2021–22 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's ice hockey season

The 2021–22 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's ice hockey season is the 62nd season of play for the program. They represent the University of Notre Dame in the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season. This season marks the fifth season in the Big Ten Conference. They are coached by Jeff Jackson, in his 17th season, and play their home games at Compton Family Ice Arena.
==Season==
After a horribly disappointing situation that saw them have to withdraw from the 2021 NCAA Tournament, Notre Dame entered the season with high expectations. They began the year alternating between junior Ryan Bischel and graduate transfer Matthew Galajda in goal with both performing wonderfully in goal. During the season both goaltenders were among the top 10 in the nation for goals against average and kept the Fighting Irish in contention for just about every game.
During the first half of the year ND stayed in the second 10 of the polls until a showdown with Michigan just before Thanksgiving. The Irish managed to beat the top-ranked Wolverines twice on the road, firmly establishing themselves as a tournament hopeful. While they earned splits over each of the succeeding weekends to weaker teams, the losses didn't hurt their postseason chances too much.
On the offensive side, Notre Dame didn't have much in the way of a star scorer but the team worked well overall. The Fighting Irish averages over three goals a game and typically scored when they needed to, generating offense from all four lines. The balanced play enabled Notre Dame to put together an even better second half and, as the season progressed, the Irish slowly moved up into the top 10. In the final week of the regular season, they played Michigan once more, this time at home, and Notre Dame again swept the vaunted Wolverines, all but guaranteeing them a spot in the NCAA tournament.
In the Big Ten Tournament, the Irish got a slight scare from Wisconsin when they lost the first game. Despite firing 50 shots on goal, the offense continued to attack in the next two games and the Badgers' defense couldn't repeat the same performance. When Notre Dame won the series they moved up to 6 in the PairWise rankings and were mathematically guaranteed a spot in the tournament. Despite that, the team was chomping at the bit to defeat Michigan for a 5th time that season as the two met in the conference semifinals. Unfortunately for the Irish, their offense would not get on track and they could only manage 20 shots in the game, losing 1–2.
===NCAA Tournament===
Despite the setback, Notre Dame looked ready to go once the NCAA Tournament began. They took on North Dakota in what was expected to be a very even match (the two were ranked 9th and 7th respectively). Both teams played a very defensive style which kept both the shot total and scoring chances low. The Fighting Hawks got on the board at the end of the first but the Irish responded with their own just over a minute after the second began. Both defenses held strong for the balance of the game but a breakdown on a North Dakota power play as time was expiring gave Notre Dame a chance. The puck was fired into the top of the net right before the final buzzer and the Irish began to celebrate but, upon review, there was a problem with the clock. One of the game clocks still had time remaining but the official clock had already expired. After a lengthy review, the goal was ruled to have entered after time expired and the two teams required overtime. With North Dakota still on the power play, the Hawks made a mistake at the Irish blueline and took a penalty in order to stop a Notre Dame breakaway. Once the ND penalty expired, the Fighing Irish got to work and engineered an overtime winner from Graham Slaggert to send them to the quarterfinals.
In the Regional Finals, Notre Dame faced off against #1 ranked Minnesota State but the Irish were undaunted. Notre Dame played the same hard defensive game that had worked for them all season but their offense, which was lacking high-end firepower, could not solve the equally strong resistance from the Mavericks. While Notre Dame was outshot, they had several opportunities to score but they could get nothing past Dryden McKay and the single goal that Galajda allowed was enough to end their season. 
==Departures==
Ryan Carmichael 	Forward/Defenseman		Transferred to Yale
Nate Clurman 	Defenseman 		Signed professional contract (Colorado Avalanche)
Pierce Crawford 	Forward 		Graduate transfer to Mercyhurst
Christian DiCesare	Defenseman 		Transferred to Trinity
Michael Graham 	Forward 		Left program (retired)
Matt Hellickson 	Defenseman 		Graduation (signed with Binghamton Devils)
Nick Sanford 	Goaltender 		Graduation (retired)
Dylan St. Cyr 	Goaltender 		Graduate transfer to Quinnipiac
Alex Steeves 	Forward 		Signed professional contract (Toronto Maple Leafs)
Matt Steeves 	Forward 		Graduation (retired)
Colin Theisen 	Forward 		Graduate transfer to Arizona State
==Recruiting==
John Adams 	Forward 		24	Boxford, MA; graduate transfer from Providence; selected 162nd overall in 2016
Chase Blackmun 	Defenseman		22	Hudson, WI; transfer from Massachusetts Lowell
Tyler Carpenter	Forward 		21	Palatine, IL
Matthew Galajda	Goaltender		23	Aurora, ON; graduate transfer from Cornell
Josh Graziano 	Goaltender		21	Buffalo, NY; transfer from Union
Ryan Helliwell 	Defenseman		19	Burnaby, BC
Justin Janicke 	Goaltender		18	Maple Grove, MN; selected 195th overall in 2021
Adam Karashik 	Defenseman		23	Ridgefield, CT; graduate transfer from Connecticut
Hunter Strand 	Forward 		18	Anchorage, AK
Hunter Weiss 	Defenseman		20	Lake Forest, IL
==Roster==
As of September 17, 2021.
==Standings==
==Schedule and results==
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!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
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!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
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!colspan=12 style=";" | 
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!colspan=12 style=";" | 
==Scoring statistics==
 	RW 	39	16 	12 	28 	14
 	C/W 	38	10 	17 	27 	24
 	D 	39	7 	20 	27 	8
 	D 	34	6 	21 	27 	8
 	C/LW	40	12 	14 	26 	39
 	C 	39	12 	13 	25 	27
 	C/RW	40	15 	9 	24 	14
 	F 	36	8 	11 	19 	33
 	C 	38	8 	11 	19 	4
 	RW 	32	5 	13 	18 	8
 	F 	38	5 	12 	17 	32
 	C/RW	38	6 	10 	16 	8
 	D 	40	2 	14 	16 	22
 	D 	40	1 	15 	16 	26
 	C 	40	8 	7 	15 	8
 	D 	40	1 	12 	13 	28
 	F 	33	2 	8 	10 	31
 	C 	25	1 	7 	8 	4
 	D 	32	2 	2 	4 	18
 	F 	6 	1 	0 	1 	0
 	G 	14	0 	1 	1 	0
 	G 	16	0 	1 	1 	2
 	D 	36	0 	1 	1 	24
 	G 	1 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	C 	6 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	26	0 	0 	0 	0
Bench	- 	- 	- 	- 	- 	18
Total	 	 	128	231	359	400
==Goaltending statistics==
 	26	1481	18	8 	0	47	656 	2	.933	1.90
 	16	922 	10	4 	0	32	387 	2	.924	2.08
Empty Net	- 	17 	- 	- 	-	3 	- 	-	- 	-
Total 	40	2420	28	12	0	82	1043	4	.927	2.03
==Rankings==
Poll 	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week
Poll 	Pre 	1 	2 	3 	4 	5 	6 	7 	8 	9 	10 	11 	12 	13 	14 	15 	16 	17 	18 	19 	20 	21 	22 	23 	24 	25 (Final)
USCHO.com	18 	19 	17 	13 	14 	17 	15 	14 	8 	8 	8 	10 	13 	13 	13 	11 	13 	11 	12 	9 	7 	8 	9 	9 	- 	
USA Today	NR 	NR 	NR 	12 	NR 	NR 	15 	15 	8 	8 	8 	10 	13 	13 	14 	13 	13 	11 	11 	8 	7 	8 	9 	10 	8 	
Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 24.
==References==
==External links==
2021–22
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Notre Dame Fighting Irish