Previewing Notre Dame hockey's big weekend series at Michigan. Everything you need to know
Everything you want to know about Notre Dame hockey's weekend series at Michigan:
Notre Dame Fighting Irish (15-15-2) vs. Michigan Wolverines (15-12-3)
☘ When: Friday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m. on Gordon “Red” Berenson Rink in Fielding H. Yost Ice Arena (5,800), Ann Arbor, Mich.
☘ Radio: WZOC-FM (94.3) and UND.com.
☘ TV: Big Ten Network.
☘ Coaches: Notre Dame, Jeff Jackson (407-262-73 in 19th season at school, 589-314-98 in 24th season overall) … Michigan, Brandon Naurato (41-24-6 in second season at school and overall).
☘ Last weekend: In series at Compton Family Ice Arena, Notre Dame earned four of six possible points from No. 8 Minnesota, winning 6-1 on Friday before the Gophers prevailed 3-2 in overtime Saturday. … Michigan split series at Penn State, winning 5-3 Friday and losing 4-2 Saturday.
☘ Rankings: USCHO.com media poll (first number), USA Hockey/The Rink Live coaches’ poll (second number) and PairWise Ranking (third number): Michigan State (T4/4/3); Wisconsin (6/6/6); Minnesota (8/8/9); Notre Dame (rv/20/21); Michigan (17/16/16); Penn State (nr/nr/24); Ohio State (nr/nr/31). The PairWise Rankings mimic method used by NCAA Selection Committee to determine participants in 16-team postseason tournament.
More:Notre Dame goaltender Bischel named Big Ten First Star of Week
☘ Rivalry: Teams have met 163 previous times with Michigan holding 85-72-6 edge in series which began Jan. 17, 1922 at Weinberg Coliseum in Ann Arbor with 3-2 overtime victory by Irish. … Michigan is 43-33-4 in games played in Ann Arbor, but Notre Dame is 5-1-1 in last seven games over three seasons with only loss (2-1) coming in Big Ten Postseason Tournament semifinal on March 12, 2022. … Teams split series in early December at Compton Family Ice Arena. … On Friday, Dec. 1, Landon Slaggert had two goals and goaltender Ryan Bischel had 27 saves as Irish outshot Wolverines 38-28 in 6-1 victory. … The following evening, Michigan’s Frank Nazar III and Notre Dame’s Hunter Strand exchanged first-period goals before Dylan Duke got the game-winner in second period for 2-1 Wolverines victory as Bischel made 33 saves and counterpart Jake Barczewski had 28. … Last season when Notre Dame visited Michigan Feb. 24, teams tied 3-3 but Irish won shootout 1-0 on goal by Nick Leivermann. … Irish then won 2-1 in overtime on Feb. 25 as defenseman Drew Bavaro scored both goals, the game-winner at 1:30 after his first two shots were saved by goaltender Erik Portillo.
Big Ten standings
1. Michigan State 14-4-2, 46 points (20-7-3 overall); 2. Wisconsin 13-6-1, 42 points (22-8-2 overall); 3. Minnesota 12-6-4, 37 points (19-8-5 overall); 4. Notre Dame 9-11-2, 31 points (15-15-2 overall); 5. Michigan 8-10-2, 28 points (15-12-3 overall); 6. Penn State 5-12-3, 20 points (13-14-3 overall); 7. Ohio State 3-15-2, 12 points (11-15-4 overall). Friday’s games: Notre Dame at Michigan, 8 p.m.; Ohio State at Michigan State, 7 p.m.; Wisconsin at Penn State, 7 p.m.; Minnesota-idle. Saturday’s games: Notre Dame at Michigan, 6:30 p.m.; Ohio State at Michigan State, 6 p.m.; Wisconsin at Penn State, 6 p.m.; Minnesota-idle. March 1-2 series: Michigan at Minnesota; Penn State at Ohio State; Michigan State at Wisconsin; Notre Dame-idle.
Scouting Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Graduate goaltender Ryan Bischel was named Big Ten First Star of the Week after Irish took four of six points in home series with Minnesota last weekend, allowing four goals while stopping 67 of 71 shots (.944 saves percentage). … Bischel has 15-15-2 record with three shutouts (fourth nationally), .929 saves percentage (fourth) and 2.43 goals-against average (19th). … Senior captain and left wing Landon Slaggert leads team in scoring with team-high 18 goals, 10 assists and 28 points followed by freshman center Danny Nelson (8-14-22), graduate right wing Patrick Moynihan (8-12-20), junior center Hunter Strand (4-14-18), freshman center Cole Knuble (9-8-17) and graduate defenseman Ryan Siedem (3-14-17). … In faceoffs won, Siedem has 332 (sixth nationally) and Knuble 323 (12th). … Senior defenseman Zach Plucinski leads team in blocked shots with 54, one more than Siedem who has team-high +13 plus/minus ratio. … NCAA statistics: Scoring offense, 2.91 goals per game (34th nationally); scoring defense, 2.59 goals per game (15th); scoring margin, 0.31 goals per game (24th); power-play percentage, 0.184 (19 of 103) (41st); penalty-kill percentage, 0.836 (92 of 110) (17th); team shorthanded goals, 2 (35th); faceoff-win percentage, 0.546 (1,075-894) (5th); team penalty minutes per game, 12.50 (12th).
Scouting Michigan Wolverines
Michigan, second nationally with 4.37 goals per game, is ranked first in power-play percentage at .354 with 40 goals in 113 attempts. … Wolverines have 13 players scoring in double digits, six of whom have scored 35 or more points this season. … All-sophomore line features leading scorer Gavin Brindley (18-21-39) at right wing, Rutger McGroarty (12-26-38) at left wing and Frank Nazar III (14-21-35) at center. … … The others are sophomore center TJ Hughes (15-22-37), junior left wing Dylan Duke (18-18) and sophomore defenseman Seamus Casey (5-30-35). … McGroarty averages 1.52 points per game (fifth nationally). … Duke leads Michigan with 10 power-play goals (fifth nationally), Hughes has six and Brindley and McGroarty have five each. … McGroarty, a teammate of Notre Dame’s Danny Nelson on Team USA’s gold-medal World Juniors team, leads Michigan with +15 plus/minus ratio. … Hughes and Nazar each had 307 faceoff wins (19th nationally). … Senior captain and defenseman Jacob Truscott leads team with 39 blocked shots, one more than grad-transfer defenseman (from Boston College) Marshall Warren. … NCAA statistics: Scoring offense, 4.37 goals per game (2nd nationally); scoring defense, 3.03 goals per game (36th); scoring margin, 1.33 goals per game (8th); power-play percentage, 0.354 (40 of 113) (1st); penalty-kill percentage, 0.792 (84 of 106) (39th); team shorthanded goals, 5 (9th); faceoff-win percentage, 0.532 (1,041-914) (12th); team penalty minutes per game, 13.90 (5th).
More:It’s down the stretch for Notre Dame hockey team in its run for postseason roses
Skating for Big Ten home ice
Fourth-place Notre Dame trails third-place Minnesota by six points and leads fifth-place Michigan by three. The Wolverines have two games in hand over both Irish and Gophers and finish regular-season in Minneapolis. A five-point weekend by Irish would assure them of no worse than fourth place and home ice.
Quoting ND Coach Jeff Jackson
On Stretch run: “I wish we’d had more success up at Wisconsin (Irish were swept). I think we’ve been playing pretty good hockey. I like the way we’ve been playing. We’re a little dinged up. The bye week next week couldn’t come at a better time. For us it’s been a challenging schedule (finishing with Michigan State, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan). It’s been a pretty daunting schedule. But, hey, if we want to be one of the big boys, we have to play with the big boys. We’ve done a pretty good job. We need to show we can compete at the highest level.”
On Bischel’s play: “I think he’s been as consistent (as last season) if not more so. The biggest thing for me is he shows up every day. His numbers are top five in the country. If you look at the number of shots he faces and strength of schedule, they need to be put him in consideration for the (Mike) Richter (goaltending) Award. He leads the nation in saves (987) and we have the fourth toughest schedule in the country. I just don’t think he gets enough chatter for being the best goaltender in the country.”
On playing in Big Ten: “It’s challenging on your psyche. Because of the nature of this conference, there’s no bottom feeders. You saw (seventh-place) Ohio State knock off (second-place) Wisconsin twice. It does wear on you; even as a coach, it wears on you. Every weekend, every game is like an NCAA game.”
On playing at Yost: “The building is like a cathedral. It had some influence in our design of Compton. It is a hockey version of Notre Dame Stadium in a way.”
On urgency of series: “We’d like to get home ice (in the playoffs). We’ve got a daunting task because Michigan has two games in hand. Chances are we’ll end up playing them in the playoffs. But the even bigger thing for me is to make sure we’re playing good hockey going into the playoffs.”
Up next
Notre Dame is idle next weekend and awaits its opponent for first-round, best-of-three Big Ten Postseason Tournament quarterfinal series March 8-10. If Notre Dame finishes fourth or third, it will play series in Compton Family Ice Arena.
— John Fineran, Tribune Correspondent