WHO: Maryland Terrapins and Notre Dame Fighting Irish
WHERE: Notre Dame, Indiana
WHEN: Saturday, Noon EST
MARYLAND
The Terps have all the momentum for this game behind them as they count down to postseason play. A record donning 9-2 is only limited by Johns Hopkins and North Carolina, both competing top notch programs.
Mike Chanenchuk leads the team with 40 points (25 goals, 15 assists), and is followed closely by Matt Rambo (awesome last name) (26 points, 21 goals, 5 assists) and Jay Carlson (22 points, 19 goals, 3 assists).
Faceoff specialist Charlie Raffa has a season stat of .640 (112-175) and an astonishing 74 ground balls. At least eight different players contributed more than 20 ground ball recoveries this season thus far.
Goaltender Nick Amato averages out amongst other goalies with a season percentage of .575 (11-11); luckily backup Kyle Bernlohr is 4-0 and .800.
Many are quite certain they’ll see Maryland appear in the NCAA tournament coming up in a few weeks. Being in the ACC, there’s tough competition making it a long road ahead.
ILWT’s James Simmons gives the Terps a prospective postseason ranking of No. 5.
NOTRE DAME
On the same prospective list by Simmons, Notre Dame comes in at No. 8.
The Fighting Irish have ridden a bumpy 2014 season, but are maintaining their ability to stay afloat.
They were able to hold off N. Carolina, Jacksonville, Virginia (exciting upset), Ohio State, and Marquette. Unfortunately, they fell to PSU, Denver, Syracuse and Duke. With that stated, they’re going to have rough tides this Saturday.
Matt Kavanagh continues to lead the team with 40 points (21 goals, 19 assists). Conor Doyle and Sergio Perkovic and John Scioscia are all big contributors to the offense’s success this season.
Faceoff specialist Liam O’Connor is 139-216, giving him a percentage of .644. It’s a high performance average percentage, but has aided in the Irish efforts so far.
Despite having better offensive 2014 overall statistics than opponents, those stats will not be reflective of this Saturday’s match up. To put the icing on the cake, they’re behind in saves by period with 77 compared with opponents’ totaled 119 against them.
PREDICTION
This will be the game that propels Maryland into the postseason with momentum, confidence, and style. Look for big performances by the offensive units and struggles for the Irish defense.
MARYLAND 17 NOTRE DAME 9
