Three things Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson said about facing Wisconsin in Big Ten Tournament

It’s playoff hockey time for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

It might have already felt that way for head coach Jeff Jackson’s club. Early home losses to teams the Irish had no business losing to (RIT and Niagara) temporarily put Notre Dame’s chances of making the NCAA Tournament in jeopardy, but wins in eight of the last nine games have the Irish in a firm position to play beyond the Big Ten Tournament. A strong showing in the conference tourney could even earn Notre Dame a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Back at Compton Family Ice Arena for the second straight week coming off an impressive sweep of Michigan, Notre Dame (24-8-0) hosts Wisconsin (9-22-3) in the No. 3 vs. No. 6 seed matchup. Game 1 of the series starts at 7 p.m. ET and can be viewed on Big Ten Network+.

The Irish took three of four regular-season games against the Badgers. The lone loss was a 5-3 defeat in Madison on Feb. 12. Graduate student goaltender Matthew Galajda replaced junior Ryan Bischel in that game, and Galajda hasn’t relinquished the crease since.

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Here are three things Jackson said about the matchup against Wisconsin, his team’s play entering the playoffs and Galajda.

Jackson on Notre Dame playing against Wisconsin

“They’ve had a tough year, but they’ve also shown they can have some success. They finished above a couple other teams in the conference. They’ve had a lot of injuries as well. I would suspect that they’ll have guys back this weekend. From my perspective, when we played them the last time it was just as tough a series as we’ve had in the second half [of the season] here.

“They beat us the first night. They scored two or three goals right away. We started playing chase the whole game. We had a good run at the end, but we didn’t catch up at the end. The second night I thought we played well, but they played well too. It was a tough, gritty game. Either team could have won the second night. I expect it to be a real challenging, difficult series against a team that probably has some hunger going into the postseason.”

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Jackson on Notre Dame’s play entering the playoffs

“We need to get into that playoff mindset. That means you play with discipline and manage the puck well. In order to win in the playoffs, you have to have good goaltending and take advantage of the opportunities you get on special teams. In most cases, special teams are less in the playoffs. Less power plays, less penalty kills. Those opportunities, you have to capitalize to give yourself an advantage.

“I think we have played pretty well the last two weekends. It’s still about doing a great job with the puck, especially coming out of our zone and through the neutral zone trying to possess the puck more consistently. We did pretty well against Michigan State, but Michigan had a fair amount of possession time. We defended well, but I’d like to possess more and have to defend less.”

Jackson on Irish goaltenders Matthew Galajda, Ryan Bischel

“I’ve never really been in a position where I’ve had two guys battle it out all year long. They get along great. They understand when a guy is hot they let him have his way for a while. Ryan Bischel, up to the first night against Wisconsin, had been the hot guy for a while. Then he faltered early in that game, and I’m not sure how much of that was on him or our team, and then Matthew took over. It’s gone that way all year long. The hot hand more recently has been Matthew.

“I’ve seen games where I think, ‘Wow. I can see that Cornell goalie that had that All-American year. The Mike Richter Award finalist type of goaltending.’ I’ve seen it during the year, but I hadn’t seen it for five straight games until now. So for me, it’s about confidence. You can tell he’s had a presence in the crease. He’s real quiet in the way he plays the game. There is not a lot of rebounds or loose pucks laying in the crease area. That’s when I can tell he’s dialed in and playing to that level. I don’t want to discount Ryan Bischel because he could play this weekend, too, especially in a best-of-three series. It’s nice to know I have two goalies who could potentially play.”