Jaillet recorded 27 saves in the net for the Pioneers.
Though the game ended in an official tie following a scoreless overtime, the Irish and Pioneers participated in an exhibition best-of-three shootout in anticipation of Notre Dame’s Big Ten Conference debut. Each team went 1-for-3 to bring on sudden death, including an Oglevie goal and a St. Cyr save on Troy Terry, with the Pioneers ending it on their fourth shot.
COACH JACKSON’S TAKE
On preparing for Denver …
“We didn’t talk about (last April’s Frozen Four matchup), but I thought what happened at the end of last year wasn’t our team. We didn’t play with the level of intensity that we played with tonight. That was a positive for us to come out and just play at home. The other big part is matchups, too; you’ve got last change when you’re at home. We were able to do a good job of trying to control the game. They had a lot of shots, but until maybe the third period at times, I thought that Dylan didn’t have to make great saves. He had to make some late in the game, which is really important for a good goaltender. I thought we did a good job without the puck, but we could do a better job with it. That would be my big takeaway from tonight’s game.”
On St. Cyr’s performance…
“He plays the position very intelligently and it allows him to be more aggressive because he controls rebounds. If you can do that, it certainly makes a big difference. His puck-handling skills were a positive. He’s a confident kid and he plays that way. For a young guy like that to come into an environment playing against the top team in the country, he did everything in his power to help us win that game. I thought he played extremely well.”
On take steps forward early in the season…
“Our depth isn’t really where it needs to be right now but it is an opportunity for guys who might not have gotten in there tonight to get in there and I thought they did a good job. That really bodes well for the future because it’s going to make it harder for those other guys to get back in when they get healthy.”
NOTRE DAME GOAL DESCRIPTIONS
1-0 | Cam Morrison streaked into the offensive zone and got a shot off from the left dot for Jaillet to make the save, but Jake Evans got the rebound just outside the crease and flushed it home for the first goal of the night with 5:59 remaining in the first. Justin Wade was also credited with an assist.
2-2 | Notre Dame responded to Denver’s power play goal with one of its own at 16:11 of the third period when Andrew Oglevie drove a puck from between the circles with assists from Bobby Nardella and Jordan Gross.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Irish and Pioneers played 49:33 before the first penalty of the game, but special teams turned out to have a significant impact on the outcome.
After killing off their first penalty, the Irish were cited for too many men on the ice at 12:39 of the third, setting up Denver’s second goal at 14:38. The Pioneers found themselves a man down on an interference penalty at 14:59, however, and Notre Dame responded with Oglevie’s goal at 16:11.
The Irish finished 1-1 on the power play, while the Pioneers were 1-2.
NOTES
- After posting a 34-save shutout against Alabama Huntsville (Oct. 7), freshman Dylan St. Cyr stopped the first 10 Denver shots he faced meaning he saved the first 44 shots he faced in an Irish uniform.
- Jordan Gross, Andrew Oglevie, Jake Evans and Bobby Nardella have each tallied points in all three games this season. Evans leads the team with six points (3-3-6).
- The game was the first overtime tie for the Irish since a 3-3 tie against Providence on Feb. 18. 2017.
- Gross skated in the 122nd consecutive game of his Irish career (dating back to the first game of his freshman season). That streak ranks as the third-longest active streak in NCAA DI, trailing only Karson Kuhlman (Minnesota Duluth – 125) and Landon Smith (Quinnipiac – 123).
UP NEXT
The No 4/6 Irish and top-ranked Denver will close out their weekend series tomorrow at 6:05 p.m. at the Compton Family Ice Arena and game two will also be televised on NBCSN. To purchase tickets, click here.
— 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 men’s tennis, women’s tennis and fencing programs, in addition to overseeing production of the football Gameday Magazine. Norell is a 2011 graduate of Purdue University and earned her master’s degree from Georgetown University in 2013.