Luck O’ The Irish: Notre Dame Rides Fluky Goals to Upset Win Friday Night

Minneapolis, MN – Seeking his 600th career coaching victory, Jeff Jackson’s last-place Notre Dame squad needed a lot to go their way to steal a game against the Big Ten co-champion Gophers.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

Behind two fluke goals (including one on a dump in from the red line), the #7 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish (11-23-1 Overall (2-2 OT)) upset the #2 seed Minnesota Golden Gophers (24-9-4 (1-4)) 3-2 in Friday night’s best-of-three Big Ten quarterfinal matchup. Minnesota will now need to win both Saturday and Sunday to advance to the conference semifinal round.

On a night of upsets (all three road teams won in the Big Ten Friday night), the most surprising had to be the Minnesota-Notre Dame tilt, and it got off to a wacky start. The Gophers dominated the first period, but found themselves trailing 1-0 early when Axel Kumlin’s dump-in from the redline at 1:30 glanced off of Minnesota goalie Liam Souliere’s glove and into the net.

Notre Dame extended their lead to 2-0 at 15:07 of the period when Michael Mastrodomenico joined a two-on-two rush and fired a snipe from the mid-slot over Souliere’s glove and into the corner of the net.

Minnesota got one back late in the first to start to pull back a little momentum. Matthew Wood tipped a Sam Rinzel shot from the point past ND goalkeeper Owen Say with just 6 seconds on the clock in the opening period to pull the Gophers within one at 2-1.

Notre Dame was able to extend the lead early in the second period on another Souliere gaffe – this time, the graduate goalie (who has taken the reins as Minnesota’ s #1 netminder over the past two months) played the puck from behind the net right into the waiting arms of ND’s Brennan Ali. Ali slotted the puck past Souliere just 1:18 into the second to give Notre Dame a two-goal cushion at 3-1.

The giveaway was the last straw for Gopher coach Bob Motzko, who pulled Souliere for backup Nathan Airey at that point. Airey was tested right away, as Minnesota took a too-many-men penalty at 7:14 of the second. The Irish hit the crossbar on the ensuing powerplay, but Airey and the penalty killers were able to keep ND off the board and stay in the game.

The clock kept winding, and Minnesota kept generating quality chances, but were not able to beat Say the rest of the middle frame. In the third, the Gophers pulled within one at 3-2 on a nice Sam Rinzel wrister from the slot at 8:16. Jimmy Snuggerud had won a puck battle in the offensive zone, finding Mason Nevers in the corner. Nevers fed a pinching Rinzel, who deposited a high wrister past Say and into the back of the net.

Minnesota pressed from then on, but it was nothing doing, and ND and Say battled their way to the 3-2 victory.

The Gophers now have a goalie situation on their hands. Souliere, who had been so good all season and especially so since he took over the starting job, was uncharacteristically sloppy – so much so that you wonder whether he was sick or otherwise unprepared for the tilt. Nathan Airey looked a bit shaky between the pipes, but he kept out all 13 Irish shots he faced. We’ll see who coach Motzko turns to for Saturday’s contest.

A best-of-three series, Minnesota now needs to win Saturday to extend the series to the third game, and win Sunday to advance to the conference semi-finals. Around the conference, Wisconsin went into Ohio State and won their game Friday, while Penn State beat Michigan in overtime at Yost to take a 1-0 lead in their series. The PSU-MI series is critical for the NCAA tournament – the winner of that series likely locks up a spot in the field, while the loser’s season is possibly over.

Minnesota and Notre Dame face off again Saturday night at 7PM.