The Irish host the Sharks in their final series before conference play
It is time for another Hockey Night in South Bend as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team welcomes the Long Island Sharks for two games this weekend. Notre Dame is ranked #17 nationally and can improve that this weekend before getting into the tougher parts of their schedule.
Where, When, How to Watch
- Where: Compton Family Ice Arena, Notre Dame, IN
- When: Friday, October 25, 7:05pm (game one); Saturday, October 26, 6:05pm (game two)
- How to Watch: Both games streaming on Peacock
Notre Dame continues their first homestand of the season with two games against the Long Island University Sharks. Last weekend the Irish split two games at home with the Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks and they’ll be looking to make this series two out of two wins. This is the final tune up series before Big Ten conference games start next week in South Bend.
Last weekend we saw what plagued the Irish for much of last season, inconsistency between the two games on a single weekend. Notre Dame did a good job staying consistent in their first two games on the road, but those games were against two different opponents. In their first two game series against the same opponent the Irish offense came out and scored four goals in the opener but were shut out in game two.
Cole Knuble continues to pace the Irish offense with four goals and six points. Justin Janicke has joined him at the top of the points totals with six but has only two goals. After that the next highest scorer has only three points, with three players tied there, and it falls off after that. There are several players on the team with zero points through four games. Admittedly it is a small sample size but Notre Dame has struggled for a few seasons to get the secondary scoring needed to really compete and it looks early on like that may be the case again this season.
Despite the turnover in the room though, the Irish goaltending has been excellent so far this season with two new faces splitting time. Owen Say (transfer) and Nicholas Kempf (freshman) have both started two games and both have save percentages right around .950 and GAA under two. Say has two wins while Kempf was the unfortunate recipient of no support last weekend, giving up only one goal in his first loss of the season. I would expect to see the goalie rotation continue while both players are stopping pucks at this level.
LIU comes to South Bend for their second ever trip, entering the series with a 1-2-1 record. They have struggle don offense so far this year with only five goals scored in four games. The Notre Dame defense and goaltending will present a significant challenge for this team over the two games. These two teams have played only once before, with Notre Dame winning 5-2 in South Bend during the 2021-22 season.
Prediction
These are two games that Notre Dame should win, given the Sharks lack of offense and the strong Irish defense so far this season. They have the potential to be low scoring affairs but the strength of the Notre Dame team at home gives them the edge in both games.