Notre Dame hockey dropped both ends of its two-game series at Minnesota this weekend. The Irish and Gophers both entered the weekend winless in early-season Big Ten play. The Irish (3-6-0, 0-4-0 Big Ten) exited the same way and have now lost four straight.
Friday night’s contest remained scoreless into the second period until sophomore forward Beckett Hendrickson opened the scoring for the Gophers. Hendrickson took a backhand wraparound feed from sophomore Erik Påhlsson and deposited it up over Irish sophomore netminder Nicholas Kempf to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 7:04 of the middle frame. At the time, Minnesota was outshooting Notre Dame 22-9.
The Irish made a bid to tie the game late in the period, but Minnesota junior netminder Luca Di Pasquo shut down Irish freshman forward Cole Brown with the glove. It would be his best save of the night.
Notre Dame nearly tied the score again early in the third, when its aggressive penalty-killing generated a 3-on-2, but junior forward Danny Nelson shot the rebound off the post. The goal light went on inside 3M Arena at Mariucci, but the puck stayed out.
Minnesota found the insurance goal it needed when senior forward Brody Lamb scored into an empty net with 2:48 to play. The Gophers added another into the vacant cage 36 seconds later. Sophomore defenseman John Whipple found the twine with his back to the end wall in the Minnesota defensive zone, scoring his first collegiate goal from nearly 200 feet away.
Di Pasquo made 19 saves for his first shutout of the season. Kempf turned away 31 of 32 shots in a hard-luck loss.
Both goaltenders were back between the pipes in Saturday night’s contest, which saw Minnesota jump out to an early lead. A turnover below the Irish goal line ended up in the back of Notre Dame’s net 3:37 into the contest, with Lamb one-timing a pass from junior forward Jimmy Clark past Kempf for his team-leading sixth goal of the season.
Notre Dame finally scored its first and only goal of the weekend early in the second period, when senior defenseman Michael Mastrodomenico walked in from the circle and beat Di Pasquo. Just a minute earlier, Kempf had shut down sophomore forward Brodie Ziemer to keep the game 1-0, making a terrific side-to-side stop on a 2-on-1.
The game did not escape the second period tied. Minnesota took the lead for good with 3:43 remaining in the second. On the power play, senior defenseman Luke Mittelstadt sifted a point shot through traffic that beat Kempf, with Clark providing the screen. The Gophers added to their tally just 1:16 later, with Clark himself scoring on a snapshot from the faceoff circle.
Notre Dame had a handful of chances, including a Di Pasquo windmill glove save on junior forward Cole Knuble, but again found itself trailing as the buzzer sounded on period two.
Gopher star freshman forward LJ Mooney clinched the game, and the series, for Minnesota with a breakaway goal late in the third. Di Pasquo earned every bit of his third win of the season, stopping 33 Irish shots. Kempf saved 31 of 35.
Seeing the series at Minnesota slip away will hurt for Notre Dame. The Gophers had lost five of their last six entering the weekend, but the Irish were not able to wield that skid against them. The pair of Gopher victories marks the first time Minnesota has strung together consecutive wins this season.
The road gets no easier for Notre Dame, which welcomes No. 1 Michigan State to Compton Family Ice Arena on Friday and Saturday. Notre Dame and Ohio State now stand as the only two teams without a win in Big Ten play. The Irish will also face Merrimack, No. 18 Boston College and No. 10 Wisconsin before the hockey team’s holiday break begins on Dec. 7.
