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Closer to last place than 3rd place... yikes. by wearendhockey

We do have at least one game in hand on 5 of the other 6 teams (2 on UMich). But the team is clearly struggling, especially offensively.

The lack of scoring lately will expose every mistake a goalie makes, too, even if it is just one or two a weekend. Both netminders have save percentages far above the average, but when you score 1 goal a game, that means your goalie has to be throw a shutout to win. That is a ridiculous expectation.

I would have liked St. Syr to make that save with 7 seconds left, but first of all, give a lot of credit to McLaughlin. That was a tough goal, backhanded, with a defender next to him. And blame a questionable change on the backside as well.

Wegworth led the league in game winning goals, so his absence the rest of the way will be felt. But plenty of other skaters could step up and take up the slack. Right now ND has only 1 player among the top-10 scorers in the league, and none in the top-10 for goals.

There are still games to play against every single league opponent and only OSU is more than 6 points ahead of the Irish, so still lots of opportunities to climb the standings ladder and finish well. But if the tourney started today, Notre Dame would be the first team left out.

At this point in the evolution of the program missing the NCAAs means the season is an unmitigated failure. Especially when halfway through the season the team was 12-5-1 and knocking on the door of being a number 1 seed somewhere.

How about being that team that comes from out of nowhere, makes it to the tourney with just a few games to spare, and wins the whole damn thing? That's what happened last year.