Notre Dame Hockey: Minnesota Series Preview

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team is drawing close to the end of the regular season with their final two home games of the season this weekend. As they honor the seniors on the team Notre Dame will be wearing green jerseys and playing the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Notre Dame is playing for tournament seeding, with their final four games going a long way to determining their chances.

Where, When, How to Watch

• Where: Compton Family Ice Arena, Notre Dame, IN
• When: Friday February 16, 7:30pm ET; Saturday February 17, 6:00pm ET
• How to Watch: Both games streaming on Peacock

After two losses last weekend Notre Dame has all but lost their chance to qualify for the NCAA tournament based on ranking. Sitting #21 in the pairwise rankings they just don’t have the opportunities left to move up. That means their chances rely on the Big Ten automatic bid. The Irish are currently fourth in the Big Ten behind Minnesota but they trail the Gophers by eight points. Fourth place would get Notre Dame a home series in the first round of the Big Ten tournament but things are tight with the Michigan Wolverines trailing Notre Dame by just two points with two games in hand. A home series would set the Irish up to start a run but it won’t be an easy few weeks.

If Notre Dame does make a run in the postseason it will come on the back of goaltender Ryan Bischel. Bischel has been one of the nation’s top netminders this season and was recently named a semifinalist for the Mike Richter Award, given to the country’s best goalkeeper. Bischel has played all 30 games for the Irish this season and leads the country with 920 saves in 1,800 minutes played. His .927 save percentage is fourth in the country and he owns a 2.46 GAA and 14-14-2 record.

Back in November Notre Dame and Minnesota played to a series split in Minneapolis. Each team won a game with the winning team scoring four goals in both games. Notre Dame is a different team than they were back then though as they’ve continued to grow a supporting cast of young contributors around the veteran core. Players like Patrick Moynihan, Danny Nelson, and Cole Knuble have become big time contributors to the offense with all three freshmen among the team leaders in points. Minnesota is also an improved team with goaltender Justen Close possibly the best example of that. After some high numbers earlier in the season Close has allowed only 3 goals in the last 5 games total with no more than a single goal in any of those games. He’s only lost 2 games in 2024 as compared to 8 wins, beating him is going to be a challenge that the Irish will need to overcome.

Prediction

Notre Dame is playing on home ice which has gone a long way this season with a 12-7 record. With Michigan on the road next week they will need to take both games against Minnesota to set themselves up for the conference tournament. The more likely outcome against a strong conference opponent is a split but the Irish need all the wins they can get right now.