5-goal first sends Gopher men’s hockey past Notre Dame

The No. 3 Minnesota men’s hockey team scored five times in the first period and cruised to a 5-2 victory over visiting Notre Dame from 3M Arena at Mariucci Friday night.

Two separate times during the opening frame, the Golden Gophers (19-4-2 overall, 10-2-1 B1G) found the back of the net less than 30 seconds apart to win their fourth straight against the Fighting Irish (7-15-1 overall, 2-12-1 B1G). Jimmy Snuggerud scored twice, while Mike Koster and Beckett Hendrickson each recorded two-assist performances to pace the offense.

The Maroon and Gold were flying from the opening faceoff, leading to a quick chance in tight to the goal from Jimmy Clark. The visitors weathered the early pressure and at the 4:02 mark capitalized on a rebound in the blue paint for a 1-0 edge. The rest of the period belonged to the Gophers as they responded on the next shift and tacked on five goals over a stretch of 13 minutes, 40 seconds. Snuggerud evened the score 22 seconds after the Irish tally as he was rewarded for driving to the crease where a rebound sat uncovered. Erik Påhlsson started the play along the wall and attacked the heart of the Irish defense, forcing a difficult save that could not be contained.

Minnesota continued its relentless offense and scored twice in a 29-second span, igniting the over-capacity crowd as it had as many goals as Notre Dame had shots, leading 3-1. After Clark was hit from behind to draw a penalty, the home team struck before an extra attacker even got to the ice. Cal Thomas buried a cross-ice feed from Luke Mittelstadt at the far circle to jump in front, 2-1. Not to be outdone by his brother, John Mittelstadt extended the margin with the eventual game winner at the 9:12 mark, battling for position in front of the net and put away a rebound following Beckett Hendrickson’s wraparound bid was stopped.

Already holding a two-goal cushion, the Gophers moved to a power play with 7:15 remaining in the first period and thought they added to the lead. Oliver Moore blasted a one-timer from the bottom of the circle that hit the crossbar, staying out of the net and confirmed by replay. The penalty was killed off, but momentum stayed with the Maroon and Gold as it scored two more times, these coming 14 seconds apart late in the frame. Snuggerud ripped home his second of the night with 2:10 showing on the clock, moving into open space in the slot where Mike Koster found him after pulling away a pair of defenders. Mason Nevers tacked on another goal to make it 5-1 heading into intermission as was alone in the slot and one-timed a Hendrickson pass from the corner.

Minnesota immediately tested a new Irish netminder as Moore broke in alone 20 seconds into the second stanza, but his backhand was denied by a glove save. At the 2:07 mark of the frame, the Gophers moved to their second man advantage only to have it negated on a penalty of their own and skated 4-on-4. When both teams returned to full strength, Notre Dame started to generate chances and made it a 5-2 game via a shot through traffic. A breakaway from Matthew Wood was turned aside in the middle of the period and the Irish needed to stop another quality look by Snuggerud. The visitors would not go away and forced Minnesota netminder Nathan Airey into delivering critical saves to maintain the three-goal cushion, 5-2, which held until intermission.

The Gophers were content to not take risks during the final frame and continued to roll through their four lines. The stingy defensive corps and Airey limited the Irish to just four shots in the final 20 minutes of action. Facing a worn-down opponent, Minnesota again tested the visiting goalie with double-digit shots on target, but the NCAA’s highest-scoring team could not add another goal before closing out the 5-2 victory.

Airey closed the night with 13 saves, no more than five in a period, and improved to 11-1-2 for the year as Minnesota won its third-straight home game and reached double-digit wins at 3M Arena at Mariucci this season. The Gophers ended with a 46-15 edge in shots on goal and posted 40 or more shots for the fourth time over their last seven outings.

Noteworthy

Snuggerud buried his 13th and 14th goals of the season and pushed his team-leading point total to 32 behind his 11th multi-point effort of 2024-25 … It was the junior’s 13th time scoring multiple goals in his career and first since potting a pair at Notre Dame in the last meeting between the teams on Nov. 23 … In his first game back on the ice in more than a month, Thomas found the back of the net with his first goal of the campaign, second of his career, and now has five points in 12 appearances … Thomas is the 19th different skater to record a goal for Minnesota this season … John Mittelstadt continues to produce on the offensive end, posting five points over his last six outings, scoring his third goal this year … It was John’s second game-winning goal of the campaign and third of his career as he reached a career-best six points, all of which have come on home ice in 2024-25 … For the first time since November of 2022, Nevers has scored a goal in consecutive games, and has points in two of three games since returning from injury … It was a career day for Hendrickson as the freshman recorded the first multi-point effort of his tenure, finishing with two assists, and has tallied four points in his last four appearances … Coming off a two-goal outing at Ohio State, Koster put together another multiple point night to become the Gophers’ 12th player to reach double-digit scoring this season … The Chaska, Minn., native registered two assists Friday, totaling 11 points for the year … Påhlsson collected his seventh helper and ninth point of the campaign … After a three-point series at Ohio State, Luke Mittelstadt tacked on his 14th assist this season, extending his season-long point streak to three games … Huglen found the scoresheet in another Friday outing and has nine assists and 14 points during his senior season … Minnesota is now outscoring its opponents by a 37-15 margin in the first period of games this year, including a 22-7 margin at home … Friday was the first sellout of the year for the Gophers with an announced attendance of 10,362.

Coach Motzko’s Comments

“Obviously a great first period and we were on top of it in a really good third period,” Minnesota head coach Bob Motzko said. “We got off a little bit in a second, but contributions from everywhere. I mean, John Mittelstadt’s line was great tonight and really evident by everybody in the building how hard they got after it. We did a lot of good things tonight.”

Next Up: Home vs. Notre Dame (Jan. 18)

The Gophers and Fighting Irish play for the final time during the regular season Saturday evening starting at 5 p.m. live on FOX9+ and streaming on B1G+, while audio coverage is available on the Gopher Radio Network.

Courtesy: University of Minnesota Sports Information