Carpenter’s big night leads Notre Dame past BC
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – If the Notre Dame hockey team’s goal scoring has only just begun, Tyler Carpenter deserves a lot of credit.
The sophomore center from Palatine, Ill., scored a pair of goals and assisted on Jesse Lansdell’s game-winner as the 19th-ranked Fighting Irish finished off a two-game trip to New England with a 5-2 victory over long-time hockey rival Boston College Friday evening before 6,234 at the Conte Forum.
Coach Jeff Jackson’s team, which came into the contest averaging just 2.2 goals a game following Wednesday’s 5-2 loss at No. 11 Boston University, evened its record at 7-7-2 as Carpenter doubled his career totals for goals, assists and points with the 2-1-3 output in his 20th career game.
Wednesday game:No. 11 Boston overwhelms Notre Dame skaters in final two periods for 5-2 win
Men's basketball:St. Bonaventure hands Notre Dame basketball its first loss of season
The Irish got a team-leading fifth goal from graduate defenseman and captain Nick Leivermann to start things and ended them with an empty-net goal by graduate defenseman Ben Brinkman, his second in as many games.
The five goals were the most scored by the Irish since their 5-0 Big Ten victory over Michigan State on Oct. 28 in South Bend nine games ago. In the eight games prior to Friday’s victory, Notre Dame was 2-5-1 while scoring 11 goals.
The offensive outburst was welcomed by senior goaltender Ryan Bischel, who made 22 saves, one more than Boston College goalie Mitch Benson. Goals by Trevor Kuntar at 19:44 of the first period and Eamon Powell at 1:07 of the second period gave the Eagles a brief 2-1 lead before Carpenter’s first goal of the night at 2:22 pulled the Irish even at 2-2.
Notre Dame opened the scoring when Leivermann scored his fifth goal of the season at 12:46 with a slapshot into a wide-open net from the faceoff circle to Benson’s left. Ryder Rolston fed the puck back to defenseman Chase Blackmun, who found a wide-open Leivermann for the one-timer.
Late in the period, Boston College’s Andre Gasseau jumped on the bouncing puck along the boards and fed Kuntar in the faceoff circle and his shot beat the screened Bischel at 19:44 to send the teams to their locker rooms tied 1-1.
The Eagles came out quickly in the second period when Powell and Nikita Nesterenko played give-and-go to the right of Bischel and Powell’s shot beat the Irish goalie at 1:07.
But the Irish struck back at 2:22 on a line change. Solag Bakich came up with a Boston College turnover and threw the puck behind the net to Trevor Janicke, who centered in front to a breaking Carpenter, who beat Benson over his glove to tie the game at 2-2.
The Irish then regained the lead at 18:39. Lansdell managed to steal the puck in the faceoff circle and got it back to Carpenter, who shot the puck toward Benson. Lansdell got his stick on the shot and the re-directed puck bounced past the Eagles goalie to put the Irish up 3-2 going into the third period.
Carpenter made it 4-2 Notre Dame after Lansdell made a pretty move after taking a pass from freshman defenseman Michael Mastrodomenico. Lansdell skated around a B.C. defender and fired a shot at Benson, who made the save but couldn’t stop Carpenter’s backhand rebound at 10:25.
Then with Benson off for a sixth attacker, the Irish, who dominated the third period with a 14-7 edge in shots on goal, got control of the puck in their own zone and Brinkman shot the puck 175 feet into the vacated net at 18:05.
The Irish don’t play until Dec. 9-10 when they close out the first semester with a Big Ten home series against No. 7 Penn State.