Irish Hockey Team To Compete For National Title
ST. PAUL, MINN. – The Notre Dame men’s hockey team saved its best for last Thursday night.
Make that Jake Evans saved his best for last to save the top-ranked Irish.
Evans, the senior captain for the Irish, drilled the game-winning goal with just 5.2 seconds to play in regulation as Notre Dame rallied to stun Michigan 4-3 in the Frozen Four semifinals.
Notre Dame advances to play Minnesota Duluth in the national championship game Saturday night. The contest is set for 7:30 p.m. and will be shown on ESPN.
Notre Dame, which lost to Boston College 4-1 in its only other national title game back in 2008, trailed Big Ten foe Michigan 2-0 Thursday night. Evans then assisted on the first goal and then tallied both the tying goal and the game winner for the Irish.
Notre Dame has won its last five games, two of them in overtime and the other three in the final 30 seconds of regulation play.
The Irish are 28-9-2 on the season. Minnesota Duluth, which beat Ohio State 2-1 in the other semifinal contest Thursday night, sits at 24-16-3.
The Notre Dame hockey team will try to join the women’s basketball squad and the Irish fencing team as national champions this season.