Oct. 25, 2014
Notre Dame, Indiana –
The University of Notre Dame hockey team got goals from six different players, including its first three power-play goals of the season, and freshman goaltender Cal Petersen stopped all 23 shots he faced for his first career shutout, as the Irish blanked Niagara 7-0 in front of 4,446 at the Compton Family Ice Arena on Saturday night.
Vince Hinostroza (ppg), Connor Hurley, Mario Lucia, Sam Herr, Steven Fogarty (ppg), Jake Evans (ppg) and Anders Bjork (shg) scored for Notre Dame with Hurley and Bjork getting their first collegiate goals. Hinostroza and Hurley finished the game with three-point nights on with a goal and two assists to their credit.
The Irish peppered Purple Eagles’ goaltender Adrian Ignagni with 39 shots, including 18 in the first period as he finished with 32 saves on the night. Niagara struggled to get just two shots on goal in the first period while Notre Dame was building a 3-0 lead.
The win was the fourth straight for the Irish who improved to 4-2-0 on the season. The Purple Eagles fell to 0-6-6 on the year.
“We had a number of positive things happen for us tonight,” said Irish head coach Jeff Jackson.
“Special teams, both the power play and the penalty kill were good. Winning the second period. Those are things that have been haunting us a bit. I hope we can build on that.”
Notre Dame came out fast, pouring 11 shots on goal before Niagara got its first of the night. The Irish finally broke through at 14:53 of the opening period and they did it on the power play as Hinostroza scored his first goal of the season as he one-timed a shot from the left face-off dot past Ignagni to break a zero for 22 drought with the man advantage to start the season.
The goal seemed to open the floodgates as Notre Dame added two more in the period in a span of 41 seconds.
Hurley got his first career goal at 17:21 when he took a feed from defenseman Justin Wade and moved down the left side. His quick wrister fluttered over Ignagni’s left shoulder to make it 2-0.
Lucia made it 3-0 just 41 seconds later at 18:02 when he took a quick pass from Robbie Russo, who had two assists on the night, and one-timed a bullet from the bottom of the right circle for his sixth goal of the season and fifth in the last three games.
Notre Dame would add three more goals in the middle stanza, building a 6-0 lead after two periods.
Herr, who had two goals on Friday night, picked up his third of the weekend as Hurley set him up with a nifty pass and the junior left wing deposited it behind Ignagni at 7:27 to make it a 4-0 game.
After getting just two shots in the first period, Niagara began to put pressure on freshman goaltender Cal Petersen as the Purple Eagles had 10 shots on goal in the period.
The Irish would add two more goals in less than two minutes with both coming on the power play.
“We changed personnel on the power play. We did it this morning,” said Jackson.
“We actually went on the ice and (associate head coach) Paul (Pooley) ran them through some options. I said that I was going to blow it up eventually. We have the ability to be productive on the power play. Even tonight, I thought we could’ve shot the puck more. We had some good puck movement but we could’ve gotten some more shots.”
The first came at 10:50 as Hinostroza cruised down the slot, pulling the defense towards him. That left Fogarty all alone in the left face-off circle where he ripped a wrist shot past Ignagni for his third goal of the season to give the Irish a five-goal lead.
Evans made it 6-0 at 12:32 when he scored his power-play tally on a rebound to the left of Ignagni. Freshman defenseman Jordan Gross blasted a shot from the center point that the Niagara goaltender stopped but couldn’t control the rebound. Evans pounced on it outside the crease and flipped it home for his second goal of the season.
“We kind of expected some changes. We got a chance to work on it at pre-game skate today and developed some chemistry,” said Fogarty.
“I thought both units, the way they were set up had some success and hopefully we can build off that this coming weekend against Vermont.”
Prior to Saturday night, the Irish had been out scored 7-1 in the second period through the first five games of the season.
Notre Dame would get the lone goal in the third period as Bjork scored with 45 seconds left in the game, beating Ignagni with a short-handed goal for the first of his career and the final score of 7-0.
The Irish finished the game going three for nine on the power play and were seven for seven on the penalty kill, with both being season bests for Notre Dame.
After playing six non-conference games, the Irish will open Hockey East play next weekend against the University of Vermont. The Catamounts close out the eight-game home stand starting at 8:05 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 31. Game two is set for 7:05 p.m. on Nov. 1.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - FNiagara University (0-6-0) 0 0 0 - 0Notre Dame (4-2-0) 3 3 1 - 7
Scoring 1st Period: ND: Vince Hinostroza 1 (Steven Fogarty, Mario Lucia), PPG, 14:53; ND: Connor Hurley 1 (Justin Wade, Sam Herr), 17:21; ND: Lucia 6 (Hinostroza, Robbie Russo), 18:02.
Penalties: NU: 3 for 9 minutes; ND: 2 for 4 minutes.
2nd Period: ND: Herr 3 (Hurley), 7:27; ND: Fogarty 3 (Hinostroza, Russo), PPG, 10:50; ND: Jake Evans 1 (Hurley, Jordan Gross), PPG, 12:32.
Penalties: NU: 4 for 8 minutes; ND: 3 for 6 minutes.
3rd Period: ND: Anders Bjork 1 (Gross), SHG, 19:15.
Penalties: NU: 2 for 4 minutes; ND: 3 for 6 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Niagara University 2 - 10 - 11 - 23Notre Dame 18 - 12 - 9 - 39
Goaltender Saves:NU: Adrian Ignagni (60:00) 15 - 9 - 8 - 32ND: Cal Petersen (60:00) 2 - 10 - 11 - 23
Power Plays:NU: 0 for 7ND: 3 for 9
Attendance: 4,446