Dec. 5, 2015
Box Score vs. UMass (Dec. 5) 
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Photo Gallery
By Dan Colleran
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Following the script from Friday night’s victory, No. 20 Notre Dame took an early 1-0 first period lead on a Steven Fogarty goal and went on to beat Massachusetts 5-1 on Saturday night at the Compton Family Ice Arena (5,022).
The Minutemen (6-7-4, 2-4-4 HEA) tied the game at 1-1 on a Shane Walsh goal four minutes after Fogarty scored in the first, but Notre Dame (8-4-4, 5-1-2 HEA) scored the game’s next four goals en route to the 5-1 victory.
“Tonight might have been more of a complete 60-minute game for us,” Irish Head Coach Jeff Jackson said. “I’m most pleased with the third period tonight. You go into a third period with a lead, you have to play a certain way. You don’t play back, but you have to be prepared for the opponent coming aggressively and their defensemen being active – and they were. But our guys did a real good job with it. That was probably our best third period of the season.”
Dylan Malmquist and Connor Hurley, who finished with a goal and an assist, added second period tallies for the Irish to extend the lead to 3-1. Malmquist’s goal proved to be his first career game winner.
Anders Bjork went on to score two goals in the third period to seal the victory.
“Anders had a good weekend, and he needed to because he’s still trying to make that national junior camp,” Jackson said. “This weekend I thought he played his best hockey, and that line [Bjork, Hurley and DiPauli] played really well tonight. I thought the whole line gave us a lot of speed and energy, they did a good job with the puck and [creating] scoring chances.”
Goaltender Cal Petersen had another strong game in the Notre Dame net, turning aside 28 of the 29 Massachusetts shots he faced.
“I thought this weekend might have been his best weekend of the season so far,” Jackson said of Petersen. “The reason I say that is that when I sense Cal’s in control, that’s when I know he’s at his best. When I say in control, it’s what he does with the puck: his rebound control, his positioning. He made a couple of great saves tonight when we broke down defensively and that’s all you can ask of your goaltender. I really liked his game this weekend.”
In the weekend sweep, Petersen stopped 55 of the 57 shots he faced for a .965 save percentage.
“The team is playing very well in the defensive zone,” Petersen said after the game. “I think that’s obviously shown. I can just worry about first-save opportunities. A lot of credit goes to them.”
The wins over UMass marked Notre Dame’s first home weekend sweep of the season and gave the Irish four points in the Hockey East standings.
“I think throughout the weekend it was great to see that in both games we played a full 60 minutes,” Petersen added. “For us to be able to do that back-to-back nights and have convincing wins is huge. It shows that our team is growing up a lot, which is very big. It’s expected from good teams at this time.”
Nic Renyard made 29 saves in the UMass net.
Notre Dame finished the game 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Minutemen were 0-for-2.
The Irish close out the first semester on Thursday night (Dec. 10) with a 7:05 p.m. game versus Hockey East rival No. 2/3 Boston College at Kelley Rink in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Goals
— Notre Dame took a 1-0 lead at 3:33 of the first period when Mario Lucia fired a shot towards the net that deflected off of Fogarty and past Renyard for Fogarty’s second goal in as many nights. Sam Herr also assisted on the play.
— Massachusetts tied it at 1-1 at 7:11 of the first period when Shane Walsh wristed in his 11th goal of the season from the slot, with assists going to Steven Iacobellis and Ray Pigozzi.
— Notre Dame took back the lead for good at 8:52 of the first period when Dylan Malmqust scored his sixth goal of the season. Jake Evans won an offensive zone faceoff back to his winger and a quick snapshot by Malmquist beat Renyard high to the glove side.
— The Irish pushed the lead to 3-1 at 4:55 of the second period when Connor Hurley notched his second goal of the season. Notre Dame was skating with a 6-on-5 advantage after Petersen hustled to the bench on a delayed penalty call against the Minutemen. Luke Ripley got the puck over to Andy Ryan at the point and the senior let a shot fly the Hurley was able to tip past Renyard.
— At 2:03 of the third, Anders Bjork, stationed in the low slot, took a Thomas DiPauli feed from below the goal line and wristed it past Renyard to make it a 4-1 game in favor of the Irish. Connor Hurley also assisted on the play for his second point of the night.
— Bjork closed out the scoring with his second of the game at 16:57 when he picked up a rebound from a Jordan Gross blocked shot, fired the puck off a Renyard and then picked up his own rebound and put in. DiPauli also assisted on the goal for a two-point night.
Notes
— Andy Ryan (0-4-4), Thomas DiPauli (2-2-4) and Anders Bjork (2-2-4) each extended point streaks to three games.
— Notre Dame now has a four-game winning streak versus UMass dating back to the first round of the 2015 Hockey East playoffs.
— With a goal and an assist, Connor Hurley posted his second multi-point game of the season and the sixth of his career.
— Cal Petersen made his 16th-consecutive start in the Irish goal to open the 2015-16 season. He stopped 55of the 57 shots he faced over the weekend for a .965 save percentage.
— Dylan Malmquist scored the first game-winning goal of his Irish career.
— With a pair of assists, Thomas DiPauli notched his third multi-point game of the season and the 11th of his career.
— Mario Lucia registered an assist on Steven Fogarty’s first period goal, giving him 12 points in nine career games against UMass (6-6-12).
— Notre Dame improved to 8-2-2 on the season when scoring first and to 6-0-2 when leading after two periods of play.
— Thirteen-year NHL veteran Brian Boucher served as the NBC Sports analyst for Saturday night’s broadcast. Boucher was the starting goaltender for Irish head Coach Jeff Jackson at the 1997 World Junior Championships, when Jackson served as the head coach for Team USA. Boucher and Jackson helped lead Team USA to the silver medal (Geneva, Switzerland).
— ND —
Dan Colleran, associate athletics communications director at the University of Notre Dame, has been a part of Fighting Irish Media since August 2015 and coordinates all media and publicity efforts surrounding the Notre Dame hockey and men’s golf programs. A native Walpole, Massachusetts, Colleran spent the previous three years working with the men’s hockey and soccer programs at Providence College. Prior to Providence, Colleran spent two years as an Assistant Executive Director of Communications & Championships at the Ivy League. He is a 2006 graduate of Providence College, where he also earned an MBA in 2008.