Puck U!

Hail to the Victors! Congratulations to the Notre Dame Mens Hockey team for their momentous semi-final win over the #1 seeded University of Michigan wolverines last night. The 5-4 overtime win sends the Skating Irish to their first NCAA Championship game ever, against Boston College on Saturday night.

Not to beat a dead horse, but does anyone else remember when the talk was all about how "relevant" Notre Dame isn't anymore? Well, we're relevant enough that when the Irish win a HOCKEY game it's worth a story in the New York Times.

I won't spend any time breaking down the X's and O's (does hockey use X's and O's? Or do they use, like, Canadian letters?), because I would quickly embarrass myself. I just had a few very quick thoughts.

1. It ALWAYS feels good to beat Michigan. It'll feel better when we beat them in football 155 days from today, but a win over UM in swimming, fencing, golf, always feels very good.
2. Of course, knocking off Michigan when they're ranked #1 in the nation in a sport they take pretty darn seriously is even better. That's gonna leave a mark.
3. Beating Michigan with a roster full of kids we recruited from the state of Michigan is just icing on the cake.
4. I hope Coach Brey was at the game taking notes about how to win a big tournament game. Which was higher: Number of goals scored by the Irish hockey team last night, or number of 3-point shots made by Brey's Irish basketball team against Washington State? (Answer: Hockey scored 5 goals last night, the basketball team hit just 3 of 17 3-point tries against WSU).
5. Beat Boston College! No, really, please, I'm begging you, Beat B.C.!