Minnesota's men's hockey hopes of winning a Big Ten Tournament Championship have come to a swift end. The Gophers, the Big Ten regular-season champions, were ousted by Notre Dame on Sunday with a 4-1 loss at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

The Gophers, who lost just four games in regulation throughout the regular season, dropped both of their regulation losses in the best-of-three series against the Fighting Irish.

Sunday night's 4-1 loss was the rubber match of the three-game series. After Notre Dame took the first game of the series 3-2 on Friday night, the Gophers came back on Saturday evening to win 4-2.

On Sunday, Notre Dame, now just 12-24-1 on the season, took the lead in the first period at the 17:25 mark on a Jayden Davis goal, with assists from Jack Larrigan and Zach Plucinski. The Fighting Irish added a goal early in the second period off the stick of Grant Silianoff.

It wouldn't be until the third period when Minnesota finally got on the board thanks to Matthew Woods on a power-play goal. The Gophers had three power-play opportunities on Sunday in the loss but were only able to total five shots across those three power plays.

A few minutes after Woods' goal that made it a 2-1 Notre Dame lead, the Fighting Irish extended their lead to 3-1 on a goal from NHL legacy Cole Knuble with under 10 minutes to play. The Irish added an empty-net goal in the final minutes to ice the game at 4-1.

In the loss, the Gophers outshot the Fighting Irish 39-21, but goalie Nathan Airey struggled on Sunday, facing limited work with Notre Dame totaling just 17 shots while Airey was in net. The Gophers' skaters had plenty of fault of their own in the loss, including in the faceoff circle, where Notre Dame won 36 of 63 total faceoffs, a 57.1% faceoff winning percentage.

While the Gophers' Big Ten Tournament run has come to a premature end, they'll still have an opportunity to win a national championship in a few weeks. The 2025 Division I Men's Frozen Four selection show is set to take place on March 23, and the tournament will begin just four days later on March 27.

The Gophers are currently No. 4 in the PairWise Ratings, meaning as of right now, they are still a No. 1 seed. However, with plenty of hockey still left to be played, that could certainly change.

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