CLICK HERE for Game Recap from Kristy McNeil and other pertinent information and HERE for current Pairwise Rankings.

What just happened (TL;DR): Similar to Friday night, Michigan lead after the first period 2-1. Notre Dame won the second period, 2-1. Gavin Brindley finished a well-worked goal to give Michigan a 4-3 lead early in the third. Down the stretch though, Jake Barczewski made two amazing pad saves, and the defense limited the Irish shots and chances. Sounds like a game-closing #NarrativeChange to me. TJ Hughes tallied two goals. Rutger McGroarty dishes three assists. Gavin Brindley chipped in a goal and an assist.

FINAL CORSI NUMBERS (www.collegehockeynews.com)

Forward Notes.

-At even strength, the game was relatively, well, even. Michigan had slight edges in shots and chances, but the difference ended up coming in the quality department. The Wolverines were able to dissect the Irish defensive zone and get looks and shots from the House with relative ease. Notre Dame, on the other hand, didn’t create a ton of chances, but finished the chances they got.

-Once again, it was Michigan’s Names that did the damage. TJ Hughes finished a very nice play between Gavin Brindley and Rutger McGroarty in the dying seconds of the opening period. Rutger’s Grade A look was denied, but Hughes crashed the net and poked the puck in to give Michigan a lead going to intermission. He also tallied on a power play tip.

-Dylan Duke tied the game in the mid second period on a very Dylan Duke goal. After his wraparound was denied, Josh Eernisse’s chance deflected back to Dylan, and he was able to slam the puck in with his second chance at the edge of the crease. Duke lead the team with even strength shots on net and chances attempted. He’s up to 21 goals, now, to pair with his 21 assists…in 36 games.

-After scoring twice on Friday, Rutger McGroarty did his work passing the puck on Saturday night. His most impressive play was skating down a loose puck in the offensive end, and flipped it back to Tyler Duke. Tyler got to the net, and slid it across to a waiting Gavin Brindley for the go-ahead, game-winning goal. Rutger leads the team with 34 assists. Gavin leads the team with 23 goals. Both guys will be counted on to continue to push Michigan through this tournament and into the next.

Defense Notes.

-Once again, Michigan’s defense all around was pretty good. They did a solid job of keeping Notre Dame to the edges and not asking Jake Barczewski to bail them out with tons of Hero saves. This is the third game in a row where it is tough to blame many goals on the in-zone defense. As a unit, their puck management has also started to improve, not giving away as many DZTOs as in previous months.

-Seamus Casey and Tyler Duke each had an assist. Casey came on a shot that was deflected on a power play. Tyler’s was on a nice skating and passing play that got the puck across to an open Gavin Brindley for the final goal of the game. While the rest of the backend crew has continued to solidify, these two have been the most proficient in the offensive end, as well.

TJ Hughes found the net, once on the power play (Bill Rapai)

SPECIAL TEAMS CHART

Power Play. Michigan got over seven minutes of power play time in the first period, getting 3+ advantages in the opening frame. While they did score on a double-deflected shot from Seamus Casey (TJ Hughes got the tip goal), the power play needed to cash a chance on their five minute major. Not doing so, seemed to change the game during the second period, and gave Notre Dame some momentum. It was slightly unfortunate to get all of their chances early on, but power plays come when they come, I suppose. They numbers were fine, but they could have used one tally with all of that power play time early in the game.

Penalty Kill. Once again, Michigan’s penalty kills overall were pretty solid. They killed two with relative ease. On the second kill, though, Tyler Duke was just outmuscled by a bigger, stronger Landon Slaggert who won the position and found a way to even the game at two, scoring yet another goal against Michigan. That’s just a very good play by an awesome player.

Bird? Plane? No, it’s Brennan Ali! (Bill Rapai)

GOALTENDING CHART

Notes. Jake Barczewski started in net, again, on Saturday night. He had a very interesting night. At one point, he’d allowed 3 goals on 13 shots. Not great…BUT, looking at each goal, it would be very hard to pin any of them on him. He was screened on the first shot from straightaway. His backside defenseman was beaten on the power play goal at the back post. He also had to react to a blocked shot on the OMR goal (that should have been whistled for a tripping call at the other end). Still, that’s three goals against a team that continues to struggle to put the puck in the net. HOWEVER, in the closing minutes after not having the busiest of evenings, he made two absolutely phenomenal pad saves, down on the ice, on Grade A chances to close the game and preserve the win.

ODD MAN RUSH CHART

Notes. Notre Dame had two really good chances in transition on Saturday night. On a Michigan power play, Cole Knuble was able to break free and skate in alone on Barczewski. Cole’s shot whistled wide of the net, though. Later, on a 2v1 for the Irish, Patrick Moynihan collects the blocked shot (as the third guy into the zone), and beats Jake Barczewski from the slot to give Notre Dame a 3-2 lead. The issue with that goal was the Seamus Casey was clearly tripped getting into the slot…which directly lead to the OMR…and then the goal. Michigan already had four power plays at that point, so my initial thought was that whistle was kept in the pocket to keep the advantages even. Turns out…it lead to a goal!

Michigan have one 3v2 in the first period, but the shot was blocked. After that, the Irish defense was extremely stout in transition, keeping the speedy Wolverines in check.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Michigan extends it’s home winning streak (and it’s home winning streak over ND) to four. This is their second Irish sweep in three weeks…after going almost 20 years. The Wolverines were a bit up and down, but are trying to shed their narrative of not being able to close games. While the Irish are not going to the NCAAs this season –and do struggle to score goals- ending their season is always a tough task. Michigan flipped the third period narrative on it’s head on Saturday night, and clinched their birth in the Big Ten Semifinals…in either Minneapolis or East Lasning, pending Sunday’s outcome between Wisconsin and Ohio State. This was most likely the final game at Yost in the 23-24 season. It does, however, seem like Michigan will make the NCAAs for the 4th straight season. They are still sitting at 10th in PWR at the time of posting, but it seems unlikely that they will drop enough places, even with a loss next weekend. The semifinals will be Saturday with a current opponent/time/location as TBD.