Irish bounce Gophers out of Big Ten tourney

BIG TEN TOURNAMENT >> NOTRE DAME 4, MINNESOTA 1 (N.D. WINS SERIES 2-1)

Scrappy Notre Dame eliminates Minnesota in best-of-three series

Notre Dame and Minnesota players have skirmish in front of the net during the Irish’s 4-1 victory in Game 3 to win the Big Ten first-round playoff series at Mariucci Arena on Sunday. SAGE ZIPETO — GOPHERS ATHLETICS

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By Patrick Donnelly

Special to the Pioneer Press

The only silver lining the Gophers men’s hockey team found in Sunday night’s loss to Notre Dame was that it didn’t end their season. But it might’ve made the path to their ultimate goal more difficult.

Owen Say made 38 saves as seventh-seeded Irish defeated the second-seeded Gophers 4-1 to win their best-of-three Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal series two games to one at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

“The sky’s not falling,” head coach Bob Motzko said. “It sucks right now, I can tell you that. But we’re gonna play again.”

The Irish will face top-seeded Michigan State in the conference semifinals, while the Gophers—who were No. 3 in last week’s Pairwise rankings—will have to wait two weeks until they find out when and where they will begin their push for their first NCAA title since 2003.

“Obviously we’re really frustrated,” junior defenseman Luke Mittelstadt said. “But that’s not the one that we’re really out to win. We’re out to win a national championship.”

Upsets aren’t unprecedented in the Big Ten playoffs—last year, seventh-seeded Ohio State knocked off No. 2 Wisconsin, and this year fourth-seeded Michigan was swept by Penn State while third-seed Ohio State was pushed to the limit by the Badgers before pulling out a Game 3 victory last night.

But on a night when Minnesota outshot Notre Dame 39-21 and trailed by just one goal midway through the third period before letting it slip away, the Gophers will spend the next two weeks trying to get a bitter taste out of their mouths.

“It’s hard to look that far down the road right now, but we’ve just got to come with the mentality of getting better every day, maintaining that confidence,” co-captain Mason Nevers said. “We know we’re a good team. This weekend doesn’t change that.”

The Gophers had much of the early momentum—eight of the first nine shots on goal came off Minnesota sticks. But for the third straight game, Notre Dame scored the game’s first goal. Jack Larrigan fired a shot that hit goalie Nathan Airey square in the block M on his chest. But he bobbled the puck and Jayden Davis jammed home the rebound to give the Irish a 1-0 lead with 2:35 left in the first period.

The Gophers lost senior center Aaron Huglen to an apparent leg injury early in the second after Notre Dame’s Henry Nelson crashed the net and sent Huglen flying into Airey.

Shortly thereafter, the Irish doubled their lead when Edina native Grant Silianoff rapped home a rebound of a Blake Biondi shot.

The Gophers’ frustrations peaked during a disastrous power play in which they could barely get the puck into the attacking zone, let alone manage a shot on goal.

“Overhandling the puck, trying to go through their whole wall—that’s where it starts to show,” Motzko said.

Matthew Wood scored a power play goal to make the score 2-1 with nearly 12 minutes left in the third period. But Minnesota’s euphoria didn’t last long. Four minutes later, Cole Knuble completed a give-and-go with Justin Janicke, cutting across the face of the net and beating Airey to make it 3-1.

Hunter Strand hit an empty net from his own blue line at 17:40 to make it 4-1 and send the sparse crowd to the exits.

Now the Gophers’ focus turns to the NCAA tourney, with the warning fresh in their minds of how tough the competition will be.

“It’s our last lesson. There’s no more lessons now,” Nevers said. “You’ve just got to learn from it. You’ve got to wear it as a team, as a group together, like we’ve been doing all year, and come out ready in two weeks to compete for the big one.”