(NOTRE DAME SI)
WHO: #16 Notre Dame (7-6-1, 5-4-1-0-1-1 B1G) vs. #8/8 Michigan (8-6-0, 6-6-0-1-0-0 B1G) WHEN: Thursday, January 21 – 6:30 p.m. ET | Friday, January 22 – 6:30 p.m. ET WHERE: Compton Family Ice Arena WATCH: Thursday – RSNs & NBCSports.com | Friday – NBCSN & NBCSports.com LISTEN: 94.3 FM | UND.com GAME NOTES (PDF)
FOR STARTERS
The Fighting Irish are coming off a weekend sweep of then No. 1 Minnesota and have won three of their four games since returning from winter break.
Junior forward Graham Slaggert was named the Big Ten’s First Star of the Week (Jan. 19).
Slaggert and the Irish posted a 3-2 win in game one at Minnesota, with Slaggert assisting on Notre Dame’s first two goals and adding the third period game winner.
It marked a career-best three points for the South Bend, Indiana native who now has a career-best 11 points (4-7-11) on the season.
The Irish went on to post a 2-1 win in game two against the Gophers.
Ryan Bischel earned the game one win, totaling 17 saves, while Dylan St. Cyr stopped 25 of the 26 shots he faced to win game two.
Notre Dame’s seven game-winning goals this season have been scored by six players: Jesse Lansdell, Alex Steeves, Grant Silianoff, Graham Slaggert (2), Nick Leivermann and Max Ellis.
Landon Slaggert returned from winning gold with Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Championship (Jan. 5) to score a pair of goals in Notre Dame’s 5-3 win over Arizona State (Jan. 9) in his first game back and he has four points in four games on three goals and an assist.
Matt Hellickson has played 131-consecutive games dating back to the first game of his freshman season.
Freshman defenseman and Edina, Minnesota native Jake Boltmann joined the Irish for the second semester.
The Irish have won four in a row against the Wolverines.
This weekend’s series has the potential to feature a combined 17 NHL draft picks (nine on Notre Dame, eight for Michigan).
Notre Dame (18 points) and Michigan (17 points) currently rank third and fourth in the Big Ten standings, but the Wolverines have played two more conference games than the Irish.
THE NOTRE DAME-MICHIGAN SERIES
All-time, Michigan leads the series 80-65-5, however, since their final season in the CCHA (2012-13), the Irish hold the edge with a 14-7-0 record.
Notre Dame leads the series 9-6-0 since joining the Big Ten and Notre Dame has an active four-game winning streak against the Wolverines.
In addition to winning the last four games against Michigan, Notre Dame has a fivegame winning streak at Yost Ice Arena.
Earlier this season, goaltender Ryan Bischel led the Irish to a weekend sweep at then No. 4/3 Michigan on Nov. 27 (W, 3-2) and Nov. 28 (W, 2-1).
Bischel stopped 55 of 58 shots he faced in the series for a .948 save percentage to go along with a 1.50 goals against average.
Notre Dame goal scorers in that series included Nick Leiveramann, Nate Clurman, Grant Silianoff (GWG), Spencer Stastney and Alex Steeves (GWG).
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