SOUTH BEND, Indiana — After 1,000 games behind a college hockey bench, Notre Dame’s Jeff Jackson still knows a thing or two about getting the best out of his team.

With the Irish coach celebrating a career milestone on Friday, his team turned in one of its more dominating performances of an inconsistent season, trouncing formerly red-hot Minnesota 6-1.

Former Fargo Force star Cole Knuble had a pair of goals for the Irish, who had lost their three previous games but improved to 15-14-2 overall and 9-10-2 in the Big Ten Conference with the win. Veteran goalie Ryan Bischel had 30 saves for Notre Dame, including 11 in the opening period when Minnesota looked poised to take an early lead.

“It was one of our best games of the year,” Jackson said, noting that the Irish line chart was a bit patched together due to injuries. “I’m proud of our guys, because some guys had to come into the lineup and step up.”

Minnesota lost for just the third time in 2024, falling behind 4-0 before Aaron Huglen got them on the board late in the second period. They fell to 18-8-5 and 11-6-4. Gophers goalie Justen Close began the game with a shutout streak of more than 190 minutes, but was on the bench before the second period ended after stopping 10 of the 14 shots he faced.

“So unfortunate. We had a handful of guys that had real bad nights tonight, but they’re the same group of guys that have had great nights for us that have got us to this spot,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. “Not a good look for us tonight. We’ve got to rebound tomorrow.”

Freshman goalie Nathan Airey came on in relief for his first appearance in a Big Ten game for Minnesota, and finished with 12 saves in the game’s final 28 minutes.

Bischel, the reigning goaltender of the year in the conference, set the tone early, stopping Gophers forward Rhett Pitlick on a first-period breakaway and keeping Minnesota off the board long enough for Carter Slaggert to get the home crowd involved with his third goal of the season.

“We gave up a breakaway in the first period, and that really got me into it,” Bischel said. “Other than that I don’t think they had a ton of good looks, other than the goal in the second period.”

Things snowballed on Minnesota — which came into the weekend on a 9-1-1 run — in the second period, in which the normally low-scoring Irish scored a quartet and took complete control of the game.

Airey, a rookie who missed the first two months of the season with a lower body injury, had played one non-conference game in January, ended up making his Big Ten debut in hostile territory.

For Jackson, the 1,000 career games mark came in his 19th season as the head coach of the Irish. He coached Lake Superior State to NCAA titles in 1992 and 1994.

Briefly

— Gophers defenseman Cal Thomas returned to the lineup after missing the previous game with a lower-body injury. It was the first career game he had missed. The Gophers dressed seven defensemen for the game.

— It was the first regulation loss at Compton Family Ice Arena for Gophers coach Bob Motzko, now in his sixth season at Minnesota. He was previously 10-2-2 in the building, with both losses coming in overtime.

— The series concludes on Saturday with a 5 p.m. CST start in South Bend.

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