COLUMBUS, Ohio — The University of Notre Dame hockey program dropped a heartbreaker in overtime to No. 16/15 Ohio State Friday night. The Irish, who led for over 31 minutes in Columbus dropped the close decision after a bench minor knotted the score up halfway through the third and an offensive chance early in overtime rang off the post and sailed the opposite direction up the ice.
Ian Murphy drew the first penalty of the evening as he got tripped up in the neutral zone just 36 seconds into the opening frame.
Despite harboring possession in the Buckeye end for the duration of the man-advantage, the Irish were unable to convert and five-on-five hockey returned just under three minutes into play.
Notre Dame continued to press the Ohio State end throughout the period, really putting the pressure on with under five minutes to play in the first and taking advantage of a gassed Buckeye defense. After the third line pinned the Buckeyes deep back in their own end, the Irish changed and forced the home team to ice the puck. Just four seconds after play resumed, the Irish held the 1-0 lead behind a deflection from Danny Nelson at 16:40 of the first period. The Irish took the one-goal lead to the first intermission.
The Irish were whistled for a tripping infraction at 6:48 of the second period and the Buckeye powerplay unit peppered the Notre Dame net with shots, posting six on their man-advantage, but Nicholas Kempf stood tall in goal to maintain his team’s lead halfway through the contest.
The third tripping call of the night went against Ohio State at 14:57 of the second period and the Irish powerplay unit returned to the ice. Despite holding the puck in their offensive zone for the first 85 seconds of the man-advantage, the Irish were unable to break the Buckeye netminding and eventually play returned to full strength.
A scoreless second period had the Irish clinging to the 1-0 lead through 40 minutes played.
A Notre Dame penalty nearly halfway through the third period for too many men gave the Buckeyes the chance they had been searching for as they beat Kempf in goal to make it a 1-1 contest with 11:40 to play in regulation. The shot was the 38th the rookie netminder had faced in the crease Friday night.
The Irish defense buckled down for the remaining minutes of regulation and forced overtime after a strong defensive zone faceoff win by Danny Nelson with less than 10 seconds to play in the third.
In overtime, the Irish had the first look on net but the Buckeye netminder made a big save in the crease to stop the Notre Dame attack and send play the other way up the ice. There, it was Kempf who made a sliding stop on the Buckeye forward charging in to keep play alive.
Both teams traded possessions but the Irish nearly put the game away when a shot of Blake Biondi sailed past the OSU goalie but ricocheted off the post and bounced back into play. The Irish offense could not recover the loose puck and the Buckeyes tried their hand at the opposite end of the ice where they settled the puck and played keep-away from the Irish trio. Eventually OSU sent a shot on net which beat Kempf and crossed the goal line for the 2-1 final Friday.
GOALS
- Taking the draw against a tired OSU line after they iced the puck, Danny Nelson set up the Irish for the opening goal by winning the face-off back to Cole Knuble to set up the offense. Knuble found Axel Kumlin atop the far circle. The junior defenseman fired a puck towards net where Danny stood to tip it in for the 1-0 lead.
KEY STATS
- With his goal in the first period, Danny Nelson ties his career-best seven game point streak. The sophomore center four goals and four assists through the stretch.
- With his 38th save at 10:05 of the third period, Kempf set a new career best between the pipes. The rookie netminder finished the night with 42 saves in the crease.
- In what is often referred to as the game of inches, the Irish hit three posts Friday evening in Columbus, including a chance off the stick of Blake Biondi at 1:20 of overtime, snapping his career-long point streak of five games.
- The Irish centers posted a .648 success rate at the dot, led by Danny Nelson’s 18 faceoff wins. Stepping in to the center role on three occasions, Ian Murphy posted a perfect three-for-three tab in his first game back at the wing.
- Notre Dame blocked 18 shots in Friday night’s decision, with Paul Fischer and Zach Plucinski both eating a team-high three pucks each.
UP NEXT
The Irish and Buckeyes close out the 2024 calendar year with the road series finale Saturday evening at 7:04pm. Game two of the weekend series is set to be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.