The 2024–25 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's ice hockey season was the 65th season of play for the program and 8th in the Big Ten Conference. The Fighting Irish represented the University of Notre Dame in the 2024–25 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 20th and final season with the team.
Season Entering the season, Notre Dame had rather unwelcome news that this would be the final season for Jeff Jackson as coach. While he was not announcing his retirement from the game, he decided that it was time for a change. Wanting to rally around their departing coach, the Irish lost only one player outside of graduation and brought in a top goaltending prospect to replace their All-American, Ryan Bischel.
Notre Dame began the season well, posing a solid record in October. While the Irish looked like they were living up to their preseason ranking, cracks were already beginning to show. While Nicholas Kempf was ND's goalie of the future, the team wasn't ready to throw him to the wolves. Owen Say, a Mercyhurst transfer, was brought in to help shoulder the load and the two alternated starts from the beginning of the year. While this reduction in workload appeared to be succeeding in the first month, November came with a cold wind that harried the club. Notre Dame's defense began its impersonation of a colander in earnest, allowing both netminders to get bombarded by shots. The situation became so bad for Kempf that he saw his starts reduced, however, that only forced Say into the firing line more often and both he and the team suffered as a result. Say performed well in goal posting a .920 save percentage, but the Irish allowed the second most shots per game in the nation (35.2) and the junior netminder was unable to save the day all by his lonesome. The offense was able to put up respectable numbers but could rarely overcome the team's porous defense.
After winning their conference opener, the Irish didn't win another Big Ten matchup until mid-January. The scoring did pick up enough for the team to earn a few wins in the latter part of the season but those efforts were fleeting and the Irish ended the regular season well established in last place. The team opened their postseason run against one of the favorites to compete for a national title, Minnesota. Despite being the heavy underdog, ND opened with the first two goals of the game. The Gophers were able to respond but Say turned aside many chances to retain the lead for the Irish. After the surprising win in the first match, Minnesota upped their game in round two, bombarding Say with even more attempts. Used to high-volume shots by then, Say was able to hold off the Gophers for more than half the game and the two entered the third ties at 1-all. Unfortunately, Say could not withstand the Gophers' attack forever and Minnesota racked up three goals in the final period to even the series. The rubber match was much the same as the second, with Minnesota dumping an avalanche of rubber onto the Notre Dame goaltender, however, this time he did not break. Say stopped 38 of 39 shots while the offense stepped up to take advantage of a vulnerable Gopher netminder by scoring 3 goals on just 20 shots. An empty-net marker at the end sealed the game and sent Notre Dame to the semifinals.
In their match with Michigan State, Owen Say had possible the best performance of his career. He stopped 45 of 46 shots, with the only blemish coming on the fourth MSU power play of the game. Unfortunately, he received no help from the rest of his team. While the defense played its typical swiss-cheese style, the offense was also inept in that it failed to score a single goal. The loss brought Notre Dame's season to a close and ended the most successful coaching era in program history.
Departures Drew Bavaro Defenseman Graduation (signed with Boston Bruins) Ryan Bischel Goaltender Graduation (signed with Providence Bruins) Brady Bjork Forward Graduation (retired) Jake Boltmann Defenseman Graduate transfer to Northeastern Josh Graziano Goaltender Graduate transfer to Boston University Trevor Janicke Forward Graduation (signed with Calgary Wranglers) Patrick Moynihan Forward Graduation (signed with Chicago Wolves) Brayden Napoli Goaltender Graduation (retired) Ryan Siedem Defenseman Graduation (signed with Hartford Wolf Pack) Landon Slaggert Forward Graduation (signed with Chicago Blackhawks) Fin Williams Forward Transferred to Minnesota State
Recruiting Blake Biondi Forward 22 Hermantown, MN; graduate transfer from Minnesota Duluth; selected 109th overall in 2020 Jimmy Jurcev Defenseman 21 Palos Heights, IL Nicholas Kempf Goaltender 18 Morton Grove, IL; selected 114th overall in 2024 Jaedon Kerr Defenseman 21 Elk River, MN Axel Kumlin Defenseman 22 Stockholm, SWE; transfer from Miami Jack Larrigan Forward 20 St. Louis, MO Ian Murphy Forward 25 Scituate, MA; graduate transfer from Princeton Luke Robinson Defenseman 24 Nashville, TN; graduate transfer from Air Force Owen Say Goaltender 23 London, ON; transfer from Mercyhurst Michael Schermerhorn Forward 20 Traverse City, MI
Roster As of September 3, 2024.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular season
!colspan=12 style=";" |
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular season
!colspan=12 style=";" |
Scoring statistics C/RW 34 12 27 39 12 C/LW 38 15 19 34 29 C 38 12 15 27 14 C/LW 36 13 13 26 35 D 38 6 15 21 12 D 36 2 19 21 16 C/LW 38 7 12 19 18 C 38 8 8 16 20 D 30 4 11 15 18 C/RW 38 4 7 11 24 LW/RW 38 4 6 10 16 RW 38 5 3 8 18 D 30 3 5 8 32 D 37 1 6 7 39 LW/RW 29 1 5 6 4 D 22 1 3 4 6 D 31 1 3 4 10 C/LW 22 1 2 3 8 LW/RW 22 0 3 3 10 D 34 0 3 3 18 F 38 1 1 2 0 C/LW 12 1 0 1 0 C/LW 1 0 0 0 0 G 1 0 0 0 0 D 3 0 0 0 0 G 13 0 0 0 0 G 27 0 0 0 0 Bench - - - - - 18 Total 101 174 275 503
Goaltending statistics 27 1530:57 10 15 0 72 829 0 .920 2.82 13 722:03 2 10 1 45 384 0 .895 3.74 1 10:26 0 0 0 1 8 0 .889 5.75 Empty Net - 31:26 - - - 9 - - - - Total 38 2294:52 12 25 1 127 1221 0 .906 3.32
Rankings
PollWeekPre 1 23456789101112131415161718192021222324252627 (Final) USCHO.com192018171920RVRVRVRVRVNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NR USA Hockey19181817т20RVRVRVNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 12 or 26.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.
Awards and honors Cole Knuble Big Ten Second Team
2025 NHL entry draft
5 137 † Toronto Maple Leafs † incoming freshman
References
External links