Notre Dame Head Coach Jeff Jackson had a lot to say about his team’s performance leading up to their weekend series against Arizona State.

Specifically, the power-play and goaltending re-emerged as areas of concern after a tie and a loss against Michigan State before the midseason break.

“There’s a number of areas on the power play that we need to improve,” Jackson said. “We’re getting scoring chances but we’re just not finishing.”

The solution: play five-on-five hockey even on the man advantage. After speaking with Paul Pooley, who oversees the Fighting Irish’s special teams, the two agreed that they would play offensive-minded forward lines and defensive pairings on power play opportunities this weekend.

“When we’re in the [offensive] zone five on five, we do a great job controlling the puck and making plays and we have to have that same philosophy on the power play,” Jackson said.

As for goaltending, Jackson said his defensemen need to play better in front of the net. He said too many pucks are bouncing off legs, skates, and opponent’s sticks. That makes saving what could be a much easier shot difficult for either Dylan St. Cyr or Ryan Bischel.

Perhaps helping them will be newly acquired defenseman Jake Boltman, who like Isles’ captain Anders Lee was the captain of the Edina High School hockey team. The 2017 Calgary draft pick is over six feet tall and weighs nearly 200 pounds, pretty big for a freshman.

Jackson hopes his new blue-liner can bring size and toughness to his roster that he feels will help his goalies.

“We’re so conscious right now about our save percentages and where it needs to be and that isn’t just on our goalies it’s also about what we’re doing at the net-front defensively,” Jackson said. “We’re getting outmuscled at that area, a lot of pucks are going in off of sticks and skates and rebounds and deflections and we just have to do a better job of cleaning out that net-front area and I think Jake [Boltman] will help us in that regard.”

Meanwhile, Arizona State’s offense is churning. Since losing to Michigan and Michigan State early in the season, the Sun Devils have scored at least three goals in all but one of their games. Jackson noted three keys to stifling their opponent: managing the puck, limiting turnovers, and getting into the “dirty areas” of the ice, i.e the front of the net.

The two teams already split a series earlier this season. “Last time we played them I thought we had a lot of puck possession in the offensive zone but we really didn’t get into that dirty area of the ice and that’s going to be a big factor for us offensively,” Jackson said.

The series kicks off Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and ends Sunday at 5 p.m. Both games are in South Bend, Indiana, and New Yorkers can watch the games live on SNY or NHL Network.

Ben Baruch

Born and raised on Long Island. Isles fan since 2009. Studying journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park.