(Photo Credit: UND.com)

As long as Notre Dame has to wear that B1G logo on their jersey, continually winning the conference is pretty cool. And the Irish repeated as league champs Saturday night with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Penn State, securing a return trip to the NCAA Tournament (and, as a footnote, Jeff Jackson’s 500th career victory as a head coach).

Success has many fathers in most hockey victories, and Saturday was no exception. Just about all of the key plays were provided by different Irishmen. To wit, here are a few:

– Cale Morris. The guy took the nation by storm last year, and while this year hasn’t quite been the same, we saw that guy in net tonight. Morris was a damn wall, saving nearly 40 straight shots to end the game.

– Dylan Malmquist. The senior seems like he’s been with this program forever, and he made some incredibly clutch blocks on PSU shot attempts late in the game, including the one in the final minutes which he punctuated by clearing the puck too.

– Mike O’Leary. While on the subject of great defensive plays, how about this dude’s Matrix-like move to storm in and whack the puck out of midair as it appeared headed into the back of the empty net in the third period?

– Spencer Stastney. A fast start was important in a game assumed to be low-scoring, and Stastney provided the fastest one possible, breaking out his swagger to go 1-on-3 in the first minutes and firing in a goal to make it 1-0 ND.

– Cam Morrison. His rocket shot from the blue line proved to be the game-winning goal, and it was a thing of beauty.

Notre Dame wasn’t going to make the big dance without a victory in this game, and they came up big. Now Irish fans await the site and opponent for their next game. We’re in the time of year where ‘the next game’ is the happiest phrase of all.