Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Series Preview: #8 Irish Host #2 Michigan To Close Out The Regular-Season

WHO: #9/8 Notre Dame (23-9-0, 15-7-0-5-1-0 B1G) vs. #2/2 Michigan (25-7-1, 16-6-0-0-3-0 B1G)
WHEN: Friday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. ET // Saturday, Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. ET
WHERE: Compton Family Ice Arena
WATCH: Peacock
LISTEN: 94.3 FM | UND.com
NOTES (PDF)

SETTING THE STAGE

  • No. 8/9 Notre Dame will close out the regular season at home this weekend against No. 2/2 Michigan on Feb. 25-26.
  • With a single point in the series against the Wolverines, the Irish would lock up the third seed in the upcoming Big Ten tournament, while Michigan will be looking to clinch the regular-season championship.
  • Notre Dame is coming off a road series sweep of Michigan State, taking game one 2-1 (Feb. 18) and game two 4-2 (Feb. 19).
  • Graduate student goaltender Matthew Galajda stopped 63 of the 66 shots he faced against the Spartans over the weekend for an impressive .955 save percentage to go along with a 1.50 goals against average en route to being named the Big Ten’s Second Star of the Week (Feb. 22).
  • Notre Dame ranks fourth in the country with 23 wins (23-9-0), trailing only Minnesota State (29-5-0), Quinnipiac (27-4-3) and Michigan (25-7-1). 
  • The Fighting Irish are 13-5-0 at home this season and 16-1-0 when scoring first.
  • Freshman forward Hunter Strand has a career-long, three-game point streak (2-2-4) and he has six points over Notre Dame’s last six games (3-3-6).
  • Max Ellis leads the Irish with a career-best 28 points on a team-high 16 goals and 12 assists.
  • Since returning from break on Jan. 1, Spencer Stastney has four goals and 11 assists for 15 points in 15 games and he has at least one point in 11 of the 15 games.
  • Stastney has a career-high 24 points on six goals and 18 assists.
  • Notre Dame is 6-2-0 in overtime this season, with the OT game-winning goals coming from Cam Burke (at Michigan Tech), Ryder Rolston (at Michigan), Max Ellis (at Michigan and at Penn State), Spencer Stastney (at Ohio State) and Landon Slaggert (vs. Minnesota).
  • Notre Dame has made each of the last five NCAA Tournaments, the longest streak in program history, and eight of the last 11 NCAA Tournaments overall.
  • The five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances is the second-longest active streak in the NCAA, trailing only Minnesota Duluth (6), with Minnesota State (3) and St Cloud State (3) tied for third.

SENIOR NIGHT

  • Saturday’s game two will feature a post-game ceremony to honor the program’s graduating seniors, senior managers and graduate students.
  • In keeping with senior night tradition, the Irish will wear green jerseys and fans are encouraged to wear green as well for an #IrishWearGreen game.
  • Jim Cornelison will perform the pre-game National Anthem as part of Senior Night festivities.
  • Early arriving fans will also receive a green t-shirt and pom-poms (while supplies last).

BIG TEN TOURNAMENT

  • Notre Dame enters the final weekend of play knowing it will earn the third or fourth seed and have home ice for the Big Ten Tournament’s Best-of-Three quarterfinal round (March 4-6).
  • The Irish enter the weekend one point behind idle Ohio State for third, but any standings point earned would pull Notre Dame even with the Buckeyes. 
  • Notre Dame and Ohio State split their regular-season series 2-2-0, so the tiebreaker would move to Conference winning percentage which the Irish would own versus Ohio State’s .5833 mark. 
  • This season, teams are awarded three points in the conference standings for a win in regulation. 
  • If the game is tied following regulation, both teams receive one point, with a second point being awarded to the team that wins in either the 3-on-3 overtime period or the shootout.
  • Once seeding is set based on point totals, the top seed will have a first round bye.
  • The No. 2,3 and 4 seeds will host a best-of-three quarterfinal series on March 4-6.
  • The top seed and highest remaining seed will then host one game semifinals on March 12, while the championship will be played on March 18 or 19 depending on the site (highest remaining seed)..

THE NOTRE DAME – MICHIGAN SERIES

  • All-time, Michigan leads the series 82-67-5, but Notre Dame leads the series 11-8-0 since joining the Big Ten.
  • Notre Dame recognizes the first official meeting as a 3-2 overtime win by the Fighting Irish on Jan. 17, 1922 at the Weinberg Coliseum in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
  • The Irish and Wolverines met each season from 1991-92 to 2012-13.
  • During the 2012-13 season, Notre Dame went 5-0-0 against the Wolverines, including a 3-1 victory in the championship game of the final CCHA tournament.
  • In Notre Dame’s inaugural season in the Big Ten (2017-18), the Irish and Wolverines met five times, with the Irish claiming three victories, including a last second win at the 2018 NCAA Frozen Four.
  • As time ran down in the 2018 NCAA Frozen Four semifinal (April 5), Cam Morrison slid the puck back to Jake Evans in the slot, who shot it five-hole for the game-winner with five seconds remaining – sending Notre Dame to the national championship.
  • Notre Dame and Michigan’s other Frozen Four meeting came at the 2008 Frozen Four (Denver, Colorado) when the Irish posted a 5-4 overtime win to advance to the NCAA championship game for the first time in program history.
  • Calle Ridderwall scored the game-winning goal in that contest at the 5:44 mark of overtime.
  • The teams also played at Notre Dame Stadium on  January 5, 2019, as the two teams utilized the same ice as the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins of the NHL for the 2019 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic.
  • The Let’s Take This Outside game featured the largest crowd to attend a home hockey game for the Irish (23,422) but Michigan claimed the 4-2 win over the Irish.
  • Head Coach Jeff Jackson is 37-34-8 all-time against Michigan (including his time at Lake Superior State), while he is 12-6-0 all-time against the Wolverines in the playoffs.
  • Jackson named current Michigan head coach Mel Pearson as one of his Team USA assistant coaches for the 1997 IIHF World Junior Championship.
  • Jackson and Pearson helped lead Team USA to the silver medal in that tournament in Switzerland.
  • Earlier this season, Notre Dame swept a series at Yost Ice Arena with a pair of overtime wins, including 3-2 in game one (Nov. 19) and 5-4 in game two (Nov. 20) to extend their winning streak at Yost to seven games.
  • Ryan Bischel played both games in the Notre Dame net, making 28 saves in game one and 37 in game two.
  • Ryder Rolston had a pair of goals in the game one win, including the overtime winner.
  • Then Max Ellis had a hat trick, including the overtime winner, in game two to become the first visiting player to record a hat trick at Yost Ice Arena in 15 years (2006).
  • For the past two and a half  seasons, the teams have each posted road sweeps against each other.. 

BALANCED ATTACK

  • The Fighting Irish have seen several players step up and contribute to the offense throughout the 2021-22 season, with Notre Dame averaging 3.43 goals per game which ranks ninth in the country (fourth in the Big Ten).
  • An impressive 16 players have double-digit point totals, including five players with at least 20 points on the season.
  • Nineteen Notre Dame players have scored this season, while 23 have at least one point.
  • In Notre Dame’s sweep of Penn State on Feb. 4-5, 10 Irish skaters accounted for the 10 Fighting Irish goals as Notre Dame took game one 7-2 and followed with a 3-0 win in game two.
  • With Notre Dame facing several injuries in that series against the Nittany Lions, freshmen forwards Justin Janicke and Tyler Carpenter each scored their first career goals, while graduate transfer defensemen Adam Karashik and Chase Blackmun each netted their first goals with Notre Dame.
  • Freshman defenseman Ryan Helliwell was the most recent player to post a point, notching his first career point with an assist at Michigan State (Feb. 19).

— ND —