While the Notre Dame hockey team prepares for the NCAA Tournament, the interhall championships have already been decided. Since January 24, 13men’s dorms have fielded teams. Playing at the JACC, the schedule consists of 4 regular season games, with the top teams moving on to the playoffs. After three weeks of playoffs throughout March, Knott Hall raised the championship trophy on March 7, after beating Zahm 5-2.
Ice hockey is one of the 18 interhall sports Notre Dame offers. Dorms are allowed to form their own teams with as many players as they can field, and play is governed by a modified version of the USA Hockey rulebook. As a non-contact league, penalties are adjusted for checking and other rule violations. Additionally, mercy rules were instituted to allow for games to end early. If any team scores 8 or more goals after two periods of play the game ends, and if a team scores 5 or more goals at any time, the game switches to a running clock.
Even though it is a recreational league, players, teams, and fans take the season seriously. According to Knott Hall goaltender Trevor Dewey, their team generally practiced once or twice for every game. Most teams in the league also have players with past hockey experience. Dewey, who has been playing hockey since first grade, added that “most of the people on the (Knott Hall) team played hockey in high school.”
The regular season consists of a four game round-robin schedule of three divisions, Blue (Mondays), Gold (Tuesdays), and Green (Wednesdays). The top two teams from each division advance to the playoffs, with the top two teams overall getting first round byes. The six teams to make the playoffs were Fisher (4-0), Zahm (4-0), Siegfried (3-0-1), Knott (3-1), Dillon (2-1-1), and Morrissey (2-1-1).
Captained by junior Ryan Traudt, the 4-seed Juggerknotts had an uphill battle in the playoffs. After beating 5-seed Dillon in the first round, they had to play top-seeded Fisher in the second round. But Knott’s streak of strong play continued as they beat Fisher 2-1.
On Monday, March 7, Knott faced second seed Zahm for the interhall championship. The Juggerknotts finished the season strong, beating the Zahmbies 5-2. Traudt highlighted the game with a hat-trick, including an impressive shorthanded goal. Dewey commented that it was a great team effort by everyone.“We were evenly matched with Zahm, but our offense kept (the Zahmbies) on their heels most of the game.”
Congratulations to Knott Hall for taking home the 2011 Interhall Hockey Championship. Look for the Juggerknotts to try to retain their title next year.
In case you were wondering, the writer is not the same Mike Johnson who starts for the Notre Dame hockey team, though he is a huge fan. He (the writer) can be contacted at mjohns32@nd.edu.