Gophers men's hockey blitzes Notre Dame 4-1 at home

Matthew Knies apparently isn't big on being the center of attention. And nothing quite draws the eyes of 7,774 hockey fans at 3M Arena at Mariucci quite like a penalty shot.

So when a Notre Dame player slashed Knies' stick out of his hands right before he was about to take a shot in front of the goal, the sophomore winger rejoiced that the score was already 3-0 with just eight minutes on the clock.

"I'm happy that they took the power play," said Knies, who abdicated his opportunity for a penalty shot in favor of the one-man advantage for two minutes. "… Happy that they didn't embarrass me out there and put me out there by myself."

It did end up being a good call, as Notre Dame quickly incurred another penalty to make it 5-on-3 hockey, during which Jimmy Snuggerud scored. Plus, the Gophers burned some more time off the clock, even though the Irish would eventually score a consolation goal from Justin Janicke with 46 seconds left in the game to grant the Gophers' a slightly tarnished 4-1 victory Friday.

Knies professed to be "not probably the best penalty shootout guy," though he did something very similar, if not even harder, earlier in the game.

At about 14 minutes in the second period, the forward scored an unassisted, shorthanded goal. He took control of the puck in his own zone and skated it all the way up the ice for a one-on-one with Notre Dame goaltender Ryan Bischel. Bischel, a Medina native, made 45 saves Friday, but that wasn't one of them.

To be fair, there is a fairly significant distinction between that scenario and a penalty shot. While the latter happens from a dead stop amid tense silence, the former is at full-game speed with a background of raucous cheers. There's also less thinking involved, as Knies said he felt like he "blinked quick, and it was kind of in the back of the net."

Knies ended his night with a goal and two assists, both on linemate Snuggerud's goals. In addition to his power-play score and his early shot in the third period that made it 3-0, Snuggerud also had a chance to score the first goal about five minutes into the first period. He and Knies had been on a breakaway before Snuggerud drew a hooking penalty. That time, coach Bob Motzko elected to let Snuggerud take the penalty shot, which Bischel parried.

Mason Nevers eventually broke through about a third of the way into the second period, converting Jaxon Nelson's behind-the-net assist.

Nevers, a junior, knows a lot about Notre Dame's strategy, hinged on being very structured and keeping the puck tied up in the neutral zone. So he was pleased with his team's ability to dump the puck into the offensive zone to avoid that trap.

Motzko was a bit surprised to see his team outshoot Notre Dame 54-25 when the majority of contests between these two Big Ten foes usually comes down to a single-goal difference.

"It is critical if you get the first goal against Notre Dame. This is a movie we've seen with them. And it's a fight to the first goal," Motzko said. "… This is an aberration."

The Gophers improved to 6-3-0, 2-1-0 in the conference, while Notre Dame fell to 4-3-2, 1-1-1. Motzko anticipates a closer game in the series finale, while Nevers is planning to make-up the lost shutout to goaltender Justen Close.

"A lot of stick taps and apologies, for sure," Nevers said. "We want to get him the goose egg, but we couldn't. So hopefully we can save one for [Saturday] night."