It’s been an incredibly long time since the Fightin’ Irish have seen competitive play. It’s been eight months to be exact. The only type of play the Fightin’ Irish have seen this season has been team scrimmages. This years schedule does not include any exhibition games to kick off the rust. This season the Irish are thrust right into a B1G schedule. First up for the Fightin’ Irish are the Wisconsin Badgers.
First Period
The Irish played a lot of defense Friday night against the Badgers. In the first period, Dylan St Cyr saw ten shots on goal (s.o.g) and one got past him at 13:05. The Badgers kept the Irish on their heels in the first by spreading them out and making the play plenty of defense. Through the first period the Fightin’ Irish could not solve Robby Beydoun. Beydoun owned the land between the pipes by stopping the Irish six times in the period.
Second Period
The second period saw St Cyr with a monster save at the 6:15 mark. The Irish had the first crack at the Power Play in the period. The Irish had no shots on goal during the Power Play. Four minutes later the Badgers go on the Power Play and score :45 into the man advantage. The Badgers go up 2-0 on the Irish. Though the Fightin’ Irish led on the stat sheet, it still seemed like they played more defense than offense. The Irish led in the s.o.g 9-8 (1 goal allowed by St Cyr), faceoffs 12-10. It gets down to the quality of the s.o.g. and that is the difference. Wisconsin goes into the second intermission up 2-0.
Third Period
The third period saw the Freshman fire power come out. Grant Sillianoff was firing on all cylinders. Late in the period Sillianoff hot the pipe twice. The sound that sounds great to the fans, not so much to the player that shot it. Ryder Rolston was firing as well. To finish the Freshman line, Landon Slaggert was winning the face-off battle. Pretty impressive for the Freshman trio during the season opener. The Irish defense tightened up, the Badgers playing to protect the lead did just that. The Irish did bring upo their offensive numbers though. S.O.G. were 10-4 in the Irish favor, St Cyr stopped all those shots by the Badgers and the Irish ruled the face-off 11-7. Despite all that, the Irish still fall 2-0.
Extra Shots
- Seniors Matt Hellickson and Colin Theisen skated in their 118th-consecutive games, dating back to the first game of their freshman season.
- Senior goaltender Dylan St. Cyr made his 10th career start and first since Feb. 16, 2019, which was a 5-2 win over the Badgers at the Compton Family Ice Arena.
- Freshmen Grant Silianoff, Landon Slaggert, Ryder Rolston and Zach Plucinski each made their Notre Dame debuts.
- Junior Cam Burke played his first career game on defense.
Next Up
The Fightin’ Irish will wrap up their season opener against the Badgers Saturday night at 7 P.M. EST at Compton Family Ice Arena. Saturday’s game will be on the NHL Network and NBC Sports Philadelphia+ while also available digitally on NBCSports.com and fans can listen to the radio broadcast of the game here.
Cheers and Go Irish!☘🚨🥅🌩
