Notre Dame Hockey Beats Alaska in Home Opener

And start the season 3-0

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team played their first official home game of the season last night, their first of two against the Alaska Nanooks. After winning their first two games on the road the offense continued a hot start and some more strong goaltending gave the Irish a convincing 4-1 victory. They’ve now improved to 3-0 to start the young season and will be going for the sweep on Saturday.

Game Summary

First Period

Notre Dame was on the front foot attacking right from the very beginning of the game, putting 14 shots on goal in the first period. Nearly 13 minutes in though they got the breakthrough when a failed clear from Alaska in the defensive zone was picked up by Ian Murphy. Murphy had the puck at the right faceoff circle and dropped it off to a trailing Cole Knuble who fired home from the slot.

Second Period

The second period saw more of the same, with heavy offense from the Irish, but this time the payoff came much earlier. Just over five minutes into the second Alaska took a penalty, but Notre Dame was able to hold the puck and get the extra attacker on before the Nanooks could touch up. The Irish cycled the puck around the offensive zone before it found Henry Nelson open at the faceoff circle. Nelson one timed a shot into the net before Alaska’s Nicholas Grabko could make it across the crease. It was Nelson’s first career goal.

Third Period

Alaska finally found some offense in the third period as they played like a team behind. They scored a goal five minutes into the final frame and managed to put 13 shots on goal over the 20 minutes. After giving up the goal though, Notre Dame went to work on putting the game away. On the power play two minutes later Justin Janicke slipped through three defenders at the blue line before receiving a perfect lead pass from Cole Knuble. From there it was an easy shot for Janicke to go top shelf and put the Irish back up by two. A few minutes after that Grant Silianoff scored the fourth Irish goal, again off of a series of good passes around the offensive zone.

Notre Dame received another strong game in goal from Owen Say, his second impressive showing in as many games. He managed 25 saves and only one goal against and the Irish offense gave more than was needed for the convincing win.

Scoring

ND: Cole Knuble (4) at 12:48 in the 1st assisted by Ian Murphy and Justin Janicke

ND: Henry Nelson (1) with an extra attacker at 5:41 in the 2nd assisted by Michael Mastrodomenico and Hunter Strand

UA: Broten Sabo (1) at 5:01 in the 3rd assisted by William Lawson-Body and Will Hilfiker

ND: Justin Janicke (2) on the power play at 6:52 in the 3rd assisted by Cole Knuble and Paul Fischer

ND: Grant Silianoff (1) at 8:23 in the 3rd assisted by Hunter Strand and Henry Nelson

Penalties

UA: BENCH 2 for too many players at 18:47 in the 1st

UA: Braden Birnie 2 for delay of game at 12:29 in the 2nd

ND: Zach Plucinski 2 for holding at 15:59 in the 2nd

UA: Braden Birnie 2 for charging at 6:15 in the 3rd

ND: Ryan Helliwell 2 for holding at 8:57 in the 3rd

Goalies

ND: Owen Say saved 25 of 26 shots faced for the win

UA: Nicholas Grabko made 34 saves on 38 shots in the loss

Up Next

Game two on Saturday night. Notre Dame goes for the sweep while Alaska will be looking for a win to salvage a rough start to their early season.