Justen Close made 38 saves, Matthew Knies scored a highlight-reel shorthanded goal and the second-ranked Gophers men's hockey team beat Notre Dame 3-0 on Saturday at the Compton Family Ice Arena in South Bend, Ind.

The Gophers (17-6-1, 11-2-1 Big Ten) bounced back from losing a shootout following a 2-2 tie Friday night by blanking the Irish (10-11-3, 5-7-2) for their fourth shutout of the season, all by Close, who has seven shutouts in his career. The Gophers also shut out Notre Dame on Nov. 5, winning 3-0 at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

"We played really hard," Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. "Justen Close was outstanding in goal, and he had to be for us to get the win."

Late in the first period, Ryan Johnson opened the scoring on a one-timer from just inside the blue line off a Brody Lamb pass that deflected off Notre Dame's Tyler Carpenter. Logan Cooley's snipe on a 5-on-3 power play doubled the Gophers' lead 73 seconds into the second period.

Knies' goal came less than three minutes later, with Bryce Brodzinski in the penalty box for slashing. After gaining possession of the puck, Knies skated up the right side of the ice in front of the Notre Dame bench, cleverly worked past both Irish defenseman Drew Bavaro and forward Jackson Pierson and shoved the puck past goalie Ryan Bischel as he was falling from right in front of the net.

"There he was. Moving down the ice, going through people, kept plowing forward," Motzko said. "It's a great goal."

That was more than enough offense for Close, who stopped seven shots in the first period, 19 in the second and 12 in the third.

"He bailed us out a lot of times with some huge saves," Johnson said of Close.

Bischel, a Hopkins High School graduate, finished with 21 saves.

The Gophers' Connor Kurth picked up a major penalty for contact to the head and a game misconduct in the final minute of the third period. Both teams also had to kill off five-minute majors in the first period, with the Gophers' Ryan Chesley getting called for a hit to the head 2:27 into the game and Notre Dame's Hunter Strand getting a major and a game misconduct for crosschecking Luke Mittelstadt into the corner boards at 8:41.