Gophers men’s hockey team falls to Notre Dame in opener of Big Ten tournament

The Big Ten regular-season hockey champion receives a bye into the conference tournament semifinals and does not play in a best-of-three quarterfinal series, a situation brought on because the league has an odd number of teams — seven.

When the Gophers secured a share of the regular-season title last week but didn’t get the first-round bye because co-champion Michigan State had the tiebreaker, Minnesota coach Bob Motzko wasn’t fretting. He’s not a fan of his team sitting idle during playoff time.

“This was my perfect scenario — win the league and play this weekend," Motzko said Wednesday.

Well, if the Gophers want to advance to the Big Ten semifinals, they’ll have to play ALL weekend.

Two big mistakes by Gophers goalie Liam Souliere led directly to two Notre Dame goals, and the Fighting Irish went on to win the series opener 3-2 on Friday night. Game 2 is 7 p.m. Saturday, and Game 3, if necessary, is 6 p.m. Sunday.

“The only thing we didn’t do was win the game tonight,” Motzko said. “No one feels worse than Liam. He’s been so good for us. That’s hockey, and then we had to chase the game.”

Axel Kumlin, Michael Mastrodomenico and Brennan Ali scored for seventh-seeded Notre Dame (11-23-1), which got 30 saves from goalie Owen Say.

Matthew Wood and Sam Rinzel scored for the Gophers (24-9-4). Souliere was pulled after allowing three goals on 10 shots. Nathan Airey finished the game, stopping all 13 shots he faced. Jimmy Snuggerud had two assists.

The announced crowd of 5,551 at 3M Arena at Mariucci was down from the season average of 9,853 — presumably because the U’s spring break began this weekend, and the boys hockey state tournament was a direct competitor. What they saw was a horrible start.

Only 1:30 into the first period, Kumlin took a high shot to dump the puck into the Gophers zone. Souliere appeared ready to make an easy catch like a first baseman with a pop-up, but the puck tipped off his glove and fluttered into the net.

Then, after Wood’s power-play goal with six seconds left in the first brought the Gophers within 2-1, a second mistake by Souliere gave Notre Dame a 3-1 lead 1:18 into the second period and prompted Motzko to pull Souliere in favor of Airey. Souliere tried to clear the puck from the Gophers zone but instead put it right on the stick of Ali, who quickly beat the goalie.

“He’s been there for us so many times throughout the year, making big, big saves in big opportunities,” Snuggerud said of Souliere. “So, we’ve just got to be there for him.” Motzko didn’t say which goalie would start Saturday.

The Gophers pushed the pace in the third, and it paid off at 8:16 when Rinzel snapped a shot from the top of the left circle over Say to cut the Fighting Irish lead to 3-2.

Minnesota kept pressing but couldn’t get the tying goal. The Gophers peppered Say with 32 shots and attempted 68 for the game, but 20 missed the net and 13 were blocked.

“The only thing I’m critical of is we missed the net tonight and in critical situations,” Motzko said.

The Gophers joined Michigan and Ohio State as home teams to lose Friday’s openers, and Rinzel spoke for the team’s sense of urgency.

“Game 7 tomorrow,” he said.