Notre Dame hockey is poised for a Frozen Four run

This time of the year, every year, veteran Notre Dame hockey coach Jeff Jackson provides much optimism but few solid answers when he’s asked what to expect from his team.

Because, frankly, even after 18 years on the Irish bench, Jackson himself is never exactly sure what to expect. 

“It’s really difficult to tell what it’s going to look like until you start playing,” Jackson explained. “But I really like their intensity, our competitiveness. And I like our depth, especially up front.”

What Jackson does know, is that he returns four of his top seven points scorers and three of his top five goal scorers from last season off of a remarkably balanced 2021-22 team that enjoyed great success. 

Jackson and Notre Dame featured seven different players last season who scored from 24 to 28 points.

Leading goal scorer (16) and point gatherer (28) Max Ellis is gone. But back and ready to build on terrific 2021-22 campaigns is a group of four returning Irish who tallied at least 24 points last season. 

That 2021-22 team fell just one win short of a third Frozen Four appearance in the last five seasons after winning its opening-round game of the 16-team NCAA Championship, 2-1 over North Dakota. 

Two days later with a fifth all-time Frozen Four appearance for the Irish program on the line, Notre Dame lost 1-0 in the Round of Eight to Minnesota State. 

Graduate Nick Leivermann explained how getting so close to the Frozen Four last year became the rallying cry to start this season, all the way back in June when the team gathered for the first time during the summer semester.

“It’s Frozen Four or bust for us this year,” said Leivermann, who is back for a fifth season after serving as an alternate captain and the team’s top defender in 2021-22. “Coming off of last year, when we were one or two goals away from making the Frozen Four Tournament, the guys got a taste of it.”

Leivermann explained how even back in the spring, while this year’s team was still being constructed and not yet fully familiar with the four new incoming freshmen and the four incoming graduate students, this season’s goal of reaching the 2023 Frozen Four in Tampa, Fla., was already being openly discussed. 

“We understand it’s a long season, but everybody is really excited,” Leivermann said. “Right away we were saying, ‘We’re going to Tampa.’ We had posters and banners this summer of the Frozen Four in the locker room. So, that’s all we’re looking forward too.”

In the immediate

The Irish return plenty of firepower and leadership this season from a strong 2021-22 team that went 28-12 overall, 17-6 in the Big 10 (3rd), and 17-8 at home inside Compton Family Ice Arena.

Sophomore forward Ryder Rolston statistically highlights the four-pack of top returning Irish scorers.

Rolston scored 27 points last season — which tied for second on the team — off of 10 goals and 17 assists.

When asked about key returning players, Coach Jackson first mentioned reliable junior forward and strong veteran leader Landon Slaggert.

A 2021 U.S. National Junior Team member and a native of South Bend, Ind., Slaggert finished tied for third on the team last season in goals (12) and was fifth in points (26). The 2022-23 First-Team All-Big Ten preseason selection also recorded 14 assists, a career-high.

In 40 games, Slaggert fired off 93 shots and recorded a plus-nine on-ice rating.  

Slaggart will be asked to wear many hats while leading this team, both on and off the ice.

Trevor Janicke was the next man mentioned on Jackson’s players-to-watch checklist.

The senior forward finished second on the team with 15 goals last season, and added 9 assists. 

Already a three-year point producer, Janicke is Notre Dame’s top returning goal scorer. 

“We’ll need good work from those two,” Jackson said of Slaggert and Janicke. “Both players had good years last year. We want them to build off of that.

“I think that we could take another step from where we were last year. I think that we could be more productive than we were offensively.”

Jackson also singled out Leivermann, who has been a gifted scorer and a leadership rock on this team since 2018. 

Leivermann enters his fifth and final season at Notre Dame as a preseason All-Big Ten honorable mention. 

During his first four years here, Leivermann appeared in 118 games, tallying 17 goals, 41 assists and 58 points.

“When you’re an upperclassman, you kind of see things differently,” Leivermann said. “And of course, being here for a fifth year in a row, you even have stronger relationships with everybody.”

Last season, Leivermann recorded a career-high 27 points, which tied for second on the team and placed him sixth among conference defenders.

“You hope all of those guys are going to be ready to handle the ups and downs of the season,” Jackson said of his four key returning scorers.

After spending most of his Irish career as a backup, senior goaltender Ryan Bischel is expected to draw the starting job in net. 

Bischel appeared in 16 games last season and recorded a 10-4 record as a starter, with a .924 save percentage and a 2.08 goals against average.  

“He just has to be ready to step up and show that he’s the guy,” Jackson said of Bischel, who is expected to be backed up by true freshman Jack Williams. 

Big goals, high hopes

Ranked No. 9 in the preseason, and picked to finish second to Minnesota in the Big Ten, Notre Dame isn’t going to sneak up on anybody.

And Jackson said that his team’s previous success and the high expectations that followed bring added responsibility. 

Every hockey team in the country can dream about conference titles and NCAA Championship appearances in early October. 

But Jackson said it’s when adversity hits — perhaps, in early November when the Irish play doubleheaders on consecutive weekends against No. 3 Minnesota and No. 6 Michigan — he’ll find out more about the mental makeup of his team. 

And in a sport where a bad bounce, a great save, or a puck off a post can turn a game and even a season, Jackson admitted to never really knowing what to expect.

“A lot of that ties into the leadership, and I think they have done a good job with that thus far,” Jackson said. “But you never really know until you see how they handle that adversity.”

Notre Dame opens its season later today (5 p.m. EST) with an exhibition at home against USNTDP. 

Its regular season begins on Oct. 7, at Denver, the reining national champion, the top-ranked team in the country this preseason, and a longtime nemesis for Jackson and Notre Dame. 

“This time of the year you are always excited,” Jackson said. “And everything I’ve seen so far points towards probably being a similar team to last year, and hopefully a little better.”