SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The 10th-ranked Fighting Irish bounced back after a loss Saturday night to dominate Niagara for a 5-0 victory at Compton Family Ice Arena (3,374) Sunday evening.
Trevor Janicke and Cam Burke led the Irish offense. Each scored a pair of goals. Burke tallied Notre Dame’s first goal in the final minute of the first period and added his second goal in the second period. Janicke added two of his own in the second period, and sophomore Zach Plucinski scored his first goal of the season in the third.
Grant Silianoff had two assists, while seven other players had an assist in the contest, including goalie Ryan Bischel. The Irish offense tested Niagara for the full 60 minutes, outshooting the Purple Eagles 44-19.
Bischel earned his first career shutout in the victory. The junior tallied 19 saves, nine of which came in the second period.
“I knew that tonight we were going to come out and play a lot better than we did last night,” Bischel stated after the win. “The guys were fired up and we needed a response and had that tonight.”
Notre Dame improves to 13-6 with the victory.
The Irish power play was 1-for-4 on the night, and the penalty kill held Niagara to an 0-for-6 mark.
How It Happened
The Irish had the game’s first handful of chances, including a Trevor Janicke shot from the slot that went just wide and a Jack Adams backhander from in close that Chad Veltri made a pad stop on.
Midway through the first, Notre Dame goaltender Ryan Bischel made a save on Brandon Stanley to shut down a 2-on-1 chance.
With 40 seconds left in the first Burke opened the scoring with his fifth of the year, slamming home a rebound in front after Veltri made a save on a Ryder Rolston chance. Grant Silianoff set Rolston up in front for the initial chance to earn the second assist.
The Irish then scored three more goals in the first 7:18 of the second period to extend the lead to 4-0 after 40 minutes.
Trevor Janicke scored his first of the night at 2:06 when he cleaned up a rebound at the back post after Solag Bakich had brought the puck hard to the net.
Burke then scored a shorthanded goal at 5:07 to extend the lead to 3-0, after he took the a Bischel clear and scored on the breakaway chance.
Jake Sibell relieved Chad Veltri in the Niagara net after Burke’s second of the night.
Janicke netted his second of the night, crashing the net for a power-play goal at 7:18 with the assists going to Grant Silianoff and Chase Blackmun.
Notre Dame’s penalty killing unit came up big later in the period, killing off 1:40 of a Niagara 5-on-3 chance.
In the third, the Irish added another goal, this from Plucinski. Max Ellis’s shot was set up off of a pass from Spencer Stastney. The shot was deflected straight towards Plucinski who buried his chance to pick up his first goal of the season.
Next – Notes…