SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Alex Steeves scored a pair of goals to lead the eighth-ranked University of Notre Dame men’s hockey team to a 5-1 victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), on Friday night at the Compton Family Ice Arena. With the win, the Fighting Irish improve to 9-4-1 overall, while the Engineers drop to 4-8-0.
Steeves opened the scoring at 5:53 of the first period, when he worked his way off the right wing boards and fired home a shot from the high slot. Nate Clurman and Bobby Nardella picked up the assists on the play. Cal Burke then doubled the hosts’ lead at 19:17 of the frame
Notre Dame tallied three times in the second period, beginning with Steeves’ second of the night at 1:29 of the stanza. Turning away from the press of RPI freshman defenseman Kyle Hallbauer, Steeves threw the puck at the net and it found its way past sophomore goaltender Linden Marshall for a 3-0 lead.
Cam Morrison then made it 4-0, just 32 second later, when his shot from the low slot flipped into the top left corner of the yet. Take a feed from behind the net by Colin Theisen, Morrison got just enough of the puck to lift over Marshall’s right shoulder. A secondary assist was credited to Mike O’Leary.
The Fighting Irish capped the scoring for the period at 19:12, on a drive up the left wing boards by Dylan Malmquist. Jumping on the end feed up the wall by goaltender Cale Morris, Malmquist snuck a shot inside the near post of RPI senior netminder Chase Perry for his fourth goal of the season.
Hallbauer got the Engineers on the board with the only tally of the third period. Taking a pass from senior captain Tommy Grant, Hallbauer picked out the top left corner of the net, from between the circles, for his first collegiate tally. Junior Todd Burgess had the second assist on the even strength marker.
Notre Dame finished with a 38-37 edge in shots, with Morris saving 36 for the win. Marshall (3-7-0) made 16 saves in the opening 22:01, before Perry stopped 17 of 18 to finish off the game. The Fighting Irish were 0 for 2 on the power play, while the Engineers went 0 for 1.
Both teams are back in action tomorrow night for game two of the weekend series, with puck drop scheduled for 7:05pm.
