Nov. 17, 2017
By Dan Colleran
TROY, N.Y. — Four different players scored for the Fighting Irish and Cale Morris stopped 38 of the 39 shots he faced to lead fourth-ranked Notre Dame to a 4-1 win at RPI on Friday night at the Houston Field House (2,866).
The win was Notre Dame’s sixth in a row, its first six-game winning streak since February 15 – March 14, 2014.
Jake Evans and Cal Burke scored 47 seconds apart midway through the first period to stake Notre Dame (9-3-1, 4-0-0-0 B1G) to a 2-0 lead. Bobby Nardella made it a 3-0 game with a power-play goal midway through the third and then Jordan Gross added an empty net goal with 53 seconds remaining to seal the win.
Evans finished with a goal and an assist, while Andrew Oglevie had a pair of assists.
Morris helped backbone the Irish penalty kill unit to a perfect 8-for-8 showing on the night as 16 of RPI’s 39 shots on goal came on the power play. Morris also earned his first career assist on Gross’ empty net goal.
In the RPI (2-6-3, 1-4-1 ECAC) goal, Linden Marshall finished with 27 saves.
COACH JACKSON’S THOUGHTS
On the game…
“There was just too much special teams and too many penalties. There were some bad decisions by guys on both teams. Our goalie was one of the differences tonight though and that was part of our success on the penalty kill. He controlled rebounds.”
NOTRE DAME GOAL DESCRIPTIONS
1-0 | Jake Evans cleaned up a rebound behind RPI goaltender Linden Marshall following a Matt Hellickson blast from the point to give the Irish a 1-0 at 10:49 of the first period. Colin Theisen made a nice play along the far boards and got the puck to Hellickson to also earn an assist on the play.
2-0 | Andrew Oglevie got a puck out to the tops of the circles where Cal Burke fired a shot high past Marshall’s blocker for a 2-0 lead at 11:36 of the first.
3-0 | Bobby Nardella picked up a deflected Andrew Oglevie shot and beat Marshall at the near post for his fourth goal of the year at 12:05 of the third. Evans also assisted on the goal for his 16th helper of the season.
4-1 | With RPI’s goaltender pulled and the Engineers skating on the power play, Cale Morris stopped a dump in and slid the puck to Jordan Gross, who then fired a shot from deep in his defensive zone that took one bounce and found the back of the RPI goal with 53 seconds left in the third.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Irish went 1-for-4 on the power play, but also held RPI to an 0-for-8 mark on the power play.
NOTES
- Jordan Gross skated in the 132nd consecutive game of his Irish career (dating back to the first game of his freshman season).
- The Irish are now 8-1-1 on the season when scoring first.
- Notre Dame also improved to 3-1-0 when leading after one period of play and to 7-1-0 when leading after two periods of play.
- With a goal and an assist, Jake Evans posted his seventh multi-point game of the season and the 28th of his Irish career.
- With two assists, Andrew Oglevie posted his fourth multi-point game of the season and the 13th of his Irish career.
- Cale Morris recorded his first career point with an assist on Jordan Gross‘ empty net goal.
- Morris saw his shutout minutes streak end at 118:30, dating back to game one of last weekend’s Penn State series.
UP NEXT
The Fighting Irish close out their weekend series against the Engineers tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. (Nov. 18).
— ND —
Dan Colleran, associate athletics communications director at the University of Notre Dame, has been a part of Fighting Irish Media since August 2015 and coordinates all media and publicity efforts surrounding the Notre Dame hockey and golf programs. A native of Walpole, Massachusetts, Colleran spent the previous three years working with the men’s hockey and soccer programs at Providence College. Colleran also spent two years as an Assistant Executive Director of Communications & Championships at the Ivy League and is a graduate of Providence College (’06 & ’08G).