Brock Sheahan understands the stakes of the Notre Dame-Michigan hockey rivalry.
As a defenseman for the Irish from 2005-2008, Sheahan lived in that rivalry. Now, he is preparing for his first series against the Wolverines as a head coach.
“Especially as the program turned around in my time here as a player, both programs were highly ranked teams for a very long time, and they were always very competitive games, games both programs get up for,” Sheahan said Wednesday in his weekly press conference. “I expect this weekend to be the same.”
Michigan hockey has long been a benchmark for the admittedly less historic program down the road in South Bend. During Sheahan’s tenure as a player, Notre Dame was emerging from years of struggles as a program capable of competing on a national level, and that maize and blue benchmark seems to have taken on more meaning.
Notre Dame beat Michigan in the 2007 Central Collegiate Hockey Association championship game to claim its first ever conference title. A year later, the Irish beat the Wolverines in a Frozen Four semifinal for the ages, clinching an appearance in the national championship for the first time. A rivalry was in the works.
Sheahan played in both those games, as did the man behind Michigan’s bench this weekend — Brandon Naurato, the fourth-year Michigan head coach whose playing career with the Wolverines overlapped Sheahan’s Notre Dame playing days for three years. Neither coach will be forgetting their matchups any time soon, especially not the 2008 semifinal.
“It was a monumental moment for the program to show that we arrived,” Sheahan said.
What would beating Michigan mean this year? Notre Dame had been a thorn in the Wolverine’s side for a handful of seasons following the COVID-19 pandemic, winning 11 of 16 meetings between 2020-2023. But in the time since, Michigan has carried the series, winning eight straight before Notre Dame ended that run with a 7-4 victory last January. But at that time, Notre Dame was already out of the running nationally and even in the Big Ten. The rivalry could use its swagger back.
And there’s no reason not to believe that two of the men who were around when the series first earned its spice can’t inject new life into the rivalry yet again.
As coaches, Sheahan and Naurato share similar profiles. Both are on the younger side of college hockey coaches, and made quick assents to premier head-coaching roles. Sheahan is in his first year as Irish head coach and Naurato is in his fourth, but only his third as full-time head coach, having spent a year as interim head coach in 2023.
Both also share a similar focus on player development. Sheahan consistently harps on player development as the cornerstone of his coaching philosophy, and did the same as head coach of the USHL’s Chicago Steel. Before Michigan, Naurato worked with the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings and their AHL affiliate Grand Rapids on skill development programs. He still runs Red Wings prospect development during the summers.
Maybe most importantly, both are hyper-fixated on helping their programs reach their full potential. If both are successful, a clash is inevitable.
Now, in 2025, any coach worth his weight in gold will insist they want their team to play the same way, week in and week out, no matter who the opponent is. Sheahan did that this week, saying “the way I’d like it to be for our guys is it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, our standard is what our standard is. We’re working on that, we’re trying to get there.”
In other words, Notre Dame-Michigan this weekend should matter just as much as Notre Dame-Robert Morris last weekend. That mentality helps good teams become great teams. But history lingers. Michigan has always been a litmus test of success for Notre Dame: a benchmark. On Halloween 2025, that still remains true.
“They’re one of the best teams in the country, and I think that’s a great opportunity for us to show how much growth we’ve had.”
