A quick start Saturday night put Notre Dame in position to walk out of No. 8 Penn State with a second straight win (although Friday’s was via shootout) and the Fighting Irish took full advantage.
Six and a half minutes into Saturday’s contest the Irish got on the board despite being a man-down as Cam Morrison scored his first career short-handed goal. Seven minutes later Cale Burke made good-use of a great Jake Pivonka feed to blow by a Penn State defender en-route to a goal and 2-0 Notre Dame advantage.
That’s the way things stayed until Penn State found the scoreboard at almost the exact halfway point, scoring on a one-timer via Alex Limoges which wound up being the only goal of the second period.
The final frame saw Notre Dame get a couple of great scoring chances to start but the Irish were turned away both times, allowing for Penn State’s Nikita Pavlychev to tie things up at two with just under 14 minutes to play.
Graham Slaggert however bailed the Fighting Irish out, scoring with five minutes remaining to put them in front 3-2, a lead they wouldn’t surrender.
Tory Dello added an empty net goal as the Irish got the regulation win behind Cale Morris who finished with 23 saves on 25 shots faced.
Notre Dame improves to 12-11-5 overall and 7-7-4-3 in Big Ten play. The Fighting Irish will enjoy a bye week next weekend before welcoming Minnesota to South Bend for a two-game series on Valentine’s Day weekend.