Above one of the goals, above the flags at Compton Family Ice Arena, the words “God, Country, Notre Dame” are painted in Celtic font.
If there is a Hockey God, in the words of Gopher senior forward Leon Bristedt, he was not on the visiting team’s side Friday night.
Minnesota could not get the puck past Notre Dame goaltender Cale Morris. The sophomore made a career-high 44 saves Friday night, shutting out the visiting Gophers 1-0 in a battle between the fourth- and sixth-ranked teams in the nation.
“That’s the way hockey is some nights. Give the other team credit, they made some good blocks and defended well and had good stick positioning. If we did get a good look, the goaltender made the save,” said Minnesota head coach Don Lucia. “If you would have told me we would have given up one goal, I would have thought for sure that we would have won the game.”
Andrew Oglevie scored the game’s only goal 1:43 into the second period to help push Notre Dame’s winning streak to eight games. Coming on the power play, his shot bounced off Ryan Lindgren and floated past Eric Schierhorn into the back of the net.
Schierhorn finished with 22 saves.
The Gophers (9-5-1, 3-3-1-1 Big Ten) dominated the opening 10 minutes. Minnesota outshot Notre Dame (11-3-1, 5-0-0-0 Big Ten) 12-2 over that stretch, testing Morris and the Fighting Irish defense, which blocked 21 shots. While he was able to weather the early storm, it was a pattern that continued throughout the game.
“He deserves most of the credit,” Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson said of Morris, who has allowed one goal in his last four games. “But I thought our defense played well in front of him in terms of not allowing second shots. Our defensive sticks were pretty good. Minnesota shoots for sticks all over the ice and they’re really good with their sticks defensively. We did a good job for the most part.”
Minnesota went 0 for 4 on the power play Friday, including two in the third period, as Notre Dame extended its streak of successful penalty kills to 22.
Jack Sadek had a partial breakaway attempt stopped with four minutes left that was the best chance of 15 power-play shots the Gophers had with the man advantage against Morris.
“We had some chances, we had some looks,” Lucia said. “We didn’t get a bounce tonight, but we did so many good things. As I told the guys tonight, that’s hockey some nights.”
Still, despite dropping three conference points — Notre Dame sits now four ahead of the second-place Gophers with two games in hand — Minnesota left Friday in good spirits. The Gophers took solace in sustaining offense for a second straight game. The 44 shots on goal and 82 attempts come one game after the Gophers put up 50 shots on Harvard.
“We’re starting to use our D and getting strong on pucks down low. That’s been a key for us. We’re taking steps as a hockey team,” Bristedt said. “We’ve started to be more consistent. We’re still not giving up a lot of goals and we’re putting up the shots so the goals are going to come.
The two teams will play again Saturday night at 6:00 pm.
“If there is a Hockey God, he was not on our side tonight,” said Bristedt. “Hopefully we can get those bounces tomorrow.”
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