The 1923–24 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's ice hockey season was the 7th season of play for the program. The team was coached by Tom Lieb in his 1st season.
Season
With the departure of Paul Castner due to graduation, the leadership of the Notre Dame ice hockey team passed to Tom Lieb. Lieb had also graduated but he stuck around to earn a graduate degree and accepted the role on top of duties as an assistant with the football team.[1] The bigger question for the team was how it would move forward after losing several of its top players. Aside from Castner, the Irish would also need to replace Percy Wilcox and Spike Flinn. The task of leading the team fell to Frank McSorley and the captain sought to keep Notre Dame as one of the top western teams.
The first match at Michigan was a good test for the inexperience Irish and the defense was at least up to par. Notre Dame held the Wolverines off of the scoresheet for the first half and look every bit the match of the favored home team. Though ND fell 1–3, the team was well positioned to have a good season.[2] The following week the Irish took a road trip to Pittsburgh to play a local semi-pro team. The Irish didn't play as well as they had against Michigan but the strength of their opponent made those results far from disappointing.[3]
When Notre Dame returned home they found that the weather had once again interfered with the team's plans. The rink at Badin Hall was unusable and they had to scramble to find a suitable alternative. A rink was hastily built atop St. Mary's Lake to the west of campus and by the time the amateur club from Chicago arrived, the team had hardly been able to get in any practice time. The visitors skated rings around the Irish and handed the team another defeat. Michigan arrived for a rematch after the exam break and got off to a quick start with 2 goals in the opening frame. While the Irish were able to net one in the period, the Wolverines played the rest of the match using 4 players as defensemen. Despite the best efforts, the Irish were unable to pierce through the stonewalling and fell 1–2.
Warming conditions made St. Mary's unusable afterwards and Notre Dame was unable to schedule any further games, leaving the team winless on the year.[4]
