No. 4 Gophers take down Notre Dame, 6-3

The No. 4 Minnesota Golden Gophers men's hockey program defeated Notre Dame 6-3 at Compton Family Ice Arena on Friday night.

The Gophers scored three power-play goals in the victory, with two of them coming off the stick of Sam Rinzel.

Jimmy Snuggerud also picked up his 100th point of his Gophers career in the road win. The achievement came on an assist for Rinzel's first goal of the game.

Minnesota moves to 11-2-0 overall and 5-0-0 in Big Ten play on the season while the Irish drop to 5-8-0 and 1-6-0 in conference play.

The Irish struck first with a goal at the 1:51 mark but it didn't take long for the Golden Gophers to respond. Just four minutes after the goal, Brody Lamb found the back of the net to tie the game up at one.

Both teams headed into the first intermission tied 1-1, as the Gophers carried power-play time into the second period. It only took 38 seconds for Minnesota to score off the power play, which came from Rinzel, as his shot was tipped by an Irish player's stick and over the goaltender to put the Gophers up 2-1.

Oliver Moore built up Minnesota's lead to 3-1 with 5:24 remaining in the second period and the Irish answered back to make it a one-score contest. With 1:36 to play in the second, the Irish were assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for a kneeing penalty. Minnesota jumped on the opportunity and scored off Rinzel's second goal of the game, putting the Gophers up 4-2 with 24 seconds left in the period.

Not even two minutes into the final period, Aaron Huglen chalked up a goal for the Gophers to put the lead to three. Notre Dame scored to make it 5-3 with only 2:32 remaining but the Gophers slammed the door shut on any comeback, as Connor Kurth scored an empty-netter to close out the game, 6-3.

Minnesota goaltender Nathan Airey remained perfect with the win, moving to 7-0-0 on the season. He made 25 saves in the contest.

"I liked a lot of things tonight." Minnesota head coach Bob Motzko said. "A lot of good second efforts, good netfront presence, and our power play was good. Our whole focus now is we have to be better tomorrow."

The Gophers and Irish will wrap up the series on Saturday, with puck-drop scheduled for 5 p.m. CT.