Notre Dame hockey completes season sweep of Penn State with shutout

On3 imageby:Tyler Horka02/05/22

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No Nick Leivermann, Cam Burke or Solag Bakich? No problem for Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish dug deep into the reserves on the roster this weekend against Penn State at Compton Family Ice Arena with three usual starters out with injuries. Their replacements fared as well as head coach Jeff Jackson could have hoped for.

Notre Dame outscored Penn State by eight goals in two games this weekend and capped a four-game season sweep of the Nittany Lions with a 3-0 victory Saturday. Junior Ryan Bischel picked up the second shutout of his career with 35 saves. Freshman forward Tyler Carpenter scored the game’s first goal — and the first of his career — playing in place of Bakich.

“The next man up scored the game-winning goal,” said a smiling Jackson, who also complimented senior defenseman Charlie Raith for filling in for Leivermann in both games. Freshman Justin Janicke, who was in the lineup in both games for depth purposes, scored his first career goal Friday.

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Indeed, Carpenter’s five-hole wrister on a pretty feed from sophomore forward Ryder Rolston stood up as the game winner. But it came with nearly 50 minutes left to play. After the 7-2 thrashing Notre Dame put on Penn State 24 hours earlier, Jackson knew his guys had to keep pressing.

The Nittany Lions weren’t going to let the Irish skate circles around them again — especially considering the five-goal margin made Friday’s game seem much worse than it really was.

Notre Dame only led by one goal approaching the midway point of the third period Friday. The Irish exploded for four goals in the last 12 minutes. Having been on the other end of nearly the exact same situation one week prior, the Irish had first-hand experience of what to expect from a hungry, desperate Penn State squad.

Notre Dame lost its first three games to Minnesota this season — just like Penn State succumbing to Notre Dame in their first three. Also likewise in those two instances, the third game was an absolute blowout. Notre Dame did its damage to Penn State Friday, and Minnesota blasted Notre Dame 5-1 the Friday before that.

“I told our guys it was going to be no different than how we came back after losing Friday night to Minnesota,” Jackson said. “You’re going to have a pushback. And they did. They played much better defensively. Gritty defensively. They made it really hard on us.”

Not hard enough.

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This time, the team on the wrong end of the season series didn’t salvage the final game. The Irish beat the Golden Gophers 3-2 in overtime last Saturday. Penn State couldn’t replicate any sort of game-four magic. Carpenter got the Irish started in the right direction early. Junior forward Jesse Lansdell scored his sixth of the season on a short-side snipe halfway through the second period to make it 2-0. Bischel held onto the same advantage until graduate senior Adam Karashik flicked the puck from his own zone into an empty net with 2:24 left.

Game, set, season series sweep.

Karashik, a team captain, had done everything for the Irish this season but score a goal. He has 11 assists, a team-high 61 blocked shots countless instances of moving the puck up and out of the defensive zone with ease. The empty netter was his first tally of the season.

It had been a long time coming.

“He’s been a warrior for us all year long,” Jackson said. “That’s part of the reason why he’s wearing the ‘C’. It is nice to see him get rewarded. He’s done a great job for us this year, and it’s nice to see him have some success but also to get recognized in scoring a goal.”

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Lost in the hysteria of two first-time goal scorers? Bischel’s perfection. He has started three-straight games for the Irish, all victories, and has stopped 94 of 98 shots in that span. He’s clearly Jackson’s No. 1 guy between the pipes at the moment.

“All he needs to do is make the saves he has to make that are not over-challenging, make the saves you need to make, and then occasionally make a great save,” Jackson said. “Which he did tonight. I’m proud of him. He’s made a big step over the last couple of years.”

The Irish are firmly entrenched in fourth place in the Big 10 Standings with three series and six games to go. They have 32 points. Third-place Minnesota has 32. Fifth-place Penn State has 17. At this point, it’s more about taking one game at a time and finishing the season strong than it is about chasing the standings.

Notre Dame is on the road at Wisconsin on Feb. 10 and 11 and at Michigan State on Feb. 18 and 19 before returning home to face Michigan on Feb. 24 and 25. The Wolverines rank No. 1 in the Pairwise Rankings, a key determinant of the 16-team NCAA Tournament field, and second in the Big 10 standings with 38 points. The Irish went into Saturday sitting at No. 12 in the Pairwise.

Every game is huge for the Irish. Not so much for catching Michigan or Big 10 leader Ohio State (43 points) in the conference standings but more so for continuing to position themselves for the NCAA Tournament.

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