Notre Dame Hockey Beats Harvard in Ireland

The Irish won the first game of the Friendship Four

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team traveled to Belfast, Ireland this weekend for the Friendship Four, a tournament with the Harvard Crimson, Boston University Terriers, and Merrimack Warriors. The first game was played between the Irish and Harvard with Notre Dame winning 5-2 and advancing to the final.

Game Summary

First Period

Notre Dame came out strong to start the night jumping out to the lead less than 10 minutes into the game. Cole Knuble passed a puck out from behind the goal line to Blake Biondi who was open in the slot. Biondi one-timed the puck far side into the net for the game’s first goal.

The Irish kept the pressure up and added to the lead 8 minutes later. An Irish faceoff win in the offensive zone went back to the point to Jaedon Kerr who shot from there and found the net for his first collegiate goal. 30 seconds later they were at it again. The Irish cycled the puck around the offensive zone before it made its way to Michael Mastrodomenico at the point and he took another long range shot that made it through traffic in front for the third Irish goal of the first period.

Second Period

The script was flipped in the second period with Harvard playing the offensive creator. Just over a minute into the period they scored their first goal of the game to cut into the Irish lead. Five minutes later the Crimson scored their second and the second period ended with the Irish up just one.

Third Period

Whereas the first two periods were dominated by one team the third period was evenly matched, with each team taking 11 shots apiece. Notre Dame finally broke through for a goal late in the period on the power play though and from there they controlled the ending of the game. A shot from Danny Nelson at the faceoff circle was stopped but the rebound bounced in front of the goal. After Blake Biondi got a touch on it it was slammed home by Justin Janicke.

Notre Dame added an empty net goal with a minute and a half left to get the game to the 5-2 final scoreline.

Scoring

ND: Blake Biondi (5) on the PP at 8:25 in the 1st assisted by Cole Knuble and Justin Janicke

ND: Jaedon Kerr (1) at 16:30 in the 1st assisted by Tyler Carpenter and Jayden Davis

ND: Michael Mastrodomenico (3) at 17:08 in the 1st assisted by Paul Fischer and Cole Knuble

HAR: Joe Miller (3) at 1:13 in the 2nd assisted by Ben MacDonald and Casey Severo

HAR: Cam Johnson (1) at 6:39 in the 2nd unassisted

ND: Justin Janicke (4) on the PP at 14:18 in the 3rd assisted by Blake Biondi and Danny Nelson

ND: Cole Knuble (7) EN at 18:39 in the 3rd unassisted

Penalties

HAR: Zakary Karpa 2 for tripping at 7:52 in the 1st

ND: Axel Kumlin 2 for tripping at 9:25 in the 2nd

HAR: Ryan Healey 2 for interference at 17:40 in the 2nd

HAR: Justin Solovey 2 for hitting from behind at 12:22 in the 3rd

Goalies

ND: Owen Say made 29 saves on 31 shots for the win

HAR: Aku Koskenvuo saved 7 of 10 shots against in the loss

HAR: Ben Charette made 15 saves on 16 shots against

Up Next

Notre Dame will play Boston University in the final of the Friendship Four after the Terriers beat Merrimack in their first game.