The Gophers opened the Big Ten hockey season with a victory over Notre Dame 4-1

The Gophers ’two goals in the opening series of the conference were to score a goal first and play a better defense.

Ryan Johnson seemed to take it personally.

The junior defender helped with two Gophers goals – including that very important first strike – and led the D-core to stop Notre Dame 4-1 on Friday at 3M Arena in Mariucci. Well. 7 Gophers (4-3, 1-0 Big Ten) bounced last weekend against Minnesota Duluth in front of the reported 6,744 people. They will try to play performance No. 14 against Fighting Irish (4-2, 0-1) on Saturday at 5 p.m.

Gophers coach Bob Motzko had been particularly disappointed with his veteran defender Duluth in a 3-2 loss and did not hold back his criticism. But after Friday’s victory, Motzko pointed out how his fierce love came from a high place.

Although there were six freshmen and a new move in the striker group, the defense remained largely unchanged from last season, and each player returned with some experience. So when the team made bad moves or left opponents unattended, Motzko knew they could play better.

Friday was a return to that high-level game.

“Maybe we had to play a game like this to establish ourselves,” Motzko said. “Reminds us in a way.”

Notre Dame plays a very defensive, high-pressure style, and the Gophers felt it from the start, succeeding with just one shot to the finish in the first nearly 15 minutes of the game. But when that second shot came, it was the kind of breakthrough that Gophers had struggled to achieve early this season.

Johnson fed the puck center to Ben Meyers in the neutral zone, and he took it from there, skated into the Irish territory, and toured Notre Dame goalkeeper Matthew Galajda.

This seemed to get the Gophers in a more offensive second episode where they beat Notre Dame 15-10. Johnson picked up the puck from Notre Dame skater and turned it over to winger Bryce Brodzinski, who completed the penalty for this surrender with a shot from the top of the left circle at 2:10 p.m.

“Obviously, we had a hard start for our team. But we just have to combine wins and build only one game at a time,” Johnson said. “… In the dressing room you can see that the mood is changing. So just saying something, just focusing our attention on what’s in front is really important. And forget what was behind.”

Notre Dame cut the Gophers lead in the third set at 14:29. Minnesota tried to clear the puck from behind the net, but it bounced back to the front, with center Graham Slaggert alone hitting Gophers goalkeeper Jack LaFontaine past.

This ended between 165 minutes and 31 seconds between LaFontaine, who kept the Irishman off the board in the teams ’last meetings a season ago. However, he blocked 28 shots with 29 shots.

Galajda blocked 25 fights from Gophers ’29 shots, including beauty winger Mason Nevers.

When Notre Dame were desperate to get a goal back and almost scored, Nevers took a superb header from Matthew Knies and neatly placed it around the defender before he put the pole back to the goal after two minutes of play. Winger Blake McLaughlin added another blank goal after a second.

“They’re going to push. They have a great system. They have great players. They’re a great team,” Nevers said of Notre Dame. “And we were ready for it.”