MINNEAPOLIS — The #4/5 Irish erased a 2-0 deficit at the first intermission to post a 5-3 road victory over Minnesota on Saturday evening at 3M Arena at Mariucci (8,008).
With the victory, the Irish improve to 5-0-1 overall and earn four points on the opening weekend of Big Ten play.
With a pair of goals, Nick Leivermann notched his first career multi-point game, and the Irish also received tallies by Spencer Stastney, Charlie Raith and Trevor Janicke. Raith’s goal was the first of his career and proved to be the game winner.
“Both goals I had were plays helped out by other players but it is fun to play here,” Leivermann, a Minnesota native, said after the victory. “To come in and see the way he [Charlie Raith] played the last six games, lights out, has been great. It was awesome to see him score his first goal,” Leivermann added about Raith’s third period game winner.
Cam Morrison led all skaters with three points on three assists, while Janicke and Stastney also added assists to record multi-point efforts.
Cale Morris totaled 24 saves in the Notre Dame net, while the Irish forced Jared Moe into making 34 stops.
Notre Dame finished 1-for-3 on the power play, while the Gophers were 0-for-3.
How It Happened
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead at 12:34 of the first period when Brannon McManus scored on a 2-on-1 chance, with the cross-ice pass coming from Sampo Ranta. Jack Perbix extended the Gopher lead at 16:13 of the first and Minnesota took that 2-0 lead to the locker room after 20 minutes of play.
Leivermann got the Irish on the board at 5:20 of the second period when his snapshot from the point beat Moe low while Notre Dame was on the power play. Alex Steeves and Graham Slaggert had the assists on the play, which marked Leivermann’s first goal of the season.
Stastney crashed the net after Cam Morrison and Cal Burke forced Moe into a pair of saves and sent a wrist shot high past the freshman goaltender for his second goal of the season, tying the game at 2-2 at 13:46 of the second.
Minnesota answered to take a 3-2 lead just 42 seconds later when Garrett Wait netted his first of the season on a 2-on-1 opportunity down low.
But Leivermann and the Irish tied things up once again. The Eden Prairie native took a drop pass from Janicke and cut to the slot and fired low past Moe for his second of the night. Freshman Jesse Lansdell had the second assist on the play to earn his first career point.
Just 1:25 into the third, Raith gave Notre Dame the lead for the first time when he took a few steps in from the point after Hellickson sent him a pass across the top of the zone and the sophomore fired past Moe for his first career goal. Morrison earned the second assist on the play for a two-assist night.
Janicke sealed the victory with an empty-net goal in the final minute to account for the 5-3 final.
Up Next
- Notre Dame returns home next weekend to play host to 13th-ranked Ohio State on Friday, Nov. 8 and Saturday, Nov. 9.
- Friday’s game (8 p.m.) will be televised by NBCSN, while Saturday’s game will be televised on SNY.
- Both games will also be streamed via NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App.
Notes
- With an assist, Cal Burke extended his point streak to six games to start the season (4-9-13).
- With an assist, Trevor Janicke extended his point streak to three games (2-2-4).
- With three assists, Cam Morrison posted his 14th-career multi-point game (second of the season) and tied his career high for assists in a game.
- The last time Notre Dame went undefeated through six games to start a season was in 1998-99 when the Fighting Irish opened with a 6-0-0 mark.
- Cale Morris is now 6-3-1 in his career against Minnesota.
—ND—