Minnesota will look to ends the Irish’s season
The Co-Big Ten Champion Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s hockey team will open the postseason with a best-of-three series against the #7 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish at 3 M Arena at Mariucci on Friday night. Minnesota will look to end the Irish’s season while locking down a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in a few weeks. With a series win the Gophers will host a Big Ten Semifinal Saturday March 15th against the highest remaining seeded team.
The Gophers earned a share of the Big Ten Regular Season Championship last weekend with four points at Penn State. Minnesota was leading Michigan State by two points headed into the weekend, but the Spartan swept this Notre Dame team to close the gap. Since they won the season series against Minnesota, they earned the #1 seed in the conference tournament and a bye this weekend.
Minnesota has a 7-3 mark in Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal contests. The last time the Gophers were taken to three games in the opening round of the tournament was against Notre Dame in 2020. The Irish won the first game 1-0 before Minnesota countered with 2-1 and 3-2 wins the next two nights. It would be the last hockey games played in 2020 as their semifinal at Penn State would be cancelled due to Covid a few days later. Minnesota swept Penn State in the First Round a season ago before losing to Michigan in the semifinals the next Saturday.
This is the second time in the history of the Big Ten Tournament that the Gophers have been the #2 seed, and the last time they won the tournament in 2021 when all three games were held in South Bend, Indiana and were all single elimination due to Covid Protocols.
The Gophers went 3-1 against Notre Dame in the regular season. The Gophers swept the Irish in South Bend in November by the scores of 6-3 and 5-3, and then split at home in Minneapolis in January winning 5-2 on Friday before losing 4-3 in overtime on Saturday. Nathan Airey is 3-0 against the Irish with Liam Souliere taking the only loss. The Gophers have struggled at home under Bob Motzko against Notre Dame with just a 9-7-1 record.
Souliere is expected to be the man in the cage for the Gophers on Friday. He has taken over the #1 goalie job and has started the last 8 games of the regular season. He finsihed the regular season with a 13-6-2 record, a 2,18 goals against average and a.922 save percentage. Jimmy Snuggerud has taken over as the offensive leader of the team. His 45 points this year ranks fifth among the NCAA’s scoring leaders, and his 19 goals in 24 Big Ten games led the league.
Notre Dame comes in having lost seven of their last eight games including behind swept at home by Michigan State last weekend. Cole Knuble leads the Irish with 37 points on the season. Maple Grove native Justin Janicke leads the team with 15 goals on the year. Against the Gophers this season the Irish scoring leader is Axel Kumlin who has five points with a goal and four assists. In goal for Notre Dame it has been a split in net between Nicholas Kempf and Owen Say. Say has an 8-13 record with a 3.02 GAA and a .913 save percentage and went 1-1 against the Gophers. Kempf is 2-10-1 with a3.74 GAA and a.895 save percentage. IN the Friday night game in Minneapolis Kempf game up five goals in the first period before being replaced by Say. He was perfect in two periods Friday and gave up just three goals Saturday to get the win. It would be expected he will get the start on Friday night for the Irish. Notre Dame’s head coach Jeff Jackson could be coaching his final games this weekend. He is retiring after the season.
The hallmark of the great Notre Dame teams has always been defense and goaltending, but this year that has not been the case. Notre Dame ranks 59th in the NCAA for scoring defense as it allows 3.50 goals per game to its opposition. Minnesota has scored 20 goals in four games against the Irish this season. If they can get to five, they should win easily. Minnesota leads the nation in scoring with 3.97 goals per game. The Gophers have the huge advantage on the other side of the ice as well. Minnesota allows just 2.42 goals per game good enough for 13th in the nation while Notre Dame is 38th in scoring offense recording just 2.74 goals per game. But, Minnesota must play the game 5×5. If the Irish will pull off an upset it will be because the Gophers could not stay out of the box. Notre Dame is converting at 23.8 percent on the power play, 14th in the nation, while Minnesota has struggled on the penalty kill only killing off 75% of their opportunities.
Hopefully the Gophers can put the pedal down, not get anyone hurt, pick up pair of wins, clinch a NCAA #1 seed and get ready to host a Big Ten Semifinal next weekend.
HOW TO WATCH:
Big Ten Tournament First Round Best-of-Three
#7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish @ #2 Minnesota Golden Gophers
Where: 3M Arena at Mariucci, Minneapolis, MN
When: 7 PM Friday and Saturday; 6 PM Sun (If Necessary)
TV: Fox 9
Stream: B1G+
Radio: 1130 AM/ 103.5 FM/ I Heart Radio