The Irish and Nittany Lions serve up a precursor to their CFP meeting
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team returns to the ice after winter break, this time with a twist. Before they meet on the football field in the CFP Semifinals, the Irish and Penn State Nittany Lions will play a pair of hockey games, including one outside at Wrigley Field. It has been a rough start to the season for both teams, with them sitting as the bottom two in the Big Ten, but taking the game outside will be an incredible experience for both teams and have the chance to revitalize the winner.
Where, When, How to Watch
- Where: Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL (Game 1); Compton Family Ice Arena, Notre Dame, IN (Game2)
- When: Friday, January 3, 8:30pm ET (Game 1); Sunday, January 5, 5pm ET (Game 2)
- How to Watch: Game 1 on Big Ten Network and Game 2 streaming on Peacock
Just a few days after it hosted the Winter Classic, Wrigley Field will again be the home of outdoor hockey. The Big Ten will play a series of games outdoors at the iconic baseball stadium starting with Notre Dame and Penn State on Friday night. Notre Dame has played outdoors several times previously, including games at Soldier Field and most recently at Notre Dame Stadium, also following the Winter Classic. This will be their fourth game outdoors in program history.
There is also a game indoors to close out the series, and it is an important one for the Irish. The opening half of the season saw them lose more than win, and they are currently sixth in the Big Ten with only Penn State behind them. Their conference record is currently 1-9 and that lone win came in their first conference game of the season back on November 1. They have not yet faced Penn State though and the Nittany Lions are behind them in the conference standings with zero wins. The fact that they have yet to play each other also means that these two teams will face off in two series over the final few weeks of the season.
Notre Dame’s biggest issue so far this season has been scoring as they are decidedly middle of the country in goals and that won’t be good enough in a conference this tough. The Irish will also be without third leading point scorer Danny Nelson this weekend as he continues to play for team USA at the World Junior Championships. The rest of the scoring leaders will be playing though and will be looking to take advantage of a Penn State team so far that has had good but not great defense and goaltending, allowing over 3 goals per game as a team.
Penn State scores at a slightly higher rate than Notre Dame, but the difference is nearly negligible. The Irish goaltending started the year off strong but has cooled a bit since. This weekend will be a chance to continue getting back on track after a strong showing in two losses to Ohio State right before winter break. They allowed five goals over two games in that series, which included a game that went to overtime. Another series like that this weekend and things will be looing up. The problem in December was that the Irish only scored two goals over those two games and they will need much more offense to start winning games.
Prediction
Hockey is tough to predict, and outdoor games are always a coin flip due to the novelty for both teams. The weather tonight looks like it will be clear skies and cold, which should make for a clean game. Once they go back to Compton it becomes a game that Notre Dame needs to win at home. If they can get both games they will start the second half off strong with something to build on.