Coach Kevin Corrigan and the Notre Dame team are familiar with playing on someone else’s home turf in front of a hostile crowd. “You know what, we were up at Hofstra last week and I think there were 37 people cheering for us in a sellout crowd of 13,000. I wanted to come to the press conference afterwards and say I apologize to all those people who wanted to see Albany here right now because it was clear that there weren’t a lot of people rooting for us.”
It looks like he will be apologizing to Maryland fans tonight as the Notre Dame beat Maryland 11-6 in the second semifinal game to advance to play Duke in the National Championship Game on Monday.
Notre Dame got off to a hot start as they scored two quick goals thanks to a Matt Kavanagh goal off a feed from Conor Doyle and a John Scioscia goal off a pass from Kavangh. Maryland responded with the next two goals as Joe LoCascio and Connor Cannizzaro both scored unassisted goals.
Notre Dame then used a 4-0 scoring run to push their lead to 6-2 in between the first and second quarters thanks to two goals by Kavanagh and a goal a piece from Nick Ossello and Conor Doyle.
Maryland head coach John Tillman noted how pivotal this run was for the rest of the game and kicked himself for calling a timeout.
“We got caught with some guys who I thought were tired defensively so I called a timeout and we went zone out of it, they made a really good play and then Charlie (Raffa) went early and they pushed it and got another goal. The last half part of the first quarter I think gave them a lot of confidence and some momentum coming out of the first quarter. That’s on me for calling that timeout.”
In the second quarter, Conor Kelly stepped up big time in between the pipes and was really the main difference in today’s game. Despite giving up goals to LoCascio and Jay Carlson off a rebound, Kelly made six of his 14 saves in the second quarter and helped Notre Dame to a 6-4 lead at halftime.
After a half, the statistics were pretty even. Maryland outshot Notre Dame 19-18 and both teams had 15 ground balls. The only difference was the fact that Maryland had 12 turnovers compared to Notre Dame’s seven. Coach Tillman eluded to the lack of execution on their end of the field.
“At times I thought we played pretty well but just not consistently enough. I think it had more to do with their execution and our inability to do so.”
The second half began much like the first as Notre Dame scored the first two goals to push their lead to 8-4 as Kavanagh scored his fourth goal of the game and Ossello scored his second. Maryland’s Henry West scored to cut the lead to three but that is as close as Maryland got. Notre Dame went on a 4-1 run in the third quarter to end the quarter up 10-5.
Both teams scored one goal each in the final quarter before Notre Dame ended up on top when time ran out.
Kavanagh ended the game with seven points, five of which were goals. His five goals tied an NCAA Tournament record for Notre Dame for both goals and points in a game. His five goals tied him with David Earl who achieved the feat in 2010 against Princeton and Randy Colley who hit the mark in 1995 against Duke. Meanwhile, his seven points tied him with Tom Glatzel who achieved the feat against Loyola in 2000.
Doyle had four points while Scioscia and Ossello had two goals a piece. Conor Kelly had 14 saves and allowed six goals on the afternoon. Kelly talked about his performance as well as what it was like to face Maryland’s offense for a third time.
“Yeah, I felt like I was seeing the ball well. I thought I saw the ball well against them the last time. Playing a team three times is tough but you also get to see their shooters three times so I thought I got a good read on their releases.”
Meanwhile, Niko Amato, who was named First Team All-American this week, finished with 10 saves and allowed 11 goals. He reflected on his stellar career at Maryland which included three trips to the Final Four and three All-American nominations.
“You risk getting your heart broken to go on a great journey with this team and the guys and I wouldn’t have traded anything in the world for these past five years”
Mike Chanenchuk was bottled up for most of the afternoon as he had a goal and an assist a week after scoring nine points against Bryant. Charlie Raffa won 11-of-13 faceoffs but left and did not return due to a reaggravation of the knee injury he suffered against Bryant last week.
Despite only winning 6-of-15 faceoffs today, Notre Dame still won the game and it marks their third lowest total of the year. In fact, in three games this year against Maryland, Notre Dame was 13-of-58 on faceoffs.
With the win, Notre Dame faces Duke in a rematch of the thrilling 2010 National Championship Game which saw Duke win it 6-5 in overtime as CJ Costabile won the opening faceoff and ran down the field and scored the game winner.
