Notre Dame wasn’t going to knock Minnesota from its No. 1 ranking by sweeping it over the weekend and not be honored somehow. It began with the Irish entering the latest poll at 16th. But who should get an individual honor? How about Graham Slaggert as the First Star of the Week in the Big Ten?
Perhaps it was Slaggert’s play in the first game against the Gophers that caught people’s attention. He picked up assists on the Irish’s first two goals and then scored the game-winning in a 3-2 win. That three-point performance, a career high, brought him to 11 points, the most in a season for the South Bend native. He joins Ryan Bischel and Matt Ellis as Notre Dame players who have been one of the Big Ten Three Stars of the Week this season.
Having won three of their past four games, the Irish are third in the Big Ten with a 5-4-1 conference record and a 7-6-1 record overall. One point separates them from both second-place Wisconsin and fourth-place Michigan. They’ll play the latter of those teams for their next weekend series. Even though it’s still early in the second half of the season, the series could play a major role in how the conference tournament will be seeded.