By: Connor Toomey
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Fighting Irish hockey team of Notre Dame closed out their final homestand of the regular season with a thrilling 4-3 overtime victory over the fifth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions in front of a sold out crowd for senior night.
The scoring started early Saturday night as the Nittany Lions capitalized on a rebounding puck off the blocker of sophomore goaltender Nicholas Kempf to take a 1-0 lead 2:58 into the game.
The Irish special teams unit saw their first action of the night at the 5:29 mark in the period when Penn State went to the box for two minutes on a holding call. Notre Dame had two scoring chances to even up things on the scoreboard with the first from junior forward Evan Werner whose shot sailed just wide of the net. The second came off the play of freshman Pano Fimis and Cole Brown, but Fimis’ pass missed the stick of Brown by a few centimeters as the man-advantage expired.
As the midway point in the frame came, Notre Dame had another strong chance to get on the score board when four Irish skaters crashed the net. They had multiple shots in the span of five seconds that were blocked or deflected by the PSU goaltender, keeping the score 1-0 in favor of the Nittany Lions.
Notre Dame’s penalty kill unit went to work with 8:34 left in the period as junior forward Carter Slaggert was sent to the box for slashing. During the minor penalty, Nicholas Kempf made a pair of saves to keep PSU from extending the lead further. The first was off the right blocker pad and the second was a snag with his glove as the penalty time expired keeping it 1-0 Penn State with just over six and a half minutes to play in the frame.
The Irish equalizer came with 1:50 left before time expired as junior forward Maddox Fleming let the puck rocket off his stick into the upper left corner of the Nittany Lion goal. The score looked to be knotted heading into the first intermission as time wound down and ticked under 60 seconds to go in the frame.
With 25 seconds left in the first stanza, Penn State would go to the box for slashing. The Notre Dame powerplay made the best of their second opportunity on the man advantage, scoring off the stick of junior captain Danny Nelson. Nelson found the back of the net with six seconds left in the period off of a pass across the crease from Evan Werner to give the Irish a 2-1 lead heading into the first break.
Notre Dame began the middle period of the contest the way that they ended the first, by getting into the offensive zone and creating opportunities to extend the lead. The first chance of the period came off the stick of Pano Fimis as the freshman tried to use his backhand to sneak the puck around the post, but was denied by the PSU goalie.
After the first few minutes were underway the Irish penalty kill went back to work after a kneeing minor penalty. During the kill the special teams squad had a shorthanded chance when graduate forward Sutter Muzzatti and junior alternate captain Cole Knuble connected, but the shot was deflected to the right of the Penn State net as the kill carried on.
Notre Dame’s powerplay unit got a third shot at action after a slashing call was assessed to the Nittany Lions with 8:45 remaining in the second period. The Irish had an opportunity to extend the lead to 3-1 but could not capitalize on the man-up chance. As the advantage expired, Penn State found the equalizer to make the contest a score of 2-2 back at even-strength hockey.
A chance for the Irish to reclaim the lead came as Danny Nelson crashed towards the net and was brought to the ground but made his shot from his backside. Nelson and the PSU defender collided with the Nittany Lion netminder and play was blown dead. Upon video review the ruling was no goal for the Irish to keep things deadlocked at two goals a piece.
With just over two minutes to go in the second, both teams would go to the penalty box creating a four-on-four opportunity. No harm would come to the Irish in the penalty despite a chance in front of the net from Knuble, but he lost the puck in front of the PSU net. The period would end on a scoring attempt from Sutter Muzzatti, but was saved as the buzzer sounded as both teams would head to the locker room tied 2-2.
The final period began with a series of back and forth possessions from the Irish and Nittany Lions, but neither team could find a chink in the armor of the goalies in net as both were making saves and being backed up by strong defensive efforts.
Nicholas Kempf denied Penn State from gaining the advantage on the scoreboard at 6:52 into the frame as he snagged a puck that was fired from the blue line out of the air to set up a defensive zone faceoff.
After another pair of minor penalties on both teams there was a second four-on-four skating segment. This time the Irish took advantage of one less skater on the ice. Danny Nelson notched his second goal of the night with 9:17 gone in the period to give the Irish the 3-2 lead. The junior was set up by Knuble and senior alternate captain Axel Kumlin as the puck snuck between the PSU tender and the left post to give Notre Dame the advantage going into the final ten minutes of the third.
As he faced a solo skater with just over four minutes left to play and away from the crowd of Irish and PSU jerseys to the left of the goal, Nicholas Kempf won the one-on-one battle with a Nittany Lion when he deflected the puck with his left blocker into the corner of the Irish zone to hold the lead, 3-2. Penn State would find the equalizer late though, getting the tying goal with 2:15 left to play in regulation when a shot from the top of the zone beat Kempf to his right to make it a 3-3 game. Despite a few late chances, both teams headed to overtime for the second night in a row.
In the three-on-three overtime frame Notre Dame did not wait long to get chances on net. The Irish registered all three shots on goal in the overtime session, holding the Nittany Lions off the Irish netfront before Axel Kumlin would be the hero of the night just 47 seconds into overtime. His shot beat the PSU goalie as he laid out to stop the play, but the senior’s wrister found the back of the net to secure a 4-3 victory for the Irish to close out senior night.
GOALS
- Maddox Fleming opened the scoring for the Irish Saturday as he recorded his second goal of the season on an equalizing goal late in the first period. Set up by senior captain Michael Mastrodomenico off of a PSU turnover, Fleming did not hesitate to let the puck fly and rip past the goaltender to tie things up.
- Danny Nelson notched his first goal of the night and 12th of the year with six seconds left in the first frame to give the Irish the 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission. Cole Knuble dished the puck in deep to Evan Werner who was situated next to the left post and found Nelson open as he crashed the net from the opposite side and received the pass to bury the puck into the back of the PSU net.
- Recording his second of the night, Nelson broke the 2-2 tie with the Nittany Lions on a pass from Cole Knuble. As the skaters rushed up ice on a two-on-one advantage, Knuble secured the middle lane as the captain went up the left wing. Cole made the man bite as he dished the puck to an open Danny who let a one timer fly and beat the PSU goaltender as he slid across the crease.
- In the overtime period, senior Axel Kumlin ended the game for the Irish on a pass from Sutter Muzzatti in front of the net. With both skaters alone in front of the Penn State net, Muzzatti made a move to get the PSU goalie to shift enough to allow for Kumlin to rush in and launch the pass from Sutter into the back right corner of the net to finish the contest with a 4-3 win.
KEY STATS
- Danny Nelson recorded his 18th multipoint game and his second two goal game of his career on Saturday night’s victory.
- Notre Dame controlled the dot for the second night in a row recording a 65.6-percent win rate from the face-off circle with Sutter Muzzatti winning 14 out his 16 opportunities.
- Nicholas Kempf recorded 26 saves in tonight’s contest, 11 of which came in the final period.
UP NEXT
The Irish hit the road for one final time this regular season on a short week’s rest for a matchup with the Ohio State Buckeyes. Both games in Columbus are slated for 6:30 pm puck drops on Thursday and Friday (Mar. 5-6th).