Notre Dame Returns To The Frozen Four
Four was Notre Dame hockey’s lucky number on Saturday night.
For the fourth straight game, head coach Jeff Jackson’s Fighting Irish tallied a late-game or overtime, sudden-death goal in a win-or-get eliminated situation. That enabled them to reach the Frozen Four for the fourth time in its history — and second in a row — while also winning its fourth straight regional final since 2008.
This time the heroics belonged to junior forward Dylan Malmquist when his game-winning goal came with 27 seconds remaining in regulation lifted Notre Dame (27-9-2) to a 2-1 victory versus Providence (24-12-4), the 2015 national champion, to capture the East Regional.
The tally continued a pattern that might prompt one to believe if divine providence is on Notre Dame’s side.
• In the Big Ten semifinal March 10, junior forward Jack Jenkins scored with 30.5 seconds remaining in regulation to lift the Irish to a 3-2 victory versus Penn State.
• A week later on St. Patrick’s Day in the Big Ten Championship, sophomore forward Cam Morrison’s dramatic tally 9:23 into overtime won the conference title over No. 5 Ohio State.
• On Friday against Michigan Tech, the Fighting Irish broke a three-game losing streak as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament when senior defenseman Jordan Gross’ second goal of the game, this one at the 16:24 mark of overtime, gave the Irish a 430 win versus the WCHA champion.
Notre Dame is now 13-3-0 (.813 winning percentage) in one-goal outcomes this season.
Just like against Tech, the Irish fell behind 1-0, this time only 2:02 into the contest. It took until 18:09 of the second period (a span of 36 minutes) before a power-play goal off a carom by junior forward Andrew Oglevie finally knotted the contest. It was his 13th tally this season.
In the third and final 20-minute period, Notre Dame appeared destined for overtime again before sophomore forward Cal Burke, on his 21st birthday, fed Malmquist for what would be the wrist-shot goal.
“I’m really proud of our guys, they’ve been resilient all year long,” said Jackson, who led Lake Superior State to national titles in 1992 and 1994. “I call them the ‘Cardiac Kids’ for a reason. Hopefully, it’s not my cardiac.
“They find a way to win, regardless of the situation.”
Only 42 shots on goal were fired in this game , with Notre Dame sophomore Hobey Baker finalist Cale Morris making 19 saves. Morris and Gross were named to the NCAA’s All-East Regional team, with Gross (who has skated in 157 straight games dating back to his freshman season) earning Most Outstanding Player.
The Frozen Four will be held April 5-7 in Saint Paul, Minn. Notre Dame will play the Thursday, April 5 semifinal against the winner of the Northeast Regional Final between Boston University and Michigan, which will be held late this afternoon.
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