SOUTH BEND, Ind. — No. 8 Notre Dame Hockey opened the weekend series against No. 18 Ohio State with a 4-2 loss on Friday night at Compton Family Ice Arena (4,343).
Ryder Rolston and Max Ellis each scored a goal for the Irish, who moved to 10-4-0 on the year and 4-3-0-2-0-0 in conference play. Nick Leivermann also finished with a pair of assists.
The Irish outshot the Buckeyes 36-28 as Matthew Galajda mad 24 saves on the night for Notre Dame and Ohio State goaltender Jakub Dobeš made 34. The Buckeyes are now 9-4-0 on the season (5-2-0-0-0-0 B1G).
Special teams proved pivotal as Ohio State went 2-for-5 on the power play while Notre Dame was 0-for-2.
How It Happened
Ryder Rolston gave the Irish a 1-0 lead at 7:41 of the first period with a wrister from the far boards that eluded Jakub Dobes’ glove. Rolston’s fifth of the year was assisted by Graham Slaggert and Nick Leivermann.
Ohio State scored the next two goals for a 2-1 lead after the first period, including a Kamil Sadlocha tally at 12:34 and a Travis Treloar power-play goal at 15:27.
The Irish killed off an Ohio State power play to start the second, including a big stop by Matthew Galajda on Gustaf Westlund and a Zach Plucinski shot block.
Notre Dame got its first power-play chance midway through the second but Grant Silianoff was denied by Dobes on the best look by the Irish.
Ohio State was able to push it to a 3-1 lead at 12:16 of the second when Georgii Merkulovof scored his fourth of the year and then the Buckeyes made it a 4-1 game at 15:54 on a Will Reidel power-play goal.
Notre Dame put together another strong penalty kill early in the third but their pressure at the other end was stifled by the Buckeyes.
Max Ellis buried his eleventh goal of the season to cut the Buckeyes’ lead to 4-2 at 18:42 of the third with the extra attacker on. Ellis’ team-leading 11th goal of the season was assisted by Landon Slaggert and Leivermann.
Notes
- After scoring one goal in 28 games as a freshman, sophomore forward Ryder Rolston has five goals in 14 games so far this season.
- Rolston is now tied with Trevor Janicke and Graham Slaggert for the second most goals on the team this season (5), trailing Ellis with 11.
- With a pair of assists, Nick Leivermann extended his point streak to five games (1-7-8) and became the team leader with nine assists so far this season.
- It marked Leivermann’s fourth multi-point game of the season and ninth of his career.
- Leivermann now leads the team with nine assists on the year.
- With a goal, Max Ellis extended his point streak to eight games (8-4-12).
- The Irish are now 6-2-0 at home this season.
Next Up
- Notre Dame and Ohio State close out their weekend series at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 4 at the Compton Family Ice Arena (tickets).
— ND —