Series Preview: #11 Irish Head To Madison 

WHO: #11 Notre Dame (20-8-0, 12-6-0-5-1-0 B1G) at Wisconsin (8-19-3, 5-14-1-1-2-0 B1G)

WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 12 at 9:30 p.m. ET // Saturday, Feb. 13 at 9 p.m. ET

WHERE: Kohl Center

WATCH: BTN Plus

LISTEN: 94.3 FM | UND.com

NOTES (PDF)

SETTING THE STAGE

• Notre Dame heads out on the road for a Saturday-Sunday series (Feb. 12-13) at Wisconsin after the series was postponed from Feb. 10-11 due to COVID-19 protocols within the Wisconsin program.
• The Fighting Irish are 7-3-0 on the road this season.
• Notre Dame is coming off a series sweep of Penn State, taking game one 7-2 (Feb. 4) and then blanking the Nittany Lions 3-0 in game two (Feb. 5).
• Ryan Bischel stopped 67 of the 69 shots he faced in the series for a .971 save percentage en route to being named the Big Ten’s First Star of the Week (Feb. 8). 
• In game two, Bischel made 35 saves to earn his second shutout of the season and of his career. 
• Notre Dame’s 10 goals against Penn State were scored by 10 different players, including freshmen Tyler Carpenter and Justin Janicke scoring their first career goals and graduate students Adam Karashik and Chase Blackmun scoring their first goals with Notre Dame.
• The Fighting Irish head into the weekend fourth in the Big Ten standings with 32 points, while Wisconsin is tied for fifth with 17 points.
• On Nov. 12-13, Notre Dame swept Wisconsin at home, winning game one 5-1 and then posting a 3-0 win in game two.
• Max Ellis has a three-game point streak (2-1-3), while Adam Karashik (1-2-3), Hunter Strand (1-1-2), Ryder Rolston (0-3-3) and Jesse Lansdell (1-1-2) each have two-game point streaks.
• Ellis leads the Irish with a career-best 27 points on a team-high 16 goals and 11 assists.
• Ellis’ 16 goals rank tied for 11th in the country (tied for third in the Big Ten).
• Since returning from break on Jan. 1, Spencer Stastney has three goals and nine assists for 12 points in 11 games and he has at least one point in nine of the 11 games.
• Trevor Janicke ranks second on the team with a career-high 11 goals and he has scored a goal in four of Notre Dame’s last five games. 
• The Irish are 14-1-0 when scoring first this season and 18-0-0 when scoring at least three goals.
• The Fighting Irish boast the nation’s top penalty kill at 93.27% (97-for-104) on the season and also have scored six shorthanded goals this season (Ellis 2, Cam Burke 2, Spencer Stastney, Graham Slaggert), which ranks tied for second in the country (first in the Big Ten).
• Notre Dame is 6-2-0 in overtime this season, with the OT game-winning goals coming from Cam Burke (at Michigan Tech), Ryder Rolston (at Michigan), Max Ellis (at Michigan and at Penn State), Spencer Stastney (at Ohio State) and Landon Slaggert (vs. Minnesota).
• Notre Dame has made each of the last five NCAA Tournaments, the longest streak in program history, and eight of the last 11 NCAA Tournaments overall.
• The five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances is the second-longest active streak in the NCAA, trailing only Minnesota Duluth (6), with Minnesota State (3) and St Cloud State (3) tied for third.

THE NOTRE DAME – WISCONSIN SERIES

• Former opponents in the WCHA, Notre Dame and Wisconsin have met 82 times in program history with Wisconsin leading the all-time series 46-27-9.
• The first meeting between the two teams came during the 1921-22 season when the Irish skated away with a 3-0 victory at Badin Rink (outdoors at Notre Dame). 
• The teams met once more, in 1925-26, before taking a 40 year hiatus and returning to competition when Notre Dame earned varsity status.
• As a head coach, Jeff Jackson is 10-8-2 all-time against the Badgers (1-1-0 at Lake Superior State).
• The one win Jackson had over the Badgers at Lake Superior State came on April 4, 1992, in Albany, New York, as the Lakers defeated Wisconsin 5-3 to win the NCAA Championship (the first of Jackson’s two NCAA Championships at Lake State).
• Since the Irish joined the Big Ten, Notre Dame leads the series 9-7-2.
• With last season’s series at Wisconsin taking place at LaBahn, Notre Dame is 4-1-0 at the Kohl Center since joining the Big Ten for the 2017-18 season.
• Earlier this season the teams met on Nov. 12-13 at the Compton Family Ice Arena with Notre Dame posting a series sweep, taking game one 5-1 and then following up with a 3-0 win in game two. 
• Matthew Galajda played both games in that series, stopping 24 shots in game one and posting a 22-save shutout in game two.
• Max Ellis had a pair of goals in game one with Spencer Stastney chipping in three assists, while game two featured Irish goals by Grant Silianoff, Nick Leivermann and Hunter Strand.
• Last season, the teams opened the shortened 2020-21 season on Nov. 13-14 at the Compton Family Ice Arena, with the Badgers posting a 2-0 win and a 5-3 victory (Colin Theisen had a hat trick in that game two loss).
• Then at Wisconsin on Feb. 19-20 2021, the Badgers took game one 4-2 before the teams skated to a back-and-forth 5-5 tie in game two. 
• In the game two shootout, Max Ellis scored and Dylan St. Cyr denied Cole Caufield, Dylan Halloway and Ty Pelton-Byce to seal the extra point.
• The teams split the 2019-20 series 2-2-0, including a split at the Kohl Center on Nov. 15-16.
• Wisconsin took game one, 3-0, and Notre Dame took a back-and-forth game two, 5-4 in overtime.
• Later in the season at home (Jan. 24-25), Notre Dame dropped game one, 6-4, before bouncing back to take game two, 5-2.
• With a career-high four points on a goal and three assists, Alex Steeves helped the Irish to that 5-2 win.
• Notre Dame’s active career offensive leaders against the Badgers include Graham Slaggert (12 GP, 2-3-5), Spencer Stastney (14 GP, 0-8-8), Landon Slaggert (6 GP, 1-6-7), Trevor Janicke (10 GP, 3-1-4), Jesse Lansdell (10 GP, 2-2-4).
  

BALANCED ATTACK

• The Fighting Irish have seen several players step up and contribute to the offense throughout the 2021-22 season, with Notre Dame averaging 3.50 goals per game which ranks seventh in the country (third in the Big Ten).
• An impressive 14 players have double-digit point totals, including nine players with at least 16 points on the season.
• Nineteen Notre Dame players have scored this season, while 21 have at least one point.
• In Notre Dame’s sweep of Penn State on Feb. 4-5, 10 Irish skaters accounted for the 10 Fighting Irish goals as Notre Dame took game one 7-2 and followed with a 3-0 win in game two.
• With Notre Dame facing several injuries in that series against the Nittany Lions, freshmen forwards Justin Janicke and Tyler Carpenter each scored their first career goals, while graduate transfer defensemen Adam Karashik and Chase Blackmun each netted their first goals with Notre Dame.
  

STEPPING UP

• Several Fighting Irish skaters have increased their point totals this season over the past few years.
• After a freshman season with one goal in eight games and a sophomore season with 16 points in 24 games (5-11-16), Max Ellis has 16 goals and 11 assists for a career-best 27 points in 27 games.
• Ellis posted the first hat trick of his career, capped by scoring the overtime game-winning goal, at Michigan on Nov. 20 marking the first visiting player to record a hat trick at Yost Ice Arena in 15 years (2006).
• In 26 games this season, Cam Burke has eight goals and nine assists for 17 points, all of which represent career-high totals for the senior.
• Junior Trevor Janicke has a career-high 11 goals in 28 games this season, besting his previous career-high of eight goals scored as a freshman and junior.
• Janicke’s 17 points are also a career-best total (he had 13 points in 37 games as a freshman and in 24 games as a sophomore).
• Solag Bakich has a career-high 14 points (4-10-14) in 23 games this season after scoring once in 10 games as a freshman and then notching seven points (4-3-7) in 28 games as a sophomore. 
• Ryder Rolston had six points on a goal and five assists last season as a freshman and now has nine goals and 15 assists for 24 points in 27 games as a sophomore.
• Defenseman Jake Boltmann joined the Irish for the second semester last season, skating in 19 games (0 points).
• This season, Boltmann has a goal and 11 assists for 12 points in 28 games.

— ND —