Sept. 27, 2016
NOTRE DAME, Indiana — The Notre Dame hockey team will open the season ranked ninth in the 2016-17 USCHO.com preseason poll, which was released on Monday afternoon (Sept. 26). The Irish are also tied for second in the preseason Hockey East Coaches’ poll, which was released on Tuesday (Sept. 27).
The Fighting Irish return three of their top four scorers from last season, including leading scorer Anders Bjork (12-23-35), Jake Evans (8-25-33), and Jordan Gross (9-22-31). Bjork and Gross were named Second Team Hockey East All-Stars following their sophomore seasons.
After starting each game in goal last season and leading the nation in percentage of team minutes played, Cal Petersen returns for his junior season and he will also serve as the team’s captain. He posted a 19-11-7 record in 2015-16 and finished the season with a 2.20 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage, which ranked 12th in the country.
Hockey East Preseason Coaches’ Poll
1. Boston University (10 first place votes), 130
2. Northeastern (1), 108
2. Notre Dame, 108
4. UMass Lowell (1), 105
5. Providence, 98
6. Boston College, 91
7. UConn, 63
8. Vermont, 57
9. Merrimack, 53
10. New Hampshire, 49
11. Massachusetts, 32
12. Maine, 30
In addition to the preseason coaches’ poll, Hockey East also announced additional television coverage for the Irish as road games at UMass on Dec. 2 and at Boston University on Feb. 24 will be produced by ASN and distributed on regional networks. All of Notre Dame’s regular season home games will be broadcast and/or streamed by the NBC Sports Group.
The 2016-17 season starts on Sunday, Oct. 2 as the Irish play host to the USNTDP (U18) team in a 5:05 p.m. game at the Compton Family Ice Arena. Notre Dame then opens the 2016-17 regular season with a weekend home series against Arizona State on Oct. 7-8. To purchase tickets, visit UND.com/tickets.
— 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 golf programs. A native of Walpole, Massachusetts, Colleran spent the previous three years working with the men’s hockey and soccer programs at Providence College. Colleran also spent two years as an Assistant Executive Director of Communications & Championships at the Ivy League and is a graduate of Providence College (’06 & ’08G).