Montreal Canadiens: Jake Evans sends Notre Dame to the Frozen Four Finals

The spotlight was on Montreal Canadiens prospect Jake Evans as his efforts punched a ticket to the Frozen Four Finals for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Montreal Canadiens fans, if you passed on last night’s Frozen Four semi-finals game, you missed out. Minnesota-Duluth will be meeting the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday for the final championship game. It was a high-impact game that had the scales tip in either team’s favour at multiple points of the night.

Early power play opportunities pushed the pace early in the first period, but Michigan came out with the 1-0 lead heading into intermission. That lead quickly increased by another goal in the opening minutes of the second, and it was starting to look like the Fighting Irish were getting on their heels a bit. However, a power play chance saw Notre Dame cut the lead in half thanks to a nice wrister from Andrew Oglevie at the left circle.

That goal marked Jake Evan‘s first points of the night (there’s more trust me). Minutes later, it was a time game thanks to who? If you thought Evans, you would be 100% correct. A one-time pass from Jordan Gross led to a powerful slap shot from the high slot. Combine that with an effective screen from Andrew Peeke, and we’ve got ourselves a hockey game.

Michigan had their chances to get the go-ahead goal as Notre Dame fell into some penalty trouble. Despite the momentum boost, the Fighting Irish were in a good spot going into the third and didn’t waste time proving it. A rush up ice by Cal Burke and Dylan Malmquist led to the go-ahead goal 1:08 into the final 20 minutes of the game.

Unfortunately, Notre Dame took their foot off the gas a little allowing Michigan to get back into it. You could almost feel the goal coming, and a crazy scrum in front of Cale Morris led to the tying goal. All signs were pointing to an overtime finish, but Montreal Canadiens seventh-round pick decided that the regular season is where the game would end.

The entire sequence was outstanding. Evans started the breakout and found Cam Morrison in the neutral zone who continued into the Bulldogs zone. He continued to skate driving around the defending player and threw the puck in front of the net for Evans to send to the back of the net with seconds remaining in the game.

This reaction says it all as we at A Winning Habit were fired up for the goal.

With two goals and an assist, the 21-year-old sets a career high in points with 45. That’s fine, but the next and final destination for Evans and Notre Dame is just that, the finals. It looks like the Toronto native had no intention of having his senior year end early, and hopefully, they can come out of Saturday’s match with a win.

Next: A Rejuvenated Carey Price

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