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Irish To Play At Minnesota In Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Notre Dame will play a best-of-three Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal series at Minnesota this weekend (March 6-8) as postseason play begins across the league. 

The Irish, who have won the last two Big Ten Tournament Championships, finished fifth (37 points) in the tightly contested Big Ten standings, while Minnesota (38 points) finished in a three-way tie for second and based on tiebreakers earned the No. 4 seed. 

This season, Notre Dame went 1-1-2 against the Gophers, including a 1-0-1 mark at 3M Arena at Mariucci. Senior forward Cam Morrison posted a goal and four assists for five points in those four games against the Gophers, while sophomore defenseman Nick Leivermann scored four goals this season against Minnesota. 

Last season in the 2019 Big Ten Tournament semifinals, the Irish posted a 2-1 overtime win against Minnesota on March 17 at Compton Family Ice Arena en route to claiming a second consecutive Big Ten Tournament Championship. Including Cam Morrison for the Irish, each team scored in the first period of that semifinal game before Michael Graham broke the deadlock 53 seconds into overtime with a game-winning, power-play tally. Mike O’Leary assisted on both Irish goals, while Cale Morris finished with 25 saves.

#5 NOTRE DAME AT #4 MINNESOTA
Game 1:  Friday, March 6 // 8 p.m. ET //  TV: FS2*
Game 2:  Saturday, March 7 // 8 p.m. ET // TV: FS North*
Game 3:  Sunday, March 8 // 7 p.m. ET // TV: FS2* (if necessary) 

* – Games 1 & 3 on FS2 will be streamed on the Fox Sports App via authentication (must be a  FS2 subscriber to watch). Game 2 will have two options: FS North subscribers can watch on the Fox Sports GO app via authentication. Out-of-market, the game will also be available on BTN+ (requires BTN+ subscription).

Elsewhere, No. 2 seed Ohio State will host No. 7 seed Wisconsin and No. 3 seed Michigan will host No. 6 seed Michigan State. The Wolverines, Gophers and Buckeyes all tied for second place in the final standings, but Ohio State claimed the No. 2 seed due to the Buckeyes and Wolverines having more conference victories than the Gophers, as well as Ohio State’s 3-1-0 record against Michigan this season.

As the top-seeded team, Penn State has a bye to the single-elimination semifinals, which are scheduled for the weekend of March 14-15. The highest-seeded team advancing from the quarterfinals will host the second-highest advancing seed, while the lowest-seeded advancing team will play at Penn State.

The highest-seeded team remaining after the semifinals will host a championship game scheduled for the weekend of March 21-22.

— ND —