NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Irish hockey team kicks off its 2023 road slate with a pair of tilts at Wisconsin Jan. 6-7. Friday night’s puck drop is set for 8 p.m. ET on Bally Sports Wisconsin/BTN+ before a 6:30 p.m. ET start on the Big Ten Network Saturday night.
The Irish most recently split with Alaska, their final non-conference games of the regular season, which saw Ryan Bischel record his nation-leading fourth shutout of the season.
QUICK HITS
- Notre Dame is coming off a weekend split with Alaska to start the New Year. After dropping their final game of 2022, 3-2, the Irish bounced back Sunday with a 2-0 victory over the visiting Nanooks.
- Ryan Bischel picked up his fourth shutout of the season in Sunday night’s victory, stopping all 25 shots faced en route to the split. He is the only NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey DI netminder to record a shutout in 2023.
- Four individuals scored in the weekend series, including Hunter Strand, Chayse Primeau, Drew Bavaro and Trevor Janicke.
- The Irish closed out the first half of their season with an 8-8-2 record following a split with No. 5 Penn State at home to enter the holiday break.
- In game two of that series, Bischel stopped a career-high 47 saves as the Irish picked up a 5-3 win, and amassed 81 saves over the two game weekend.
- With 617 total saves this season, Bischel currently ranks third nationally in the category.
NOTRE DAME vs. WISCONSIN
- After seven meetings in 2021-22, the Irish and Badgers are quickly approaching the century mark, having met 87 times in program history. Notre Dame boasts 30 wins over Wisconsin in the all-time series, including a 5-2-0 record last season. All-time, the Badgers own the series record 48-30-9 and are 23-13-3 when the Irish come to town.
- In 2021-22, the two teams met twice in the regular season, with the Irish skating away with three victories in four games played. The two teams met again in the Big Ten quarterfinals with the Badgers taking game one at Compton Family Ice Arena before the Irish bounced back to claim the next two and advance to the conference semifinals.
- Two individuals boasted six points for the Irish in last season’s meetings with the Badgers as Trevor Janicke (4-2-6) and Ryder Rolston (1-5-6) combined to help lead their team to the series win last year.
- Now a senior, alternate captain Trevor Janicke played a huge factor in the Irish advancing in the postseason tournament as he recorded two late goals in the final two games to secure the wins. On night two of the best-of-three series, the Maple Grove, Minnesota, native broke the 2-2 tie with just 20 seconds remaining to force a decisive game three. It was there that he scored an empty net goal in the final minute of regulation to secure the 4-2 decision and keep Notre Dame’s season and NCAA Tournament hopes alive.
- Fellow senior Jesse Lansdell set up the eventual game-winning goal in that decisive contest, finding Jake Pivonka less than two minutes into the second period to give the Irish the 3-1 lead, a goal that would prove to be the game-winner later on.
- In his rookie year, Lansdell net his first career goal against the Badgers (Nov. 16, 2019). Ryan Bischel also boasts a career first against Wisconsin as the goaltender tallied his first assist at home against the Badgers (Jan. 24, 2020).
TEAM LEADERS
- With two goals against Penn State, Ryder Rolston’s six goals and eight assists leads the Irish with 14 points. He also boasts the most goals on the team while Nick Leivermann sits just behind with five (most among defensemen)
- Four individuals boast a team-high eight assists in Nick Leivermann, Trevor Janicke, Chayse Primeau and Ryder Rolston.
- With game-winning goals against Northern Michigan and Boston College, Jesse Lansdell leads the Irish with two. Jack Adams, who scored the eventual game-winner on night two with the Nittany Lions also boasts two on the season with his other coming in a 1-0 win at Ohio State.
- Three individuals boast multiple powerplay tallies, with Primeau, T. Janicke and Rolston all having a pair.
- Ryan Bischel recorded 47 saves on the weekend against Alaska, bringing his 2022-23 season total to 617 which ranks third nationally. With his fourth blanking of the season Sunday night against the Nanooks, the senior leads the nation in shutouts in 2022-23 and is the only NCAA DI netminder with a shutout in 2023.
- Always willing to jump in front of a shot, Jake Boltmann’s 39 blocks leads the team and is 11th nationally.