Blue and Gold Illustrated

May 2019

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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54 MAY 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI B anners continue to be added furnishings at Notre Dame's Compton Family Ice Arena. For the eighth time in head coach Jeff Jackson's 14 seasons at the university, the program earned a con- ference championship banner. This one was achieved after capturing the Big Ten Tournament title March 23 with a 3-2 victory versus Penn State. That made the Fighting Irish 2 for 2 since joining the Big Ten in hockey in 2017, and several more milestones were achieved along the way: • Notre Dame became the first school to repeat as Big Ten tourna- ment champions since the hockey league's inception in 2013-14. Dating back to when hockey became a var- sity sport at the school in 1968, this marked the first time Notre Dame had ever achieved back-to-back confer- ence crowns. Prior to defeating Penn State, the Fighting Irish also toppled Michigan State 1-0 and 2-0 in the best-of-three quarterfinals, and vanquished Minne- sota 2-1 in overtime in the semifinals. • The triumph over Penn State earned Notre Dame an automatic bid to the 16-team NCAA Tournament for a school-record fourth consecutive year (it had three straight from 2007- 09). Ten of the program's 11 bids have come under Jackson. • The four consecutive NCAA Tour- nament appearances by Notre Dame is the nation's fourth longest active streak, trailing only Denver (12), Prov- idence (six) and Minnesota Duluth (five), all of which have won national titles since 2015. • Jackson recorded his 500th career victory (318 at Notre Dame), becoming only the 13th coach in NCAA hockey annals to achieve that milestone. ANOTHER BANNER SEASON Notre Dame repeats as Big Ten champions, but falls in NCAA regional final The Fighting Irish achieved back-to-back conference crowns for the first time in program history and became the first team in the six-year history of Big Ten hockey to win two straight tournament titles. PHOTO COURTESY FIGHTING IRISH MEDIA/MIKE MILLER

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