MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Trevor Janicke netted his first career game winner and Cale Morris earned a 12-save shutout as Notre Dame blanked #19 Minnesota, 1-0, to take game one of the Big Ten Quarterfinals on Friday night at 3M Arena at Mariucci.
The shutout was the 11th of Morris’ career and third in Big Ten Tournament play.
The Irish clamped down defensively all night, limiting the Gophers to just 12 shots on goal while firing 25 shots on Gopher netminder Jack LaFontaine.
Both sides went 0-for-2 on the power play, including a five-minute man advantage for both sides.
Colin Theisen and Mike O’Leary each picked up an assist on the lone tally of the contest.
How It Happened
The Irish had a strong push to start the game, outshooting the Gophers 6-0 in the game’s first eight minutes. Cam Burke had one of the best chances in that stretch, tipping a Jesse Lansdell shot and nearly converting the rebound.
The score remained 0-0 after 20 minutes of play, with Notre Dame outshooting Minnesota 12-2.
Just over five minutes into the second period, Morris came up with a big right pad save to deny a Minnesota 2-on-1 chance.
Then the Irish went to work on a five-minute power play following a major/game misconduct to Matt Staudacher, but were unable to solve LaFontaine.
Blocked shots by Matt Hellickson and Tory Dello as well as two Morris saves negated Minnesota’s first power-play opportunity of the game with five minutes remaining in the second.
At 16:24 of the second, Janicke put back a rebound following a Theisen shot to give the Irish a 1-0 lead, with O’Leary’s faceoff win accounting for the second assist. For Janicke, a Maple Grove, Minnesota native, it marked his eighth goal of the season and his first career game winner.
After Spencer Stastney earned a major/game misconduct just past the midway point of the third, the Irish penalty kill came up clutch to keep the one-goal lead. The shorthanded effort was capped by a Morris point-blank stop Sammy Walker with 30 seconds left on the man advantage.
The Gophers pulled LaFontaine for an extra attacker with over a minute remaining, but the Irish preserved the shutout to take game one.
Up Next
- Notre Dame and Minnesota play game two of their best-of-three Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal series at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday night at 3M Arena at Mariucci.
- Game two will be televised on Fox Sports North+ and the streaming options include: FS North subscribers can watch on the Fox Sports GO app via authentication or out-of-market, the game will be available on BTN+ (requires BTN+ subscription).
- Should the series go to distance, game three will then take place at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 8.
- Game three will be televised on FS2 and streamed on the Fox Sports App via authentication (must be a FS2 subscriber to watch).
Notes
- Notre Dame is now 7-0-0 in Big Ten tournament play, with Cale Morris earning all seven of those wins.
- Morris posted his third shutout of the season, the 11th of his career and his third in Big Ten Tournament play.
- Morris moved into a tie for fourth all-time on Notre Dame’s career shutout list, tying former teammate Cal Petersen.
- The win was also the 58th of Morris’ Irish career, moving him into second all-time at Notre Dame, trailing only Jordan Pearce (59 career wins).
- Trevor Janicke scored his eight goal of the season and first since December 8 versus Boston College.
- Janicke’s goal proved to be his first career game winner.
- Notre Dame’s penalty kill improved to 23-for-24 over the past nine games (additional series against Penn State, Minnesota, Michigan and Michigan State).
- With an assist, Colin Theisen reached the 20-point plateau for the second consecutive season (2019-20: 8-12-20 in 35 GP).
—ND—