Nov. 23, 2016
By Dan Colleran
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — This weekend, the No. 11/12 Notre Dame hockey team will play host to the seventh installment of the Shillelagh Tournament.
On the first day of the 2016 tournament (Friday, Nov. 25), Yale and Clarkson will play the first game (4:05 p.m.), followed by Notre Dame and Holy Cross (7:35 p.m.).
The winners (or advancing teams) will then play for the Shillelagh championship on Saturday, Nov. 26, with Notre Dame remaining in the 7:35 p.m time slot regardless of Friday’s outcome versus the Crusaders (game one on Saturday will also be played at 4:05 p.m.).
OVERVIEW | GAME 13
Matchup: Holy Cross at Notre Dame
Date: Friday, Nov. 25
Time: 7:35 p.m. (ET)
Site: Notre Dame, Ind.
Arena: Compton Family Ice Arena (5,022)
Television: None
Live Streaming: NBC Sports App
Play-by-Play: Darin Pritchett
Live Radio: WZOC 94.3 FM
Play-by-Play: Darin Pritchett
Live Audio: WatchND App
Live Stats: UND.com
Live Updates: @NDHockey
Series History: Notre Dame leads, 4-2-0
Tickets: UND.com/BuyTickets
NOTES TO KNOW
— Junior goaltender Cal Petersen has started 62 consecutive games in the Irish net dating back to his freshman season.
— Junior forward Anders Bjork has 20 points (8-12-20) through 12 games. His 20 points are tied for second in Hockey East and tied for fifth in the country.
— Dating back to the 0-0, two period tie at Northeastern (Nov. 13), Notre Dame has killed off 14 consecutive opponent power play chances.
SHILLELAGH TOURNAMENT HISTORY
— The first three Shillelagh Tournaments (2009-11) were played at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
— After a break until the Compton Family Ice Arena opened, the tournament resumed in November of 2013 at the home of the Fighting Irish.
— This year, Clarkson, Holy Cross and Yale will each be making their first appearances in the tournament.
— The Irish won the Shillelagh Tournament in 2009 and 2010.
— Other winners have included Minnesota State (2011), Northeastern (2013), Western Michigan (2014) and Harvard (2015).
CRUSADER CONNECTIONS
— Holy Cross junior forward Scott Pooley (10 GP, 3-7-10) is the son of Fighting Irish Associate Head Coach Paul Pooley.
— Holy Cross Associate Head Coach Brock Sheahan played on the Irish blue line from 2004-08 and graduated from Notre Dame in 2008.
— In 161 games for the Irish, Sheahan scored four goals and added 29 assists for 33 points.
— Sheahan served as Notre Dame’s volunteer assistant coach during the 2013-2014 season before heading to Holy Cross.
— From 1998-2005 at Providence College, current Holy Cross head coach David Berard served as an assistant coach for then head coach Paul Pooley.
— Current Irish Hockey and Programming Intern Will Moran spent the 2015-16 as the Director of Hockey Operations for the Holy Cross.
BJORK PLAYS LEADING ROLE
— Junior forward Anders Bjork, a 2014 fifth-round pick by Boston, ranks tied for second in Hockey East with 20 points (8-12-20) and is tied for third with 12 assists.
— Bjork’s 20 points are tied for fifth in the country, while his 12 assists are tied for sixth.
— Bjork has been held without a point in just three of Notre Dame’s 12 games this season (including the 0-0, two-period tie at Northeastern).
— Bjork has posted five multi-point games, including four-point games against ASU (Oct. 8) and UConn (Oct. 28).
TOP MARKS IN THE COUNTRY
— Released on Nov. 15, the Irish rank third in NCAA Div. I hockey in the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) with a score of 94 (Bowling Green is first with 100, followed by Air Force at 96). — Notre Dame also ranks first in NCAA Div. I hockey in the Federal Rate (measured by the federal government in its Department of Education report) with a score of 82.
— Miami is second in the Federal Rate with a score of 79.
— The University of Notre Dame has claimed a share of the 2016 national championship for graduating student-athletes in all sports–in the process posting the top NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) figure (98) for its student-athletes for the 10th straight year.
— 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).