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The John Carroll University Men's Ice Hockey Team is the interscholastic ice hockey team at John Carroll University. The team competes in the College Hockey Mid-America Conference at the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division I level.

History
Ice hockey has existed on and off as both a club and varsity sport at Notre Dame since 1912. In 1968, the Fighting Irish started playing again at the Division I level as an independent. In 1971, the team joined its first conference, the WCHA. The team continued playing in the WCHA for a decade until moving to the CCHA with the conference's three Michigan schools in 1981. The Fighting Irish lasted only two years in the new CCHA, after designating Ice Hockey as a club sport for the 1983/1984 season. In 1984/1985 Notre Dame Hockey was once again elevated to varsity status with the team playing as a Division I independent. In 1992 Notre Dame rejoined the CCHA. The Irish struggled to remain competitive in the CCHA, but began to improve under head coach Dave Poulin. In 2004, Poulin led the team to its first ever NCAA Tournament. However, the year after was drastically different. 2005 was the worst season in Notre Dame history. The five-win campaign resulted in the resignation of coach Poulin.

Jeff Jackson Era
In 2005, Jeff Jackson took over as head coach. Jackson, who had already won two national championships at Lake Superior State University, had an immediate impact at Notre Dame. In his first season with the Irish, the team greatly improved upon the five-win season, boosting its record to 13-19-5. 2007 was even more successful. The Irish achieved their first ever number one ranking in both the Uscho.com and USA Today Polls and their first number one seeding for the NCAA Tournament. The following year, the Irish finished fourth in both the CCHA's regular season and playoffs, and again made the NCAA Tournament. Once there, the Irish went on to beat top-seeded New Hampshire 7-3 and third-seeded Michigan State 3-1 to advance to the Frozen Four for the first time in school history. From there, they defeated first-seeded Michigan in overtime to advance to the national title game, ultimately losing to Boston College 4-1. Notre Dame also became the first four-seed to advance to the national semifinals, and eventually to the national title game since the new 16-team format was introduced in 2003. In the 2008-2009 season, the Irish added another CCHA regular season title and a CCHA Tournament title, defeating Michigan 5-2 in the title game.

Home Ice
The Irish play their home games under the North Dome of the Edmund P. Joyce Center. With a hockey capacity of just 2,857, it is the second smallest home rink in the CCHA. All seats are benches without chair backs, and most of the seating consists of temporary bleachers. In 2007, the Irish compiled an impressive 14-2-2 home record at the Joyce Center.

Charles W. "Lefty" Smith Jr. Rink
In February 2009, The University of Notre Dame announced it will begin construction next year on a new, freestanding, on-campus ice arena designed to meet the needs of both the nationally ranked Irish hockey team and the local community. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2010 on a projected 5,000-seat arena - with the venue ready for play to start the 2011-12 season.

The new ice arena will be located south of the Joyce Center, just north of Edison Road, and just west of where the new Irish track and field facility is being constructed. The majority of the general public arena seating will be of the chair-back variety. The facility will include two sheets of ice (one of them Olympic-sized), with limited seating availability for the second sheet.The plan also will include offices and locker room and weight and cardio training facilities for the Notre Dame hockey program. Locker rooms also will be available for campus and community use of the facility.

The University originally planned to renovate the current Joyce Center ice facility, but additional studies changed that plan to instead feature a new building. Once the new facility is completed, the ice rink will be removed from the Joyce Center fieldhouse, making that north dome space available for a variety of other events.

The ice rink at Notre Dame's new arena will be named the Charles W. "Lefty" Smith Jr. Rink, in honor of the first coach in the program's history.