It was a night of landmark achievements for No. 11 Notre Dame on Saturday night at the St. Pete Times Forum as it captured it’s first tournament win in 25 years, capturing the Lightning College Hockey Classic with a 2-0 win over Air Force.
Senior goaltender David Brown was the difference in the game as he stopped all 28 Falcon shots he faced in recording his first shutout of the season and his Notre Dame record-setting seventh career shutout.
Brown got all the scoring he needed at 3:28 of the second period when sophomore Christian Hanson tucked the rebound of a Justin White shot past Air Force goaltender Ian Harper for his second goal of the weekend. Hanson was selected to the all-tournament team and was MVP of the tournament.
Notre Dame’s lead would go to 2-0 at 13:23 of the middle stanza when Jason Paige drilled a wrist shot from the slot past Harper on the power play for his second goal of the season and from there, Brown and the Notre Dame defense would take over.
The win improved the Irish to 5-1-0 on the year and gives them their best start since 1998-99 when they got off to a 6-0 mark. Notre Dame has now played five straight road games and is 4-1-0 in that span.
The victory was also a landmark in the career of head coach Jeff Jackson. Now in his second season behind the Irish bench, Jackson recorded his 200th career victory with the win over Air Force. He owns the best winning percentage among active Division I head coaches with a .713 percentage and his 200 wins rank him 22nd among active head coaches.
On the night, the Irish were out shot by Air Force, 28-25. Harper finished with 23 saves as the Falcons fall to 3-5-0 on the season.
Joining Hanson on the all-tournament team were teammates Brown in goal and defenseman Brock Sheahan. Alabama-Huntsville’s Tyler Hilbert, Army’s Zach McElvey and Air Force’s Eric Ehn rounded out the team.
