#1 Irish Head To #13 Minnesota For Weekend Series

Jan. 24, 2018

Game Notes

By Dan Colleran

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The No. 1 ranked Notre Dame hockey team will play the first of two-straight road series this weekend at No. 13/14 Minnesota (Jan. 26-27).

Earlier this season Notre Dame swept a two-game home series against the Golden Gophers on Nov. 24-25 at the Compton Family Ice Arena by scores of 1-0 and 5-2. The Irish are 13-1-0-0 in Big Ten play this season (39 points) and lead second-place Ohio State (25 points) by 14 points in the league standings.

Notre Dame, which saw its 16-game winning streak come to an end last Sunday (Jan. 21) against Wisconsin at the United Center, is 9-0-0 this season in true road games and remain the only team in the country without a road loss (0-1-0 at neutral sites). Notre Dame’s goals-against average on the road is 1.11, which leads the NCAA and the only other team with fewer than two road losses is Cornell, who enters the weekend with a 5-1-1 record on the road.

#1

• For the third consecutive week, the Fighting Irish are ranked No. 1 in both the USCHO.com and the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls.
• Prior to this season, Notre Dame was last ranked No. 1 in the USCHO.com preseason poll released on Sept. 27, 2011.
• The number one ranking this season marks the seventh time in program history that the Irish have been ranked at the top for at least one week during a given season.
• During the 2006-07 season, Notre Dame was ranked No. 1 for seven straight weeks from Feb. 5 to March 25.
• During the 2008-09 campaign, the Irish were No. 1 from Dec. 1 to Jan. 26, a span covering seven weeks.
• The Irish moved into first in the USA Today poll again on Feb. 23, 2009, for the second time that season and on March 15, 2009, were ranked No. 1 in the USCHO.com poll.
• Notre Dame was also No. 1 for one week during the 1976-77 season.
• It marks the first Big Ten team to achieve the top ranking since Penn State was ranked No. 1 in the Jan. 16, 2017 polls.

RECORD SETTING WIN STREAK

• Notre Dame’s win streak was snapped at 16 games, a program record.
• The record setting streak began with a 5-4 win over Omaha on Oct. 27, with win No. 16 then coming on Jan. 19, 2018 with a 4-2 victory over Wisconsin.
• Notre Dame earned that program record setting win at the Compton Family Ice Arena in front of a record setting crowd (5,630).
• The streak tied for the 16th-longest winning streak in NCAA DI men’s hockey history.
• Dating back to the 1993-94 season, Notre Dame is just the third team with a winning streak of at least 16 games, joining Boston College in 2011-12 (19 wins) and Harvard in 2016-17 (16 wins).
• The span between Notre Dame’s losses bookending the 16-game winning streak was 87 days.
• The only other time Notre Dame won at least 15 games in a row occurred during the 1983-84 season from Nov. 4, 1983 – Jan. 21, 1984 (the Irish competed under club status for the 1983-84 season).
• Notre Dame’s previous longest winning streak under coach Jackson was 10 games from Feb. 13 – March 21, 2009.
• The Fighting Irish also became the first Big Ten team to go undefeated through the first 13 games of the conference season and the second Big Ten team to go undefeated through 10 games (Minnesota started 2013-14 with an 8-0-2-0 record).
• Jackson’s previous longest career winning streak came with Lake Superior when his team won 15 consecutive games from Jan. 19 – March 9, 1991 as part of a 28-game unbeaten stretch by the Lakers.
• The 16 game winning streak was also Notre Dame’s longest unbeaten streak since Oct. 31, 2008 – Jan. 17, 2009 when the Irish went 17-0-3 over a span of 20 games.

IRISH WEEKEND SWEEP (Nov. 24-25)

• Earlier in the season, the Irish swept the Gophers at home by scores of 1-0 (Nov. 24) and 5-2 (Nov. 25).
• Cale Morris made 44 saves in that 1-0 shutout and followed with 40 saves in game two, while Jake Evans had a goal and two assists in the game two victory.
• For the series, Morris went 2-0-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .977 save percentage (stopping 84 of the 86 shots on goal he faced) and was named the Big Ten’s First Star of the Week for his efforts.

THE SERIES/Connections(Pg. 9: Series G-B-G)

• Notre Dame and Minnesota will be meeting for the 49th and 50th times in series history this weekend.
• Earlier in the season, the Irish swept the Gophers at home by scores of 1-0 (Nov. 24) and 5-2 (Nov. 25).
• Cale Morris made 44 saves in that 1-0 shutout and followed with 40 saves in game two, while Jake Evans had a goal and two assists in the game two victory.
• For the series, Morris went 2-0-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .977 save percentage (stopping 84 of the 86 shots on goal he faced) and was named the Big Ten’s First Star of the Week for his efforts.
• The current Irish roster includes five Minnesota natives: Tony Bretzman (Mendota, Minnesota), Jordan Gross (Maple Grove, Minnesota), Dylan Malmquist (Edina, Minnesota), Bo Brauer (Edina, Minnesota) and Matt Hellickson (Rogers, Minnesota).
• Statistical leaders against the Golden Gophers include Jake Evans (7 GP; 1-7-8), Jordan Gross (7 GP, 2-4-6), Cam Morrison (3 GP, 0-4-4), Andrew Oglevie (5 GP, 2-0-2) and Cal Burke (2 GP, 2-0-2).
• Last season, No. 4 seed/12th-ranked Notre Dame came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the top-seeded/fifth-ranked Golden Gophers, 3-2, in the first round of the 2017 NCAA Northeast Regional at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, N.H.
• Anders Bjork scored a pair of goals, including the game winner at the 8:42 mark of the third period.
• The teams have played each of the last six seasons, largely overlapping with Mario Lucia‘s time at Notre Dame from 2012-16 (Mario is the son of Minnesota head coach Don Lucia).
• Don Lucia, a 1981 Notre Dame graduate, played four seasons at Notre Dame for Head Coach Lefty Smith (1977-81).
• As a defenseman, Don saw action in 124 games, scoring seven goals with 23 assists for 30 points and, like Mario, he was an alternate captain as a senior.
• Minnesota associate head coach Mike Guentzel’s son, Ryan, graduated from Notre Dame in 2011 and played four seasons under Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson.
• Jackson is 9-5-0 all-time against the Gophers, including a 2-0-0 mark in postseason play.

— ND —

Dan Colleran, Director of Athletics Communications at the University of Notre Dame, has been a part of Fighting Irish Media since August 2015 and coordinates all media and publicity efforts surrounding the Notre Dame hockey and golf programs. A native of Walpole, Massachusetts, Colleran spent the previous three years working with the men’s hockey and soccer programs at Providence College. Colleran also spent two years as an Assistant Executive Director of Communications & Championships at the Ivy League and is a graduate of Providence College (’06 & ’08G).