#13 Notre Dame Takes Down UNH With Ease

Freshman Ara Nazarian Penalty Shot Goal

Senior Goalie Jamie Regan 1 Goal Against, #3 Star

DURHAM, NH - It was another dismal effort for the Wildcats as they fell to the Fighting Irish by a score of 5-1.

Early on in the game it was evident UNH was outmanned and out battled by Notre Dame and it carried through the entire game.

The Fighting Irish pocketed two goals in the first seven minutes of the game. Danny Tirone allowed the first two goals on only four shots, including a soft goal by Connor Hurley at 3:12 of the first and UNH was stuck in a hole.

The Wildcats had roughly two minutes of solid offensive possession through the entire first period. Other than that, they played on their heels and were overshadowed by the strength of Notre Dame.

In the second period Notre Dame struck again on the power play at 8:39 as Anders Bjork scored his tenth of the season and gave the Fighting Irish a 3-0 lead.

Mario Lucia would add his second of the night at 11:47 of the second as he placed a shot top shelf over the blocker side shoulder of Tirone to extend the lead to 4-0.

That would be the end of the night for Tirone who gave way to senior Jamie Regan, who would come in and play a great game in relief. Regan made 18 saves on 19 shots.

The only exciting moment of the night for UNH was in the final second of the second period when Ara Nazarian scored on a penalty shot to cut the lead to 4-1. This was the first successful UNH penalty shot since 2006. Here's a video of Nazarian's goal courtesy of Mike Lowry:



From there, Notre Dame would add one more at 7:29 off the stick of Sam Herr who was left all alone in front on the power play and buried a rebound shot past Regan to make it 5-1.

In the end, not much went the right way for UNH all night. Goaltending, defense and offense were absent from roughly every minute of the game.

The Wildcats play host to Notre Dame again tomorrow night at 5:00 PM and have a multitude of adjustments to make if they want to be competitive. Overall, figuring out how to get the powerful line of Andrew Poturalski, Tyler Kelleher and Dan Correale back on track may be most important.

Poturalski, who is still the leading scorer in NCAA Division I hockey, has been held scoreless for four straight games and has been stifled by opposing defenses the past few weeks.

The interesting development may be the goaltending situation for UNH. With the struggles of Danny Tirone continuing and a great performance by Jamie Regan, one has to wonder if there may be a switch in starter for tomorrows tilt.

Box Score