Notre Dame Hockey: Michigan Series Preview

The Irish head to Ann Arbor on their first conference road trip

Earlier this week the Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team unveiled some beautiful new alternate uniforms to be worn later this month in Belfast Ireland.

Before we get to see these beauties on the ice though Notre Dame will be playing in Ann Arbor, traveling to face the Michigan Wolverines in the first conference road trip of the season for Notre Dame. Coming off another series split a week ago, Notre Dame is now #20 in the polls and will face the #7 ranked Wolverines on the road.

Where, When, How to Watch

• Where: Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan
• When: Friday, November 8, 6pm ET; Saturday, November 9, 7pm ET
• How to Watch: Both games streaming on B1G+

Notre Dame played their first Big Ten series of the season last weekend when they faced the Wisconsin Badgers in two game sin South Bend. The Irish split those two games in low scoring matchups, winning 3-2 in overtime and then losing 2-1. It was the third straight series split for Notre Dame, all at home, who now sit 5-3 on the season. The good news in that, for this weekend at least, is that Notre Dame is 2-0 on the road.

For the first time this season Notre Dame started the same goalie in both games of a series last weekend. That would be transfer Owen Say, who has been excellent all season and despite losing his first game last weekend was strong again over the two games. He allowed only 4 goals while making 75 saves over the series and now has given up 7 goals to 170 saves this season. That is good for an absurd .960SV%. That number is best in the country for a goalie that has played more than a single game.

At times early on, Notre Dame has needed Say (and their defense) to keep them competitive, as they have failed to score goals with any consistency. In fact, Notre Dame is averaging just a single goal per game in their three losses so far. Cole Knuble is still the only Irish player to have double digit points with 12, and he added two more last weekend. He’s also the only player on the team with more than 5 goals (6) with second place on the team a tie between Justin Janicke and Danny Nelson with 3 goals each.

Luckily for the Irish, Michigan is also struggling somewhat on offense early in the season. Whereas Notre Dame has one player with double digit points, Michigan has none, with Garrett Schifsky and Michael Hage leading the team with 8 points each. They’ve been strong in goal, but not as strong as the Irish. Logan Stein and Cameron Korpi have split time, each starting four games so far. Stein has been the stronger of the two, playing to a .932 SV%, but both give the Wolverines a chance to win. Michigan has played their way to a 5-2-1 record early on this year, but both of their losses have come at home, with only a 2-2 record in Ann Arbor. This weekend is their first Big Ten series of the season.

Prediction

Michigan is a strong team and is always one of the top teams in the Big Ten. So far this season the Irish and Wolverines have been strikingly similar, both in record and statistics. With these two so evenly matched a split of the two games seems the most likely outcome.