Nov. 10, 2017
By Dan Colleran
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The sixth-ranked Fighting Irish opened their weekend series versus 19th-ranked Penn State with a 5-3 win on Friday night at the Compton Family Ice Arena (4,574).
Dawson Cook, who scored the third period game winner, Andrew Oglevie and Bobby Nardella each posted a goal and an assist to lead the Irish.
In a back-and-forth contest, Notre Dame (7-3-1, 3-0-0-0 B1G) came back from one goal deficits on two occasions en route to the victory.
Penn State held a 2-1 lead after the first period of play, with the Irish goal coming from Bo Brauer, who scored his first of the season.
In the second period, goals by Nardella and Oglevie gave the Irish their first lead of the night but Andrew Sturtz answered for Penn State, tying the game 3-3 after two periods of play.
In the third, Cook tipped in a feed from the point from Matt Hellickson for the eventual game winner at 11:14 and Jack Jenkins added the empty netter to seal Notre Dame’s fourth consecutive win.
In net, Cale Morris made 40 saves, while Peyton Jones totaled 14 saves for Penn State (5-6-0, 2-3-0-0).
COACH JACKSON’S THOUGHTS
On turning around the slow start for the Irish…
“They [Penn State] play such a high tempo and they counter press really hard, you can try to prepare for it as much as you want but until your guys actually face it, it takes some time to adjust on how they play. And kudos to them. They play an aggressive style, very tenacious, they have a lot of players that are very similar to each other and they caught us with a lot of things that we had talked about during the week. Like I said, sometimes you have to acclimate to your opponent and I think by the third period we did.”
On building strength through adversity…
“The game goes in swings of momentum and you have to be able to handle them evenly. The most important thing to me was that we won the third period tonight because it’s been a real strong suit for us this year and great teams always play their best hockey in the third period, especially when you’re tied or have a goal lead or if you’re down a goal and have the ability to come back. So to me that was the most important thing and I thought we did a good job defensively and did a better job managing the puck.”
On Wegwerth leaving the game in the second period…
“He had not the same injury, he just got hit awkwardly or went down awkwardly and I don’t think it’s long term he might even be ready tomorrow.”
GOAL DESCRIPTIONS
1-0 | Penn State got on the board first at 4:39 in the first period. Blake Gober netted his second of the season off of a pass from Alec Marsh in a 2-on-1 situation. Derian Hamilton was credited with the second assist.
1-1 | Dawson Cook intercepted a pass in the defensive zone and led a 3-on-2 offensive chance before connecting a pass to Bo Brauer just above the right circle. Brauer then let a wrist shot fly to tie the game at 11:55 in the first.
2-1 | Nikita Pavlychev took a pass off of the boards just in front of the offensive blue line from Liam Fowlkes in the defensive zone and scored from the slot with just 28 seconds remaining in the first period.
2-2 | On a pass from Andrew Oglevie in the defensive zone, Bobby Nardella skated all the way up the far side of the rink from the defensive circles and fired off a slapshot from just behind the blue line that made its way past Penn State goalie Peyton Jones at 9:14 in the second period. Tory Dello had the second assist on the goal.
3-2 | Oglevie fired a shot from the left circle past Jones on a pass from Jake Evans below the goal line, who received it from Nardella on a quick passing sequence to give the Irish the their first lead of the game at 14:20 in the second period.
3-3 | Andrew Sturtz responded quickly for the Nittany Lions to tie the game back up with a goal right in front of the net off of a feed from Brett Murray on a 3-on-2 rush at 15:48 in the second with Chase Berger contributing with the second assist.
4-3 | Dawson Cook regained the lead for the Irish at 11:41 in the third on a deflection in the slot from a setup from Matt Hellickson at the right point. Mike O’Leary notched the second assist.
5-3 | Dennis Gilbert cleared the puck out of the defensive zone late in the game while Penn State had an extra attacker on, which led the puck to drop in the offensive zone where Jack Jenkins secured it and tallied the empty net goal to ensure the Fighting Irish victory with 19 seconds remaining.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Irish did not go on the power play, while Penn State was 0-for-2 on the man advantage.
NOTES
- Jordan Gross skated in the 130th consecutive game of his Irish career (dating back to the first game of his freshman season).
- With a goal and an assist, Dawson Cook posted his first career multi-point game.
- With a goal and an assist, Andrew Oglevie posted his third multi-point game of the season and the 12th of his Irish career.
- With a goal and an assist, Bobby Nardella recorded his fourth multi-point game of the season and the 11th of his career.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame and Penn State close out their weekend series tomorrow evening with a 5:30 p.m. ET game that will be televised on the NBC Sports Network.
— 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).