Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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HOCKEY HISTORY MADE AT NOTRE DAME Sometimes one has to go to great lengths in athletics to survive and advance. The Notre Dame hockey team did that during its Hockey East first-round playoff series March 6-8 versus Massachusetts. On March 6, the longest college hockey game in history — a little more than two and a half regulation games worth of action — ended with No. 12 seed Massachusetts defeating No. 5 seed Notre Dame 4-3 in five overtimes. Yet in the best-of-three series, the Fighting Irish demonstrated strong mental resolve to win 5-3 and 7-0 the next two nights to advance to the March 13-15 quarterfinals, also best of three, with a 17-17-5 overall record. The Irish need to win the tourney to receive a bid to the 16-team NCAA Tournament. In the opening game versus Massachusetts, Notre Dame freshman goaltender Cal Petersen set an NCAA single-game record with 87 saves while UMass' Steve Mastalerz made 75 (fifth- most ever). Hockey has three periods of 20 minutes for 60 regulation minutes, but this game didn't end until 151:42 of game action when Minuteman Shane Walsh tallied the win- ning goal at 1:24 a.m. Eastern time (face-off was around 7:35). The previous longest college hockey game ever was on March 12, 2010 — 150:22 of game action when Quinnipiac defeated Union 3-2 in the ECAC quarterfinals. The prior Notre Dame record was merely 95:18 on March 23, 2007, versus Alabama-Huntsville in first-round NCAA Tournament action. Goals by junior left wing Sam Herr and soph- omore center Vince Hinostroza provided Notre Dame a 2-0 cushion midway through the second period. In the final 10:41 of the second, the two teams combined to score five goals for a 3-3 tie that would thereafter seem endless. After UMass sliced the deficit to 2-1, a Notre Dame power play saw senior defenseman and captain Robbie Russo pick up his third assist of the night on a goal by junior Steven Fogarty. Massachusetts' Steven Iacobellis then scored twice — the second on a power play with just 2.0 seconds left in the period during a flurry in front of the net. The goaltenders thereafter would combine to stop the next 125 shots in the third period, through four overtimes and halfway through the fifth before UMass found the back of the net 11:42 into the fifth overtime (each of which is also 20 minutes). It was "sudden death" that took a long time, but it was Massachusetts that eventually was eliminated. UNDER THE DOME In the first round of the Hockey East Tournament, Notre Dame and Massachusetts engaged in a five- overtime contest that ultimately resulted in a 4-3 Irish loss. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND