WHO: No. 3 seed Notre Dame (28-11-0) vs. No. 1 seed Minnesota State (36-5-0)
WHEN: Saturday, March 26 at 6:30 p.m. ET
WHERE: MVP Arena in Albany, New York
WATCH: ESPNU
LISTEN: 94.3 FM | UND.com
SETTING THE STAGE
- The University of Notre Dame hockey team has advanced to the NCAA Albany Regional Final and will play Minnesota State at 6:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 26 at the MVP Arena with a Frozen Four berth on the line (ESPNU).
- On Thursday, the third-seeded Irish downed second-seeded North Dakota 2-1 in overtime to advance, while the top-seeded Mavericks posted a 4-3 win over Harvard.
- It will mark the first NCAA meeting between Notre Dame and Minnesota State.
- Notre Dame will be making its seventh appearance in a NCAA regional final, having previously advanced to the Frozen Four in 2008, 2011, 2017 and 2018.
- The four regional winners will advance to the 2022 Frozen Four on April 7 and 9 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
- Notre Dame has now won its last four NCAA Tournament games that have gone to overtime and improved to 7-2-0 in OT NCAA Tournament games.
Notre Dame 2, North Dakota 1 (OT)
- Notre Dame posted a dramatic 2-1 overtime win against North Dakota to advance to the NCAA Regional Final.
- Graham Slaggert scored the power play game winner at 1:38 of overtime, with assists from Nick Leivermann and Landon Slaggert.
- Notre Dame appeared to win the game with under one second left in regulation, but after a lengthy review, the call on the ice was overturned.
- Landon Slaggert scored the first goal on the night for the Irish to tie it at 1-1 in the second period.
- Graduate student goaltender Matthew Galajda made 23 saves in the winning effort for the Irish.
ND IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
- Notre Dame is making the 13th NCAA tournament appearance in program history, including the 12th under head coach Jeff Jackson.
- Notre Dame has a program-best streak of six consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances intact.
- It is the second-longest active NCAA appearance streak, trailing only Minnesota Duluth (7).
- Last season, the Irish were unable to compete due to COVID-19 protocols after making the tournament field and heading to the Albany Regional (Notre Dame had been the No. 4 seed and would have played No. 1 seed Boston College).
- Prior to the 2019-20 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fighting Irish advanced to a regional final for the third consecutive season in 2018-19, having won regional final games in 2017 and 2018 to advance to back-to-back Frozen Fours.
- The Fighting Irish have now made nine of the last 11 NCAA tournaments, which is tied with North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth for the second-most (Denver leads with 10).
- In addition to 2017 and 2018, the Irish also made Frozen Four appearances in 2008 and 2011.
- Notre Dame was a No. 3 seed three previous times and is now 4-3-0 as a No. 3 seed, including 2011 (advanced to the Frozen four), 2016 and 2019.
- Seniors Nick Leivermann, Cam Burke, Graham Slaggert and Jake Pivonka each played two NCAA games in 2019, while Spencer Stastney played one (none of those five players recorded a point in the NCAA Tournament).
- Matthew Galajda was injured during the 2019 ECAC championship game and was unable to play in the 2019 NCAA Tournament for the Big Red but he did play in the first round against Boston University in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament (Cornell lost 4-1).
- Jeff Jackson is making his 18th-career appearance as a head coach in the NCAA Tournament.
- The 18 career appearances are the top total among head coaches in the field this season.
- In addition to the 12 appearances now with Notre Dame, Jackson took Lake Superior State to the NCAA tournament six times including NCAA Championships in 1992 and 1994.
- Formerly the Times Union Center, the regional is taking place where Irish head coach Jeff Jackson won his first NCAA Championship as head coach of Lake Superior State in 1992
- The Lakers downed Wisconsin 5-3 in the championship game and current Notre Dame sophomore forward Ryder Rolston’s father, Brian, had the game-winning goal in that contest.
NOTRE DAME – MINNESOTA STATE SERIES HISTORY
- Notre Dame and Minnesota State have only played 10 times, with the Irish leading the all-time series 6-4-0.
- The Irish and Mavericks have never met in NCAA Tournament play.
- The teams last met on Jan. 1, 2011 at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois as part of Notre Dame’s Shillelagh Tournament.
- The Mavericks earned a 4-3 win on that day, despite three second period Irish goals from Ben Ryan, Jeff Costello and Calle Ridderwall.
QUICK HITS
- Matthew Galajda has started each of the past 10 games for the Irish, posting an 8-2-0 record to go along with a .944 save percentage and a 1.71 goals-against average while only yielding 11 even strength goals in the 10 games.
- The Fighting Irish are 19-1-0 when scoring first this season and 23-1-0 when scoring at least three goals.
- Notre Dame is also 13-3-0 in one-goal games this season.
- The Fighting Irish are 7-2-0 in overtime this season, with the OT game-winning goals coming from Cam Burke (at Michigan Tech), Ryder Rolston (at Michigan), Max Ellis (at Michigan and at Penn State), Spencer Stastney (at Ohio State), Landon Slaggert (vs. Minnesota) and Graham Slaggert (vs. North Dakota).
— ND —