Notre Dame travels to Michigan for the second round of the CCHA playoffs March 9-11l

Irish To Face Michigan In Second Round Of CCHA Playoffs

March 5, 2012

Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame hockey team will travel to Ann Arbor, Mich., to face the Michigan Wolverines in the second round of the CCHA playoffs this coming weekend, March 9-11. Game time at Yost Arena for Friday and Saturday’s games is set for 7:35 p.m. Sunday’s game time is TBA.

The Irish will face the second-place Wolverines as a result of Bowling Green’s game three, 4-1 win at Northern Michigan that will send the 11th-place Falcons to face the CCHA regular-season winner Ferris State in the second round.

The other second round series include third-place Western Michigan playing host to sixth-place Lake Superior and fourth-place Miami hosting Michigan State. The winners of each series will advance to Detroit and Joe Louis Arena for the CCHA Championship that will be played March 16-17.

Notre Dame advanced to the second round by downing Ohio State in the first round of the playoffs in two games, winning 2-0 and 4-2 over the Buckeyes at the Compton Family Ice Arena. The Irish are now 19-16-3 on the season.

Michigan brings a 21-11-4 mark into the series and finished second in the CCHA regular season with a 15-9-4-1 conference record, good for 50 points to tie Western Michigan for the second spot. The Wolverines won the tiebreaker with more conference victories.

Notre Dame and Michigan met twice in the regular season at Notre Dame on Jan. 20-21 with each team winning one game. The Irish won the series opener, 3-1, while the Wolverines took game two, 2-1.

In the CCHA playoffs, the teams have met seven times, four times in series play and three times at Joe Louis Arena. Michigan has won playoff series in 1992-93 (2-0), 1997-98 (2-1) and 2004-05 (2-0) while the Irish won the first playoff meeting in 1981-82 (2-0). At Joe Louis Arena, the teams have met in two championship games (2007 and 2009) with Notre Dame winning both times. Last season, the teams played in the third-place game with Michigan taking a 4-2 win.

Michigan is Notre Dame’s oldest opponent as the two teams have met 127 times with the Wolverines holding a 71-51-5 advantage. At Ann Arbor, they are 39-23-3 versus the Irish. Notre Dame’s last win at Yost Arena came on Nov. 12, 2010, a 3-1 victory.