Feb. 10, 2018
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By Dan Colleran
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — One night after claiming the regular season Big Ten title, the top-ranked Notre Dame hockey team was stymied by sixth-ranked Ohio State in a 5-1 setback on Saturday night at Compton Family Ice Arena.
The Irish (22-6-2, 16-3-1-1 B1G) generated 40 shots, but Ohio State’s Sean Romeo responded with 39 saves to help the Buckeyes (19-7-4, 12-7-1-0 B1G) to victory. It snapped an eight-game, home-ice winning streak by the Irish. Cam Morrison scored the Irish goal on the power play, while Cale Morris made 27 saves.
Matthew Weis opened the scoring for Ohio State with his 10th goal of the season midway through the first. The Buckeyes extended the lead midway through the second period when Matt Joyaux found the back of the net.
Notre Dame had an offensive blitz in the second period, taking 23 shots with Romeo saving 22 of them. Morrison finally broke through on a power play goal with 2:25 left in the second period to cut the Ohio State lead to 2-1.
In the third, the Buckeyes got goals from Kevin Miller and Sam McCormick within 63 seconds to take a 4-1 lead and Brendon Kearney’s empty-net goal with 3:39 to play provided the final margin.
Each team took five penalties, with the Irish going 1-for-5 on the power play while Ohio State was 0-for-5.
NOTRE DAME GOALS
1-2 | Notre Dame cut the Ohio State lead in half late in the second period, as Cam Morrison scored his fifth of the year on a deflection in front of the net on a shot from Andrew Oglevie at the point.
COACH JACKSON QUOTES
On staying focused…
“I addressed it last night, but addressed it more this morning. It’s really up to them to determine how they want to finish off their regular season. We’re playing for more than what we won last night. There’s more out there and I don’t want to go into the playoff sloppy. We’re also playing for NCAA seeding. That will take a hit tonight because the teams we’re competing with at the top of the NCAA, they’re not losing games. Every team we’ve played going through the (regular season a) second time, it’s hard to beat a team four times in a row. It’s hard to beat a team twice in a row. We have to recognize that we took three-of-four from the number six team in the country. We have to make sure that we’re working to get better though. We’re going to play one of these teams again in the second round of the (Big Ten) playoffs and if we’re not ready for it, we’ll be done early.”
On Cale Morris’ game…
“(Cale) has been an ace and all season long he’s been our rock. He’s the guy that’s made the difference in so many games. If you play sloppy like that, you can’t rely on your goaltender on two-on-ones and breakaways all the time. You’re putting him in high-risk situations. I didn’t put that on Cale. The way we were playing, I didn’t want to (keep him in). I’d been looking for an opportunity to get Dylan St. Cyr into the net. So when they scored that last goal (I made the switch). I wasn’t putting that on Cale; that had nothing to do with it. That was to try and get our guys to focus.”
NOTES
- Jordan Gross skated in the 149th consecutive game of his Irish career (dating back to the first game of his freshman season).
- Jake Evans skated in his 121st consecutive game dating back to his freshman season.
- Dylan Malmquist skated in the 100th game of his Irish career.
- Cam Morrison scored his first goal since his overtime winner at RPI (Nov. 18, 2017).
- With an assist, Andrew Oglevie extended his point streak to five games (2-6-8).
- It marked just the ninth time this season the Irish trailed after one period. Notre Dame is 5-4 when trailing after the first 20 minutes.
- It was just the fifth time this season Notre Dame trailed after two periods. The Irish are 1-4 when trailing entering the third.
- Notre Dame is 4-5 when the opponent scores first.
- The Irish are 12-4-2 against ranked teams this season.
- It was Notre Dame’s first loss on home ice since Oct. 26 when it lost to Omaha, 6-4. The home winning streak had been at eight games.
- This was the 77th meeting between Notre Dame and Ohio State, with the win giving Ohio State a slight edge at 34-33-10.
UP NEXT
Next for the Irish is a home-and-home series with Michigan. The teams meet at Compton Family Ice Arena on Friday, Feb. 16, at 7:35 p.m. To purchase tickets, click here. The season series with the Wolverines concludes on Sunday, Feb. 18, with a 5:30 p.m. puck drop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sunday’s game can be seen on the Big Ten Network.
— ND —
Dan Colleran, Director of Athletics Communications 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).