The rafters at the newly announced hockey facility just might be full of banners even before the Irish play a game inside of it. At the very least, the 2008-2009 CCHA Regular Season Championship banner will hang, as Notre Dame swept the weekend series with UNO and second place Miami (OH) lost to and tied Northern Michigan in their weekend series. ND obviously hopes that it isn't the only banner they earn this season.

The title didn't come easy. It was a physical, hard-fought weekend sprinkled with some fortuitous bounces and questionable officiating. Even Coach Jackson acknowledged that the Irish were extremely fortunate to have won Friday night's game, a thrilling 4-3 OT win.

The Omaha Civic Auditorium lived up to the hype. Close to 8,000 packed the building each night, affectionately named "The Barn," to hopefully watch UNO upset the #2 ranked Irish. There was a sizeable Irish fan presence and the roar after each Irish goal rivaled that of the UNO fans. What they did have was cowbell. Lots and Lots of cowbell.

Fortunately the Irish opened the scoring 3 minutes into the game with a goal from heavy hitter Christiaan Minella, sucking a bit of the enthusiasm from the crowd. It only fueled the UNO attack. Despite being outshot, the Mavericks controlled most of the game, and frankly outworked the Irish by getting to the puck and just being disruptive and annoying. As a result, ND took a few unnecessary penalties, giving UNO important power play opportunities.

The hard work paid dividends in the second period as Jeric Agosta tied the game at 1 only 39 seconds in. Notre Dame regained the lead on Christian Hanson's 15th goal of the season 4 minutes later. For the next 10 minutes, it appeared that Notre Dame was finally getting into the groove, but the team could not score despite great scoring opportunities. Finally, Billy Maday got one by UNO goalie Jeremie Dupont to put the Irish up 3-1.

And then the Irish got comfortable. Too Comfortable.

Careful, uninspired, dare I say content hockey ensued. Defenseman Ian Cole was called for Contact to the Head-Elbowing at 16:04 resulting in a Maverick power play. It only took 30 seconds for Matt Ambroz to score for UNO, pulling the Mavericks within 1. The Barn exploded, and I think every Irish fan in the building could feel deep down that another UNO goal was inevitable.

The swift momentum shift accelerated in the third when UNO killed off consecutive Irish power plays. By then, the Civic center was at a constant roar, and UNO was consistently in the Irish zone. The breakthrough occurred 8 minutes in as UNO's Nick Fanto slipped a rebound through Jordan Pearce's pads to tie the game at 3.

The closing minutes of the period were eventful as both goalies made stellar saves to ensure overtime. There was plenty of back and forth action and offensive rushes but no true scoring chances until Ryan Maday scored his 13th of the season to win the game 4-3 with 1:20 left in the OT period.

Saturday night's game featured even more exciting end to end action as there were numerous odd man rushes and scoring opportunities. Yet it was both starting goalies who stole the show.

It was senior night for UNO and veteran senior Jerad Kaufmann got the start for the Mavs. He made a dazzling save in the opening minutes on a 2 on 1 break for the Irish sliding across the crease to rob them of a goal. In the second, Kaufmann made a dazzling glove save on a point-blank slap shot.

Jordan Pearce and the Irish defense were that much better, only allowing 17 shots on goal (2 in the third). Pearce was also brilliant, but most of his saves were a result of stellar positioning and rebound control. The defense was also suffocating, limiting UNO's potent chances throughout the game to elementary saves for Pearce.

The only goal of the game came in the third, Dan Kissel's 6th of the season, at 6:31. UNO had solid opportunities for shots, but could not find the net. They only recorded 2 SOG in the period, as they were stymied by ND's constant defensive pressure.

The 2 wins coupled with the Friday night's loss by Miami (OH) and their tie before the conclusion of the game on Saturday, resulted in a jubilant Irish mob at the final horn, in celebration of Notre Dame's second CCHA regular season title in 3 seasons.

The Irish will close out the season with a home and home series against rival Michigan State with the Friday game in South Bend and the season finale in East Lansing on Saturday.

While the Irish have clinched the 1 seed for the conference tournament, there is always valuable ground to be made up in PWR, the ranking used to determine NCAA tournament seeding. After the MSU series, Notre Dame will have a week off and await the lowest remaining seed after the first round of CCHA playoff action.

-JR