Notre Dame Hockey Preview: Irish VS St. Lawrence

Here we go

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team returns to the ice this weekend to open the 2024-25 season, the last for Head Coach Jeff Jackson. After an exhibition win against the United States National Team Development Program a week ago, the Irish begin their season on the road in New York for a game each against the St. Lawrence Saints and Clarkson Golden Knights. Notre Dame enters this season looking to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2022 and to send Jeff Jackson out on top.

Where, When, How to Watch

Where: Appleton Arena, Canton, NY (Friday); Cheel Arena, Potsdam, NY (Saturday)
When: Friday, October 11, 7pm ET; Saturday, October 12, 7pm ET
How to Watch: Both games streaming on ESPN+

Earlier this week Notre Dame announced four captains for the season in what Jeff Jackson is calling a “collective leadership position”. Those four are graduate students Grant Silianoff and Ian Murphy as well as seniors Justin Janicke and Tyler Carpenter. Silianoff, Janicke, and Carpenter are all returning members of the Irish team, while Murphy joins as a graduate transfer after spending four years at Princeton including a season as the Tigers captain last year.

The scoring for the Irish this season will be led by two sophomores, the only returning members of the team to score 20+ points a season ago. Those two are Danny Nelson (9-14-23) and Cole Knuble (9-11-20). Including those two, Notre Dame returns 19 skaters overall with eight scoring double digit points. Janicke and Silianoff join the list of double digit scorers.

Notre Dame also welcomes a few new faces to the team this season, ten in total with five freshmen and five transfers. Two of those transfers, Murphy (Princeton) and Blake Biondi (Minnesota-Duluth) were among the goal scorers for the Irish last weekend in their exhibition game against the USNTDP.

The biggest question to open the season for Notre Dame will be in goal. Ryan Bischel, last season’s starter, exhausted his eligibility and is now playing for the Maine Mariners in the ECHL. One netminder returns from a year ago in Jack Williams who appeared in two games last season for the Irish. The two newcomers are junior transfer Owen Say (Mercyhurst) and freshman Nicholas Kempf who joins from the USNTDP. Say comes in with the most experience, having played in 44 games over two years. It is still undecided who will get the bulk of the playing time and we may see a rotation early in the year, but all three played a period in their exhibition game last weekend.

Notre Dame doesn’t have much history with either St. Lawrence or Clarkson but have played both before. Their last meeting with St. Lawrence was in the 2000-01 season and Notre Dame holds a 2-1 edge all time. The Irish played Clarkson last season, splitting a two game series. This is the first trip to either Canton or Potsdam in Irish history.

Prediction:

Being the first games of the season with a good amount of turnover it is difficult to say what to expect from this Irish team. Two of their best players have left in Bischel and Landon Slaggert but they return a few talented youngsters and welcome several promising new players. They will certainly be looking to start the season off strong with a pair of wins but it won’t be easy to face two different opponents in two cities in two days.