By: Connor Toomey
South Bend, Ind. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team returns to Compton Family Ice Arena this weekend to take part in the regular season series finale against the Golden Gophers of Minnesota this Friday & Saturday (February 13-14). Friday night’s tilt is scheduled for 7pm as fans are invited to Country Night at Lefty Rink. Fans will enjoy country music and contests throughout the night. On Valentine’s Day, the Irish close out the series with Minnesota in the series finale at 6pm inside Compton Family Ice Arena.
This weekend will mark the 86th & 87th matchups between both programs. The Irish and Golden Gophers will add to their final scripts of the 2025-26 season series after previously meeting in 3M Arena at Mariucci back in November. Notre Dame looks to even the season series up after previously dropping two tightly contested games in Minneapolis.
Dating back to the 1924-25 season, the Irish currently trail in the all-time series with a record of 30-49-6. At home, Notre Dame is down at the moment in the series with the Gophers with 10 wins, 16 losses, and six ties. The Irish eagerly look to get back in the win column at home after the Gophers bested them at home in last season’s series in South Bend.
The last time out against Minnesota, Notre Dame defenseman Michael Mastrodomenico notched his third goal on the season off of assists from Cole Knuble & Paul Fischer. Sophomore netminder, Nicholas Kempf recorded 62 saves in the November weekend tilt.
The Irish return home after a hard fought and closely contested series with the Wisconsin Badgers. Junior forward Evan Werner earned conference honors after a five-point weekend in Madison. Named the Big Ten Third Star of the Week, Werner recorded his first collegiate hat-trick on Friday night in an incredible comeback effort to force overtime. With four points on Friday and a goal in Saturday’s contest, the junior took over as the team’s points leader with 28 (15 goals & 13 assists).
To build off of his impressive offensive weekend against Wisconsin, Werner also contributed to the Irish powerplay unit. The special teams unit for Notre Dame is ranked fifth in the nation on the powerplay with a 28.6-percent success rate. On the weekend in Madison, the Irish were successful on 40-percent of their opportunities with Werner scoring two goals on the team’s five different opportunities on the man-up advantage. His two scores on the powerplay led the country over the weekend and gave him his sixth on the season, which is tied for a team-best with junior forward Danny Nelson.
As the Irish return to the confines of Compton Family Ice Arena, they look to carry the strong play and effort that they have been building over the past few weeks. With Notre Dame closing out their regular season series with the Golden Gophers, the Irish enter the weekend ready to add an exciting regular season finale to the 101 year old feud on ice with Minnesota.
SERIES OVERVIEW
Opponent: Minnesota (Feb. 13/14)
Location: South Bend, Ind.
Schedule: Fri. 7:00 PM | Sat. 6:00 PM
TV/Streaming: Peacock
Live Stats: FightingIrish.com
Radio: fightingirish.com/radioaffiliates/
Game Notes: Notre Dame