It was going to take some strong mental resolve from Notre Dame on Saturday night to continue its hockey season at least one more game after losing the longest played game in college hockey history on Friday night. Fortunately, head coach Jeff Jackson's crew found it to live another day in the best of three first-round Hockey East series vs. UMass with a 5-3 victory.
It's win or go home tonight for ND (16-17-5) and UMass (11-22-2). An Irish win would advance it to a best-of-three quarterfinal series with UMass-Lowell next weekend.
Yesterday, the Notre Dame and Massachusetts hockey teams stood tied after two periods and let that deadlock stand for hours before the Minutemen claimed the longest game in college hockey history 11:42 into the fifth overtime period. Tonight, similarly deadlocked after 40 minutes of play, Vince Hinostroza prevented a recurrence of Friday's long march into early Saturday morning, scoring twice in the first 4:00 of the third period to lift the Irish to a 5-3 win.
Saturday's game was on pace for another long night when the score was deadlocked 1-1 after the first period and 2-2 following the second. Mario Lucia and Peter Schneider netted the Irish goals, the latter to tie at 2.
In the third period, Notre Dame took command by tallying three goals in the first 4:38, the first two by Vince Hinostroza in the first four minutes and the final one by senior Steven Fogarty 38 seconds later for the 5-2 cushion. Thomas DiPauli had three assists for the Irish while Russo had two (he also assisted on all three on Friday). After setting the NCAA Division I record for most saves in a game on Friday with 87, freshman goaltender had a much quieter night with 22.
Listed attendance for the game was 4,289, an excellent number on spring break.
It's win or go home tonight for ND (16-17-5) and UMass (11-22-2). An Irish win would advance it to a best-of-three quarterfinal series with UMass-Lowell next weekend.
Yesterday, the Notre Dame and Massachusetts hockey teams stood tied after two periods and let that deadlock stand for hours before the Minutemen claimed the longest game in college hockey history 11:42 into the fifth overtime period. Tonight, similarly deadlocked after 40 minutes of play, Vince Hinostroza prevented a recurrence of Friday's long march into early Saturday morning, scoring twice in the first 4:00 of the third period to lift the Irish to a 5-3 win.
Saturday's game was on pace for another long night when the score was deadlocked 1-1 after the first period and 2-2 following the second. Mario Lucia and Peter Schneider netted the Irish goals, the latter to tie at 2.
In the third period, Notre Dame took command by tallying three goals in the first 4:38, the first two by Vince Hinostroza in the first four minutes and the final one by senior Steven Fogarty 38 seconds later for the 5-2 cushion. Thomas DiPauli had three assists for the Irish while Russo had two (he also assisted on all three on Friday). After setting the NCAA Division I record for most saves in a game on Friday with 87, freshman goaltender had a much quieter night with 22.
Listed attendance for the game was 4,289, an excellent number on spring break.
