Our #6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (8-4) lost another tough one to the #12 Syracuse Orange (10-5) this Friday in the ACC semi-final. It was a hard-fought, but not mistake-free, game that presents the Irish with a nervous selection Sunday.

A quick recap of the game and our thoughts on the status of the team going into the NCAA tournament.

The Plot

Syracuse opened the scoring off a defensive miscommunication on the crease, before quickly adding to their lead with a pole goal on a fast break to make it 0-2 Syracuse. Syracuse continued their run making it 0-3. CKav did it himself after a great turnover earned the defense to get it started for the Irish and cut the lead to 2. After a bit of a drought and a missed man-up opportunity, Busenkell put another in for the Irish, cutting the lead to 1. 

The Orange weren’t going to let the Irish get momentum, and scored another to put the lead back to 2. Berhman got a rebound off a nice Cuse save and was able to cut it back to 1 to end the first. We definitely weren’t excited to be down after one frame, but the boys fought hard and kept it close. The performance was sloppy, but there was little to suggest the team could not tidy things up and take it to the Orange.

After a quiet first 5 minutes of the second, Seymour put one in the back of the net to tie the game up at 4. Syracuse was able to quickly respond and retake the lead, before scoring another 2 goals off the face-off making it a 3 goal lead for the Orange. Those 3 goals were scored in 21 seconds. Cuse continued this streak to 4, scoring on the gassed ND defense who has had to play a lot of defense with the faceoff unit struggling. Freshman Luke Miller ended the Orange’s run, scoring in what is only his second ever game playing with the main units. Faison added more more for the Irish to make it 8-6 at the half.

The second quarter performance left a lot to be desired The boys only had 1 shot in the first 10 minutes of the quarter. The clears were sloppy and gave the Orange an edge, particularly with Syracuse dominating faceoff possessions to this point. Undisciplined clears and shooting but the Irish in more difficulty than Syracuse did. The boys were fortunate to only be down 2.

The Second Half…

McLane started the second half quickly off a fast break goal, bringing the lead down to just one. Syracuse was able to respond quickly with a man-up goal, before the game was called for a weather delay.

After an hour long break, the game resumed and Angrick got right back to work beating his guy from X. Cuse responded with a pair of their own goals, one being off a failed Irish 2 extra man-up opportunity, to bring the lead back to 3 going into the fourth. The players and coaches were clearly getting frustrated with themselves for the poor execution.

The third quarter was rough. There’s no sense sugar coating it. Not because the boys were necessarily playing badly, but because of the missed opportunities. There were plenty of chances for the boys to put one in and they simply couldn’t find the net or shoot a high to high that ended up being an easy save. There was so much potential in this quarter for the boys to take control over the game, they just couldn’t grab onto it. 

Starting the fourth, the Orange put another one in off a free possession because of the Taylor dead-ball penalty. Agent Zero found the back of the net to blunt Syracuse momentum. He was put in when Taylor was very publicly sat on the bench for some unfocused play from the graduate student. Cuse wasn’t interested in letting the Irish regain easily and put another one in the back of the net, making it 9-13. CKav tried to start a late run for the Irish, but Syracuse found one more to put it out of reach. McLane and Angrick scored in garbage time to make the score closer. The game ended at 12-14.

The Scoring

Mclane and Angrick both had 2 goals and 2 assists, CKav had 2 goals and an assist, Faison had a goal, Jeffery Ricciardelli had a goal and an assist, Behrman had a goal, Miller had a goal and an assist, and Seymour and Busenkell each had a goal.

Looking at the specialists, it was a rough day at the X with the group of the FOGOs going 8-29. Syracuse’s John Mullen had the boys number in their match-up earlier this season and kept that up today. Ricciardelli had 14 saves, putting him at an even 50%. Not a bad day at all save-wise, but the clears left some room for improvement.

Stat wise, there isn’t much that raises any alarms. The boys tied the GB battle (31-31), won the shot battle (46-44), and only had 14 turnovers (although it seemed like much more). The only real area of improvement for these is shot frequency. The boys had plenty of shots, they just came in bursts and droughts, so getting the shots more consistently would be a big help.

This plays into the dynamic that we have been talking about that this loss wasn’t for lack of opportunities, but rather a lack of taking advantage of opportunities.

We’ll point out that the offense benefitted from the introduction of Luke Miller and Brock Behrman, even if situationally. These two will have a bright future. But we also have to point out that the man-up unit is struggling and is lacking fluidity. There should never be a point where this unit is statistically worse than the even strength unit by double-digits. Like we mentioned above, if the boys simply took advantage of the opportunities they had (including six man-up opportunities!), they wouldn’t be in this situation.

Our Thoughts, Such As They Are

The unfortunate loss means no more games to improve the Irish resume before NCAA selection. The Irish put themselves in the position the 2023 team was determined to never be in: one their destiny is not in their control. With a handful of games left to be played across the country, Notre Dame sits precariously at #10 in the RPI, just a fraction above Harvard and Boston University. We’ll know Sunday night, but the Irish put a first round home game, and tournament participation, at risk.

Do we think Notre Dame will be excluded? No. There wasn’t any bid stealing that impacted the Irish, but after 2022 we know it’s not a done deal until we see their name in the bracket.

We’ve reviewed our notes for the season and looked back at all the little adjustments the Irish could have made along the way to be a great team, but here we are. At the end of the day, in the words of Bill Parcells, you are what your record says you are. It doesn’t matter how many things we can point out that the boys can fix. At this point it is May, the team is what it is. This loss puts the decision a bit more in the committee’s hands, but this is a team that can beat anyone. But they can also lose to anyone. It shouldn’t be this way given our expectations going into the season, but if the boys secure a spot, they immediately enter the tournament as the most experienced NCAA tournament roster. That’s not insignificant.

Tune in to the selection show this Sunday on ESPN!!

#GoIrish

ND-ATL 2.0