It’s still early, but the Notre Dame powerplay is out to an elite start to the season.
They have scored on 15 of their first 20 possessions with the extra man. All six of their players on the extra unit have scored at least one goal this season and no player has more than four (Jeffery Ricciardelli).
At 75%, they would be the best powerplay unit in recent history. The best I could find in the last decade were the mighty 2014 Detroit Mercy Titans, who were the only team in the available data to convert on more than 70% in a full season. They finished at 70.8%, and still went 6-8 that year.
Canadian Shayne Adams (St. Catharines) had 14 extra-man goals for the Titans that year.
Since then, only ten teams have even beaten the 60% mark. One of those teams was the 2022 Notre Dame team that featured many of the players that make up the unit now. Ironically, the second best team that year was Duke. Remember that neither squad made the NCAA tournament that season.
| Year | Team | Man-Up Percentage |
| 2014 | Detroit Mercy | 70.8% |
| 2015 | Denver | 60.3% |
| 2016 | Marist | 60.7% |
| 2017 | Johns Hopkins | 60.5% |
| 2018 | Lehigh | 63.0% |
| 2019 | Penn State | 61.3% |
| 2020 | UNC* | 77.0% |
| 2021 | Richmond | 63.0% |
| 2022 | Duke | 60.0% |
| 2022 | Notre Dame | 67.7% |
So we know that Notre Dame is on a historic pace, but what is their secret play that leads to the success?
There isn’t one. They don’t run plays.
I watched four games worth of power plays, and they haven’t run a single scripted action the whole time. They sit in their 3-3 set, with Chris and Pat Kavanaugh at the top positions along with Eric Dobson. Jake Taylor mans the inside.
When Pat gets shut (which is often), he and Dobson switch positions. They slide into a “tilt” of their base set with Dobson at the top, and Ricciardeli slides into the middle. This is a small but important difference. With the ball being controlled by the right handed players, the left-handed Ricciardeli is a better candidate for inside feeds than the right-handed Taylor.
They are the best spot feeding group in the nation. Taylor needs a fraction of a second to get his work done. Pat has an impressive ability to look off his own man in order to make four to five foot passes. Dobson and Chris Kav can score from distance.
When Pat is shut, Chris and Devon McLane run the show while Dobson looms as the over the top scorer.
What’s perhaps most impressive is their patience. They hunt rotations and aren’t afraid to just keep the ball on one side until that happens. They know what they’re looking for and they pounce when they get it.
Teams have tried multiple defensive schemes. The Irish have beat shuts, four-man perimeters, and five-man configurations. Nothing seems to work.
Check out the full breakdown below!