Notre Dame beats Gophers 1-0 in game one of best-of-three series

Notre Dame scored the only goal of the night on Friday at 3M Arena at Mariucci as the Irish earned a 1-0 victory over the Gopher Hockey program in the opening game of this weekend’s Big Ten quarterfinal series.

The Gophers will look to even the series up on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT.

The opening game in the best-of-three series proved to be a defensive battle with both teams’ penalty kills shining over the 60-minute contest. The two Big Ten rivals each went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill with Minnesota (14-14-7) killing a five-minute major in the second period and Notre Dame (15-13-7) killing a major of its own midway through the final period to hold on to the one-goal lead.

Trevor Janicke’s lone tally at 16:24 of the second period ended up being the deciding goal on Friday night at 3M Arena at Mariucci with Colin Theisen and Mike O’Leary picking up assists.

Cale Morris earned the shutout with 12 saves to improve to 12-12-7 on the year while Jack LaFontaine made 25 saves on 26 shots to fall to 7-9-6 on the year.

Minnesota was held to a season-low 12 shots on goal and was outshot 26-12 on the night.

(Courtesy: University of Minnesota)