MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Despite skating even throughout the night, the University of Notre Dame hockey team fell to the Minnesota Golden Gophers on the road Friday night, 3-0, after a pair of empty-netters in the final minutes put the game away for the home team.
The Irish were called for the first penalty of the night after getting tangled up with a Gopher at the home team’s bench. On the penalty kill, the Notre Dame defense stepped up, keeping a loose puck from crossing the goalline during a net-front scramble one minute into the special teams attempt.
Notre Dame successfully killed off the remainder of the man-down time to keep the game scoreless through the first media timeout at 9:18 of the game.
With 2.9 seconds to go in the opening frame, the Irish were called for a trip and closed out the rest of the period on the kill.
The Gophers got on the board halfway through the second period to make it a 1-0 contest. A Gopher wrapped a chance around the net, drawing Nicholas Kempf to the far side before passing the puck across the crease to his teammate for the backdoor goal.
The Irish saw one powerplay opportunity in the middle stanza but were unable to capitalize on the man-advantage and skated to the locker rooms trailing by one and in the box again upon their return for the third period following a late roughing call against the Irish.
The Irish nearly had the equalizer shorthanded less than a minute into the final frame when Michael Mastrodomenico’s shot bounced back out in front of Carter Slaggert who stood alone on the doorstep. The bouncing puck was not able to be settled and the play was blown dead as the Gophers’ netminder froze it.
Minnesota thought they had extended their lead just before the first media timeout of the third, but a whistle from the officials signaled the end of the play before they pushed it through Kempf’s legs and the score held at 1-0, Gophers.
After icing the puck late in the third period, the Gophers called timeout with the Irish pressuring their net heavily. When the two teams returned to the ice, the Irish had opted for the extra attacker and their net sat empty at the opposite end of the ice. Despite winning the draw, the Irish were unable to control the puck and the Gophers raced down the ice to score on the empty net.
The Irish tried the empty net again shortly after, with 2:48 to play and down two goals, but the Gophers chipped the puck out of their zone and it trickled down center and into the open net making it a 3-0 game with 2:12 to play.
The game would go final at 3-0 as the Irish fell to 3-5-1 on the season behind a 31-save performance by Kempf in goal.
UP NEXT
The two teams close out the weekend series Saturday night with a 7pm local puck drop inside 3M Arena at Mariucci.
Notre Dame hosts one more series this month, next weekend when they face off against top-ranked Michigan State, before heading out East for the Thanksgiving holiday.