By JOHN FINERAN
SOUTH BEND – The challenges of playing big-time college hockey is one reason why Owen Say came to Notre Dame.
This Saturday night at 6 p.m., the 23-year-old junior goaltender and his teammates will face their biggest test of the season when they take on No. 2 Michigan State (24-6-4) and its All-America sophomore goaltender Trey Augustine in a Big Ten Tournament semifinal game at the Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing.
After finishing the regular season in the Big Ten basement, few were giving retiring coach Jeff Jackson’s team much of a chance in their best-of-three quarterfinal series last weekend. Most observers figured the Irish would travel to then No. 3 Minnesota and go quietly in two games against the high-scoring Golden Gophers, who entered the series 24-8-4.
Instead, the Irish (12-24-1) eliminated Minnesota with a pair of victories – their Friday 3-2 triumph and Sunday’s 4-1 clincher came around a hard-fought 4-2 Saturday setback – in large part because of Say’s performance. He made 99 saves and allowed just six goals (the seventh Gopher score was an empty-net goal to conclude their Saturday victory).
After surviving last week’s tests in Minneapolis, Say improved his record to 10-14, his saves percentage to .917 and lowered his goals-against average to 2.89.
“I think we’ve finally recognized the buy-in,” said Say, a native of London, Ont., who spent his first two collegiate seasons playing for Mercyhurst University of the Atlantic Hockey Association.
“This time of year just shows the teams which want to win,” Say continued. “When you see your teammates laying out to block a shot (his blocked an additional 45 shots) it gets everybody going. You want to pay it forward; you want to do it for the guy next to you. To have the season we’ve had and then to do that last weekend – to give everything and come out on top – was special. I mean, I can’t thank those guys enough.”
Ever since he started playing tyke (under age 7) hockey, Say has been a goaltender, fighting through painful tears to stop hard rubber missiles coming at him in street hockey and junior hockey games in and around London, Ont. It helped to earn Say a scholarship to Mercyhurst, a private Catholic university in Erie, Pa.
Last season, the Lakers came to South Bend in late October 2023 to play a two-game series against Notre Dame, and Say made 50 saves against the Irish in a 4-3 loss in the opener. Despite finishing with an 8-17-4 record, a 3.22 goals-against average and .913 saves percentage, Say was attracting the attention of hockey scouts and knew he needed to move on if he hoped to have a professional career. So he entered the transfer portal after the season, Jackson saw his name and remembered his 50-save performance.
“I liked what I saw in the video so I reached out to his coach (Rick Gotkin),” Jackson recalled. “Most important for me was that he (Say) was an elite skater which allows you to get to your spots a lot quicker and be in position to try and control rebounds. When I talked to (Gotkin), he told me Owen was better than Kyle McClellan.”
McClellan was a Mercyhurst goaltender who transferred to Wisconsin and in his second season there in 2023-24 became the Big Ten’s Goaltender of the Year and an All-American.
“It took Kyle a year to acclimate himself to playing in the Big Ten,” Jackson added. “I would expect Owen will be in that category a year from now.”
Say feels privileged to be at Notre Dame where goaltenders — David Brown, Jordan Pearce, Steven Summerhays, Cal Peterson, Cale Morris, Matthew Galajda and Ryan Bischel – all have thrived under the tutelage of Jackson, himself a former backup netminder for the late Ron Mason at Michigan State in the late 1970s.
“It was probably a good thing I played that well (against Notre Dame),” Say said with a smile. “I’m so lucky to be here for his last year. There are just aspects of the game that he understands that other coaches won’t because he was a goalie. Being able to practice and do goalie sessions two or three times a week with him has been awesome.”
Last weekend also may have provided Say and his teammates the confidence they need to try and stun the Spartans, who swept all four games from Notre Dame this season.
In the first of the meetings on Nov. 15, the Irish were tied with the Spartans 3-3 early in the second period before Michigan State pulled away for an 8-3 victory during which Say finished with seven goals allowed while making 25 saves. Then in the next-to-last regular-season game for the two teams on Feb. 28 in Compton, the Spartans outshot the Irish 38-24 and Say allowed four goals and made 33 saves in a 5-2 setback.
Say knows the Spartans will be a handful, especially with their last line of defense being Augustine, who is receiving All-America mention (2.09 goals against average, .925 saves percentage, 17-6-4 record with two shutouts) and also has backstopped Team USA to consecutive gold medals in the last two World Junior Championships.
“He’s a really technical, athletic goalie,” Say said of Augustine. “He has really good edges (skating ability) and is able to do a lot that other goalies can’t. At the end of the day, I’ve got to outperform him.”
By outperforming Trey Augustine’s teammates. A lot of experts say it can’t be done. But then they said the same thing, too, about a team 45 years ago which went on to beat the Soviet Union in the Lake Placid Olympics
Owen Say can you see?