Stuck in a tie game with Notre Dame early in the third period and with their Big Ten tournament lives on the line, the Gophers men’s hockey team needed a spark.
Up stepped Connor Kurth, who scored the go-ahead goal and set up the winner in a 4-2 victory over the Fighting Irish on Saturday night at 3M Arena at Mariucci. Minnesota’s victory evened the best-of-three series at a game apiece, and the Gophers and Fighting Irish will play Game 3 at 6 p.m. Sunday. The winner advances to a single-game Big Ten semifinal next Saturday.
“We used up our only mulligan in playoffs, so no more,” said Kurth, a junior forward from Lindstrom. “Now you’ve got to bring the jam every night from here on out.”
Oliver Moore, Matthew Wood and Brodie Ziemer also scored for the second-seeded Gophers (25-9-4), who lost Friday’s opener 3-2. Goalie Nathan Airey, starting in place of Liam Souliere, made 20 saves in front of an announced crowd of 6,331.
Hunter Strand scored in the first period and Henry Nelson in the third for seventh-seeded Notre Dame (11-24-1), which got 31 saves from Owen Say.
“A hard-fought playoff game — both teams," Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. “I liked how we played, really, start to finish.”
The finishing part — led by Kurth — especially stood out.
His first big play put the Gophers up 2-1 at 4:16 of the third period. After the puck caromed off Irish forward Justin Janicke’s skate and stayed in the Notre Dame zone, Jimmy Clark grabbed it, drove to the net and dished it to Kurth, who slammed it home for his 17th goal of the season.