#4/5 Irish Sink Lakers 5-2

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The No. 4/5 Notre Dame hockey team earned a 5-2 victory over Lake Superior State on Friday evening at the Compton Family Ice Arena (3,991) to move to 3-0 on the young season. 

Cal Burke factored into four of five Irish goals on the evening, earning a goal and three assists to lead the Irish with four points, just one point shy of his career high.

Notching his first two goals of the season was Mike O’Leary, who bookended the scoring with Notre Dame’s first and fifth goals of the night. O’Leary added an assist for his third multi-point game of the season and second straight three-point outing.

Also scoring for the Irish were Matt Hellickson and Graham Slaggert. Cam Morrison recorded a pair of assists, while Nick Leivermann, Colin Theisen, Jake Pivonka and Alex Steeves also added helpers.

Ryan Bischel earned his third consecutive collegiate victory with 24 saves on the night. Lakers goaltender Mareks Miten recorded 27 saves with four goals against. 

How It Happened

The Irish took a 1-0 lead at 8:33 of the first period when O’Leary jammed in a wrap-around attempt for his first goal of the season, with the assists going to Cal Burke and Morrison. 

Burke extended the lead to 2-0 when he picked up a touch pass from O’Leary in the neutral zone, used his speed to create space entering the offensive zone and snapped a wrist shot past Mitens at 17:08 of the first. Leivermann also assisted on the play. 

Lake State answered right back with a Max Humitz goal 36 seconds after the Burke goal to make it a 2-1 game after the first 20 minutes. 

At the 6:05 mark of the second, Hellickson notched his second goal of the season on a power play one-timer at the back post to make it a 3-1 game. Burke and Colin Theisen added assists on the play.

Just 14 seconds into the third period, Slaggert tallied his first goal of the season, striking the from left goal line to give the Irish a 4-1 lead. Alex Steeves and Pivonka claimed the assists.

O’Leary iced the contest with an empty-netter at the 17:32 mark of the third to make it a 5-2 game with assists to Burke and Morrison.

Up Next

• The Irish and the Lakers close out their two-game series Saturday evening with a 6 p.m. ET game at the Compton Family Ice Arena. 
• The game will be televised live on NHL Network and NBC Sports Chicago+. 
• Click here for tickets. 

Notes

• Cal Burke earned First Star honors after a one-goal, three-assist game to factor into four of Notre Dame’s five goals. Burke has now scored in three straight contests and tallied multiple points in each. 
• It marked Cal Burke’s 14th multi-point game of his career.
• With two goals and an assist, Mike O’Leary recorded his third straight multi-point game and second straight three-point outing.
• It was the ninth multi-point game for O’Leary.
• Cam Morrison recorded his first multi-point game of the year with a pair of assists on the night.
• For Morrison, it marked his 13th career multi-point game.