This Big Ten hockey conference is apparently too easy for the Notre Dame. Top-line forward Cal Burke begs to differ, but the results speak for themselves.
Five Big Ten teams have tried to get the Irish a rude welcome to the league. All five have failed, part of the reason why the new kids on the block will spend the holidays with a firm 14-point lead on second place.
“It’s probably the furthest thing from easy, to be honest,” said Burke, as the sophomore registered a hat trick to push No. 4 Notre Dame’s winning streak to 13 with a 6-2 victory over No. 12 Wisconsin at the Kohl Center.
“Every team we’re playing has been really good so far. It’s really been a battle, and we’ve been trying to focus on the right things and playing our game. When you’re playing great teams like the ones in the Big Ten, if you’re not playing the right way, it’s not going to look good for you.”
At the unofficial midpoint of the conference season, the Irish (16-3-1, 10-0-0-0 Big Ten) are the only team in league history to win their first 10 games. Having played every team in the conference but Michigan (that comes next Jan. 5), the Irish are 6-for-6 away from home in conference play after sweeping the Badgers on the road for the first time in 14 tries.
“I can’t explain it,” Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson said, “but I try to stay out of the way.”
Extending their winning streak over the weekend required two different responses. On Friday, the Irish erased a two-goal, third-period deficit for the first time in two years. On Saturday, it was all about the response.
Twice, Wisconsin (10-9-2, 4-5-1-1) erased a Notre Dame lead within five minutes, but the Irish kept putting the pressure on thanks to Burke. After slamming his own rebound past UW goalie Kyle Hayton (23 saves) to open the scoring in the first period, Burke corralled a loose puck behind the net and backhanded it past Hayton for the unassisted tally at 14:16 in the second.
Before the Badgers had the chance to erase a third lead, defenseman Dennis Gilbert rifled a shot from the left circle for some needed insurance at 10:55 in the third period. Burke beat Hayton stick side on a breakaway with 4:37 remaining for the program’s first hat trick since the 2015-16 opener.
An empty-netter by Mike O’Leary gave Notre Dame three goals in the final period for the second straight night.
“We had a great summer of training and conditioning, so when we come out in the third we have a lot of energy,” Burke said, who leads the team with 12 goals. “Guys prepare to battle. We do a great job of staying focused in the locker room between the second and third. We know what we have to do when we come out to close out the game.”
The opposite can be said for the Badgers, who are 4-7-2 in their last 13 outings. After letting one slip away Friday, Wisconsin coach Tony Granato changed his whole fourth line, switched goalies, and listed seven defensemen.
The result was two reactive goals — the first by seventh defenseman Cullen Hurley and the second on a persistent rebound by senior Ryan Wagner — but not enough to overcome inconsistent goaltending and special teams.
“Period-to-period, game-to-game, you’ve got to play the same way,” Granato said. “You have to have an identity, so you have to know what the guy next to you is going to give you. … Notre Dame was able to play their style and the way they wanted to play.”
Jackson called his group “resilient” throughout the first half of the season, a trait that has likely grown from the play of their goalie. Playing in one game last season as the backup to Cal Petersen, sophomore Cale Morris (15-1-0) has stopped 434 of the 452 shots he’s faced over the win streak.
“He’s been rock solid here for the last two months,” Jackson said. “Not many people would have predicted it. I’m not sure I would have predicted it. I knew he was a good goalie when we recruited him. He kind of got hidden last year. He’s approached it the right way. He had a great attitude, great work ethic. He got better last year, and that’s hard to do when you’re not playing.”
Big Ten roundup
No.15 Ohio State 4, No.7 Minnesota 1
Forward Mason Jobst scored twice and senior Matthew Weis registered his 100th point on the game-winning assist, as the Buckeyes swept the Gophers for the first time in school history to move into second place in the Big Ten at the holiday break. Brent Gates tied the game for the Gophers in the second period, but Weis’ face-off win sent the puck high between the circles to sophomore defenseman Matt Miller, who buried it glove side at 14:47 of the third period. Ohio State added two empty net goals in the final minute. Buckeyes goalie Sean Romeo stopped 33 shots for the second straight night and Ohio State went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill. Minnesota has now lost five of six and is 0-5-1 on the road in conference play.
No.18 Penn State 7, Robert Morris 4
Sophomores Denis Smirnov and Nate Sucese each scored a pair of goals to lead the Nittany Lions to a weekend sweep of the Colonials to extend their unbeaten streak to eight games (6-0-2). Host Penn State gave up the opening goal for the second night in a row, this one coming on the first shot 27 seconds into the game, but Smirnov scored twice in a 6:12 span in what turned out to be a three-goal first period. Smirnov also added two assists for his first four-point game of the season. The power play was the catalyst for the Nittany Lions, yet also created an anxious moment. Robert Morris’ Brian Hamilton scored with eight seconds remaining in the first period, the first of three times the Colonials cut the deficit to one on the night, but the Nittany Lions drew seven penalties (at least two in each period) that resulted in three power-play goals.
