Notre Dame hockey: Irish beat North Dakota, advance to Albany Regional championship game against Minnesota State
Goal, or no goal?
That was the question Thursday night at MVP Arena in Albany, N.Y. The answer didn’t come for nearly 15 minutes, and it was one Notre Dame didn’t necessarily agree with. But it was also one Notre Dame didn’t let define the night, the game or its lasting image in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
The No. 3 seed Fighting Irish scored early in overtime to beat North Dakota, 2-1, and advance to Saturday’s Albany Regional championship game against No. 1 seed Minnesota State. South Bend native Graham Slaggert, son of Notre Dame assistant coach Andy Slaggert, scored the snipe show of a goal at 18:22 of OT that sent the Irish to their fourth-straight regional final in NCAA Tournaments they have participated in.
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The Irish could have easily collapsed in the extra period considering the bizarre, gut-wrenching circumstances. The referees, perhaps as confused as anyone watching in person or on the ESPNU broadcast, attempted to decipher whether the Irish beat the buzzer and scored a game-winning goal fractions of a second before the horn sounded. At first, it appeared they had for sure.
Then the refs declared Notre Dame did not after the lengthy review, even though one camera angle showed the puck crossing the goal line before the green light behind the goal lit up and while there were still a few tenths of a second left on the TV score bug. According to ESPNU broadcasters, the refs were able to zoom out and create an angle that showed if the puck crossed the line before the video board hanging above center ice showed 0:00.
Again, they deemed that it did not.
“I just base it on what’s on the scoreboard, and they’re telling me there’s two different clocks?” Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson said. “We’re playing to the scoreboard, not a clock that isn’t visible. And when the green light went on, I assumed that meant there was still time on the clock.”
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“Having it called back, we had to regroup,” added Landon Slaggert, Graham sophomore brother. Landon would have had an assist on an Adam Karashik goal had the play at the buzzer stood up in Notre Dame’s favor. “We thought it was in, but you’ve got to bounce back and recollect yourself and get another, and that’s what Graham did tonight.”
It would have been fitting had the game been won just before time expired. Goals were hard to come by both ways because of a menacing, hard-nosed style of playoff hockey both teams played for 60 minutes. It wasn’t a dirty game by any means; there were only five penalties in regulation. But it’s as if the hockey gods were on the Irish’s side early in overtime when North Dakota was whistled for an inference minor.
Slaggert left nothing to chance early in the power play with a rifled wrist shot over North Dakota goaltender Zach Driscoll‘s blocker-side shoulder. Driscoll stopped 24 shots. Notre Dame graduate student Matthew Galajda stopped 23. Slaggert assisted on the Irish’s only other goal of the game, a deft mini breakaway capitalized on by his younger brother through the five-hole of Driscoll.
Minnesota State has been one of the best teams in college hockey all season. The Mavericks beat Harvard 4-3 Thursday to improve to 36-5-0 this season. The Irish are 28-11-0 and can advance to the Frozen Four for the third time since 2017 with a win. Puck drop is slated for 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
