The 2023–24 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's ice hockey season was the 64th season of play for the program and 7th in the Big Ten Conference. The Fighting Irish represented the University of Notre Dame in the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at Compton Family Ice Arena and were coached by Jeff Jackson in his 19th season.
Facing a good deal of roster turnover entering the season, Notre Dame knew it would likely have to likely have to rely on its starting goaltender, Ryan Bischel. The 5th-year player didn't quite play as well as he had when he was named an All-American in 2023 but he still ranked among the best goaltenders in the nation. What he did not receive was much help from the defense. Notre Dame was one of the most porous teams in the nation, allowing more than 34 shots against per game.[1] Despite the heavy workload, Bischel kept the Irish in most games, though the offense was a bit slow to get on track. Team captain Landon Slaggert had a tremendous season, leading the team with 20 goals on the year, but there was a sharp drop off after him. While Notre Dame received contributions from several new players, including having two freshman (Patrick Moynihan and Danny Nelson) finish in the top three, Notre Dame's offense wasn't able to find much consistency during the season.
The Fighting Irish had a few good stretches during the season, such as going undefeated in seven games from late-October to late-November. Unfortunately, the team had four separate instances where they lost at least three consecutive games. The fast-or-famine scoring was quite often the culprit; Notre Dame scored nearly 3 goals per game but the team was limited to less than 2 goals in ten matches. In spite of their struggles throughout the year, Notre Dame won several games against ranked opponents and had a winning record for much of the year. This put the team on the bubble for an at-large bid by the close of January. However, Notre Dame went 1–6 in their final seven matches to close out the regular season. While their opponents were a murderer's row of tournament-bound teams, Notre Dame's failure to win more than a single game knocked them out of contention and left a conference championship as their only avenue forward.
Opening on the road, Notre Dame faced long-time rival Michigan in the conference quarterfinals. The opening game saw the Irish take a commanding lead thanks to a scoring outburst in the second period. Drew Bavaro's 3-point game gave Notre Dame a 4–2 lead, which appeared to give the team all it needed to win. The Irish had only lost one game all season where they scored more than 2 goals and all they needed to do was let Bischel shut the door for the final 24 minutes to secure victory. However, after Michigan had cut the lead to 1, Bavaro did his best to act out a biblical idiom and tooketh away with a 5-minute major penalty for checking from behind at the end of the second. Michigan scored twice on the power play to take the lead and the Irish were unable to recover the momentum. Notre Dame managed just 4 shots in the third and let a win slip through their fingers. The rematch followed a similar pattern with Notre Dame managing to get a pair of 1-goal leads in the first two periods but their defense could not stop the offensive juggernaut that the Wolverines possessed. The Irish again went scoreless in the third and the second straight 1-goal loss ended their season.[2]
| Jack Adams | Forward | Graduation (signed with South Carolina Stingrays) | ||
| Solag Bakich | Forward | Graduation (signed with Reading Royals) | ||
| Chase Blackmun | Defenseman | Graduation (retired) | ||
| Ben Brinkman | Defenseman | Graduation (signed with Iowa Heartlanders) | ||
| Jesse Lansdell | Forward | Graduate transfer to Omaha | ||
| Nick Leivermann | Defenseman | Graduation (signed with Hershey Bears) | ||
| Jackson Pierson | Forward | Graduation (signed with Fort Wayne Komets) | ||
| Chayse Primeau | Forward | Graduation (signed with Florida Everblades) | ||
| Ryder Rolston | Forward | Signed professional contract (Chicago Blackhawks) |
| Brennan Ali | Forward | 19 | Glencoe, IL
| ||
| Jayden Davis | Forward | 20 | Calgary, AB | ||
| Paul Fischer | Defenseman | 18 | River Forest, IL
| ||
| Maddox Fleming | Forward | 19 | Rochester, MN | ||
| Cole Knuble | Forward | 19 | Grand Rapids, MI
| ||
| Patrick Moynihan | Forward | 22 | Millis, MA
| ||
| Brayden Napoli | Goaltender | 21 | Lake Villa, IL
| ||
| Danny Nelson | Forward | 18 | Maple Grove, MN
| ||
| Henry Nelson | Defenseman | 20 | Maple Grove, MN | ||
| Ryan Siedem | Defenseman | 22 | Madison, NJ
| ||
| Carter Slaggert | Forward | 18 | South Bend, IN |
As of March 3, 2024.[3]
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" |
| 36 | 20 | 11 | 31 | 10 | |||
| 36 | 10 | 14 | 24 | 12 | |||
| 30 | 9 | 14 | 23 | 32 | |||
| 35 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 38 | |||
| 36 | 9 | 11 | 20 | 12 | |||
| 36 | 3 | 17 | 20 | 12 | |||
| 36 | 4 | 15 | 19 | 2 | |||
| 32 | 9 | 7 | 16 | 16 | |||
| 36 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 30 | |||
| 34 | 2 | 14 | 16 | 30 | |||
| 36 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 4 | |||
| 35 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 8 | |||
| 28 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 12 | |||
| 33 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 16 | |||
| 32 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 24 | |||
| 33 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 25 | |||
| 36 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 41 | |||
| 21 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 19 | |||
| 30 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 22 | |||
| 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 31 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 42 | |||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | |||
| 36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
| Bench | - | - | - | - | - | 18 | |
| Total | 101 | 174 | 275 | 503 |
|---|
| 36 | 2112:09 | 15 | 19 | 2 | 91 | 1112 | 3 | .924 | 2.59 | ||
| 1 | 40:00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 25 | 0 | .893 | 4.50 | ||
| Empty Net | - | 22:34 | - | - | - | 4 | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 36 | 2174:43 | 15 | 19 | 2 | 98 | 1137 | 3 | .921 | 2.70 |
|---|
See main article: 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey rankings.
| Poll | Week | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 26 (Final) | ||
| USCHO.com | 20 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 17 | 18 | NR | 20 | NR | – | NR | NR | NR | 20 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | – | NR | |
| USA Today | 19 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 18 | 18 | 20 | 20 | NR | NR | – | NR | NR | 19 | 20 | 20т | NR | 20 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | |
See main article: 2024 NHL Entry Draft.
| 4 | 114 | † | Washington Capitals |