Oct. 7, 2017 |  Box Score 

NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- Andrew Oglevie scored twice and Dylan St. Cyr stopped all 34 shots he faced in his Irish debut to help lead the University of Notre Dame hockey team to a 4-0 win over Alabama Huntsville on Saturday night at the Compton Family Ice Arena (3,412).

With the win, the Irish opened 2017-18 with a weekend sweep against the Chargers

Oglevie’s goals were both products of playing to the final whistle, as he scored at 19:59 of the first period and then at 19:59 of the second. His first goal gave the Irish the 1-0 lead and proved to be his sixth career game winner.

Jordan Gross scored his first goal of the year early in the second period to finish the series with four points (1-3-4).

Freshman forward Matt Steeves closed the scoring with his first career goal at 9:49 of the third period. 

In the Alabama Huntsville goal, Mark Sinclair totaled 27 saves.

COACH JACKSON’S TAKE

On St. Cyr's start in goal ...

“He answered some questions tonight which is a positive thing. We knew he was a good goaltender. He won the World U18 Championships last year. He's a very intelligent goaltender. He knows how big he his, and he uses it to his advantage. There are big teams that will try and crowd his crease, but that doesn't really bother him. He's in position aggressively, but he's in control. He can afford to play aggressively because he does a pretty good job with rebounds, too.”  

On takeaways from the weekend ...

“There's a lot of positives. We're still evaluating people. We had another freshman in tonight, and he scored a goal. Getting a chance to watch Hellickson, and Justin Wade being back in after missing a year, trying to see where he's at. It's still an evaluation for us at this point. But there's a lot of positives.”

On preparing for Denver and last season’s Frozen Four game ...

That was then and this is now. I just told them in the room, we're not going to blow this out of proportion. It's a big series, playing the number one ranked team in the country and justifiably so. They're a very talented team, returning a lot of highly talented guys. They know it. I don't have to talk to them about it. We'll have a normal work week and this early in the season, we need to just keep getting better and work on our game. We'll deal with next week when it comes.”

NOTRE DAME GOAL DESCRIPTIONS

1-0 I After Jake Evans broke up a clearing attempt along the boards, Bobby Nardella picked up the puck, deked past a defender and dished it off to Andrew Oglevie, who fired a one-timer into an empty net to put the Irish on the board at 19:59 of the first.

2-0 | Jordan Gross blasted one from the faceoff circle that beat Mark Sinclair high, finishing off a nice passing sequence that saw Colin Theisen and Bo Brauer earn the assists.

3-0 | Oglevie netted his second goal of the game after Evans picked up a Matt Hellickson chip in the neutral zone, skated towards the Alabama Huntsville goal with time winding down and then whipped a centering pass that found Oglevie with space to get his shot off. The goal was scored at 19:59 of the second.

4-0 | Joe Wegwerth corralled a loose puck in the neutral zone and brought it to just outside the Alabama Huntsville crease before firing a shot on net. Sinclair came up with the initial save, but Matt Steeves crashed the net and sent the rebound high past the Charger goaltender to net his first career goal at 9:49 of the third period.  

SPECIAL TEAMS
Notre Dame’s special teams helped key the win as the Irish penalty kill unit was a perfect 5-for-5. For the second night in a row, the Irish were forced to kill off a 5-on-3 Alabama Huntsville power play that was over 1:00 long, including two big shot blocks by Andrew Peeke. On the power play, Notre Dame finished 1-for-4.

NOTES

Dylan St. Cyr became the first Irish goaltender to record a shutout in his first career start since Mike Johnson blanked Providence 2-0 on Oct. 16, 2009 at the Joyce Center (29 saves).

Jake Evans notched two assists for his 24th career multi-point game, giving him five points on the weekend (2-3-5).

Andrew Oglevie scored twice for his third career two-goal game and his 12th career multi-point game. He also scored his sixth career game-winning goal.

Matt Steeves scored a goal in his Irish debut.

Gross skated in the 121st consecutive game of his Irish career (dating back to the first game of his freshman season). That streak ranks as the third-longest active streak in NCAA DI, trailing only Karson Kuhlman (Minnesota Duluth – 124) and Landon Smith (Quinnipiac – 123).

Colin Theisen notched his first career assist.

UP NEXT

The Irish will play host to top-ranked Denver next weekend (Oct. 13-14) at the Compton Family Ice Arena. Both games will be televised by the NBC Sports Network, with Friday’s puck drop slated for 7:05 p.m, while Saturday’s game will begin at 6:05 p.m. To purchase tickets, click here.

-- ND --