You never want to say a hockey game is over after 20 minutes. But Friday night’s game between the Gophers and Notre Dame was pretty much over after 20 minutes.

Jimmy Snuggerud scored two of Minnesota’s five first-period goals and the third-ranked Gophers held on to defeat Notre Dame 5-2 at 3M Arena at Mariucci on Friday.

Cal Thomas, John Mittelstadt and Mason Nevers also scored for the Gophers (19-4-2, 10-2-1 in the Big Ten), who took control early with a dynamic first period in which they outshot the Irish 24-5 and outscored them 5-1.

“Our energy level was high in the locker room before the game,” Snuggerud said. “We knew we were going to have a nice crowd and the students were coming back, and we just wanted to show them our best game.”

Goaltender Nathan Airey made 13 saves for Minnesota, which outshot Notre Dame 46-15 and won for the fourth time in five January games.

Defensemen Paul Fischer and Jimmy Jurcev each scored for Notre Dame. Nicholas Kempf stopped 19 of 24 shots in the first period, and Owen Say saved all 22 Minnesota shots over the final two periods.

The Irish actually got on the board first, when Fischer fired a shot from the bottom of the left circle that trickled between Airey’s pads and rolled to a stop just shy of the goal line beyond Airey’s skates. As the other players on the ice looked for the puck, Fischer swooped in and tapped it home for a 1-0 Irish lead just 4:02 into the game.

“It kind of woke us up a little bit,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. “We needed to respond and we did.”

A mere 24 seconds after Fischer’s goal, Erik Påhlsson skated in from behind the Notre Dame net and flipped a backhander that Kempf stopped. But the rebound landed on the stick of Snuggerud trailing the play and he made no mistake, burying his 13th goal of the season for a 1-all tie.

“The shift after a goal is the biggest shift of the game, especially after the first goal,” Snuggerud said. “It was a fortunate bounce there and we were really happy to get that goal.”

The Gophers then scored two quick goals of their own midway through the first. First, Thomas fired home his first goal of the season after Luke Mittelstadt found him alone in the right faceoff circle.

“I saw a lot of net,” said Thomas, playing his first game in over a month after recovering from an injury. “[Mittelstadt] made a great pass, selling the shot, and made it easy for me.”

Just 29 seconds later, John Mittelstadt chipped home another rebound that Kempf couldn’t contain for his third of the season and a 3-1 Minnesota lead.

Minnesota’s onslaught continued with two more quick goals late in the first. Snuggerud picked up his second of the night and 14th of the season when his wrister from the high slot beat a screened Kempf. Then just 14 seconds later, Nevers rapped home a feed from Beckett Hendrickson for a 5-1 lead.

Thomas noted that the first-period blitz might have been a product of last weekend, when the Gophers came out flat on Friday night and were drilled by Ohio State 5-1.

“I think we saw how we played last Friday and didn’t want to do that again,” Thomas said.

Jurcev beat Airey with a high wrist shot to make it 5-2 with 6:35 gone in the second. But the Gophers withstood the backlash they expected after the first period.

After a first period like that, “two things are going to happen,” Motzko said. “The road team is going to come back in the second period and play completely different and better. And the team that gets five is going to settle a little bit. ... You’ve got to fight through it, which we did.”

Before the game, the Gophers honored Oliver Moore and Brodie Ziemer as well as associate head coach Steve Miller, who were back at Mariucci for the first time since helping Team USA take gold in the world junior championships on Jan. 5 in Ottawa.