Minnesota tops No. 1 Notre Dame hockey in OT

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Casey Mittelstadt scored with 3:35 gone in overtime to give Minnesota a 1-0 Big Ten Hockey Conference victory over top-ranked Notre Dame, the second straight shutout defeat for the Irish after winning 16 straight games.

Sophomore goaltender Cale Morris made 33 saves for Notre Dame, 19-5-1 overall and now 13-2-0-0 in the Big Ten. The Irish lead over second-place Ohio State, which shut out Michigan 4-0, is now 11 points. Both Notre Dame and Ohio State have played 15 Big Ten games with nine remaining.

Before a crowd of 8,501 in 3M Arena at Mariucci and a national audience watching on ESPN2, coach Jeff Jackson’s Irish could muster only 25 shots at sophomore goaltender Mat Robson of Minnesota (16-12-1, 7-9-1-1 Big Ten). The two teams meet again tonight at 8 ET.

The Irish got chances from Andrew Oglevie, Colin Theisen and Tory Dello in overtime but Robson denied each one before Mittelstadt banged home a rebound off assists from Rem Pitlick and Tyler Nanne. It was Mittelstadt’s eighth goal of the season.

Notre Dame has now gone 124 minutes and 13 seconds since its last goal – Dawson Cook’s empty-netter in a 4-2 victory over Wisconsin on Jan. 19 in South Bend.

A scoreless first period saw the Irish kill off a pair of Golden Gopher power plays near the beginning and end of the frame. One of Notre Dame’s best scoring chances of the period came shorthanded when Cal Burke had a partial breakaway, but Robson made the stop just over four minutes into the game.

Morris made 13 saves in the second period and then in the third he continued to keep the Gophers off the board, denying Brannon McManus with a pad save as the Minnesota freshman skated in on a breakaway with 12 minutes to play in regulation.

The Irish had an opportunity with 3:49 remaining as McManus took down Jake Evans in front of the Irish goal, but Robson made several more saves to kill off the ensuing Notre Dame man-advantage.

Both teams finished 0-for-3 on the power play.