COLUMBUS, Ohio — A day after scoring six goals, the Notre Dame offense erupted for eight more tallies on Saturday afternoon to post an 8-1 win over Ohio State and complete the Big Ten weekend sweep at Value City Arena.
“It was a great weekend for us, coming off two straight road trips and having success in all aspects of our game is rewards,” head coach Jeff Jackson said. “Last night was more about our penalty kill even though we did score a power-play goal, and tonight it was about our power play. So that’s very positive moving into the final stretch of the season.”
The Fighting Irish power play was 4-for-6 in the game, including a pair of power-play goals by junior defenseman Nick Leivermann.
Senior Pierce Crawford and junior Cam Burke each had a goal and two assists, while Alex Steeves totaled three assists for his fifth consecutive game with a point. Steeves collected a total of seven points (G, 6A) in the pair of weekend victories.
Dylan St. Cyr made 24 saves in 55 minutes of work before giving way to senior Nick Sanford, who made his first career appearance and stopped the only shot on goal he faced.
“He exemplifies what our program is all about, works hard every day,” Jackson added about Sanford. “He keeps a great attitude and is one of the guys’ favorites on the team and i was just glad to get him in there.”
How It Happened
The Fighting Irish built a 3-0 lead in the first period by scoring three times on a five-minute power play chance after Ohio State took a major penalty.
Colin Theisen’s fifth goal of the season, scored at 15:03 of the first, got things started. Landon Slaggert took a pass from his brother, Graham, at the near post and one-touched it in the low slot for Theisen, who beat Snowden high to the glove side.
Stastney then made it 2-0, netting his third goal in as many games at 18:21 of the first on a quick one-timer from the point, with the assists going to Trevor Janicke and Jesse Lansdell.
Just 29 seconds later, Nick Leivermann buried his fourth of the year, also on the same power play, with a wrist shot from the faceoff dot that beat Snowden high to the blocker side. Thesien made the cross-ice pass to create the chance, with Alex Steeves also assisting on the play.
Two goals in a 15 second span by Cam Burke’s line extended the Irish lead to 5-0 midway through the second period. Burke got the first one, at 9:42, on a wrist shot from the slot, finishing off a feed from Pierce Crawford with Ryder Rolston also earning an assist on the play.
Then it was Burke who set Crawford up in the low slot, who calmly finished on the backhand to chase Snowden from the Buckeye goal. Rolston had the second assist on that goal as well.
For Crawford and Burke it marked their first points of the season and for Crawford, Burke and Rolston it marked their first career multi-point games.
Leivermann scored his second of the game, also on the power play, at 1:41 of the third with a wrist shot from the slot. Alex Steeves and Graham Slaggert had the helpers on Leivermann’s fifth of the season.
At 4:04 of the third Kamil Sadlocha got the Buckeyes on the board, moving it to a 7-1 game.
Solag Bakich finished the scoring for the Irish just past the halfway point of the third period. Bakich one timed a centering pass from Crawford in the slot for his third of the season.
Nick Sanford entered in relief of St. Cyr with less than five minutes to play in what marked the first game action in an Irish uniform for the senior from Morristown, New Jersey.
Notes
- The Fighting Irish improved to 7-1-0 on the road this season.
- It marked the first time Notre Dame scored at least six goals in back-to-back games since Oct. 24-25, 2014 when it swept Niagara by scores of 6-3 and 7-0.
- The eight goals were the most by an Irish team since posting an 8-2 win at Omaha on Oct. 20, 2018.
- Senior Matt Hellickson skated in his 137th-consecutive game, dating back to the first game of his freshman season.
- Senior goaltender Nick Sanford came on for the final 4:26 and stopped the only shot he faced in his first career appearance.
- It marked Notre Dame’s first game with multiple power-play goals this season and the first game with three power-play goals since a 5-2 win over Wisconsin on Jan. 25, 2020 (3-for-7).
- With a goal and an assist, Colin Theisen posted his second multi-point game of the season and the 12th of his career.
- With a goal and two assists, Cam Burke posted his first career multi-point game.
- With a goal and two assists, Pierce Crawford posted his first career multi-point game.
- Burke and Crawfrod became the 17th and 18th players to score for the Irish this season.
- With two assists, Ryder Rolston posted his first career multi-point game.
- Notre Dame’s penalty kill improved to 17-for-17 on the road this season.
- With three assists, Alex Steeves has now recorded at least one point in 15 of Notre Dame’s 20 games and he has a five-game point streak (4-6-10).
- It marked Alex Steeves’ third multi-point game of the season and the 10th of his career.
- With a goal and two assists, Graham Slaggert now has a five-game point streak (1-7-8).
- It marked Slaggert’s fourth multi-point game of the season and the fifth of his career.
- With two assists, Landon Slaggert posted his fourth multi-point game of the season/his career and extended his point streak to three games (1-4-5).
- With two goals, Nick Leivermann posted his third multi-point game of the season and the fifth of his career.
- Spencer Stastney has a three-game goal-scoring streak (3-1-4).
Next Up
- Notre Dame returns home next weekend to play host to second-ranked Minnesota on Friday, Feb. 12 (7:30 p.m.) and Saturday, Feb. 13 (5:30 p.m.).
- Friday’s game will be televised on NBCSN, while Saturday’s game will be on several of NBC’s Regional Sports Networks (check local listings).
- Both games will be streamed via the NBC Sports platforms, including the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com.
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