The 2026 Big Ten Hockey Tournament opened Wednesday night with three quarterfinal matchups, including No. 2 seed Michigan hosting No. 7 seed Notre Dame and Flyers prospect Cole Knuble. The Fighting Irish fell the the Wolverines 6-1, and with the loss, it seems likely that Knuble will turn pro in the coming days.
No. 2 Michigan defeats No. 7 Notre Dame
The first period was fairly even, with Notre Dame holding their own despite entering as the underdog. However, it wouldn’t stay that way for long. Jayden Perron opened the scoring for Michigan a little past the halfway point of the period on an abbreviated two-on-one odd man rush. The Wolverines carried a 1–0 lead into the first intermission while holding a slight edge in shots. They kept the pressure on in the second period and quickly doubled the lead when Josh Eernisse finished from a sharp angle along the goal line.
Michigan’s starter Jack Ivankovic was knocked around in a pair of collisions, the first of which led to Carter Slaggert being given a major penalty and getting thrown out of the game. Later in the middle frame, the Wolverines added a goal on the power play. Perron pounced on a rebound to for his second of the game and to push the lead to 3-0 late in the period.
Another major penalty against Notre Dame early in the third, this time to Cole Brown for head contact, gave Michigan a huge opportunity to really start to run away with this one, and the power play unit made it count just before the five minutes were up. It was Will Horcoff who pushed the Wolverines’ lead to four. With the goaltender pulled, Evan Werner spoiled Ivankovic’s shutout with a little over five minutes remaining in regulation, but the Wolverines answered quickly with a Tyler Duke empty-netter. Kason Muscutt added a late goal to extend Michigan’s lead to five goals. In the end, Michigan knocked Notre Dame out of the tournament by a final score of 6-1.
What’s next for Knuble?
It was a difficult season for the Flyers’ fourth-round pick from the 2023 draft. After an impressive 2024-25 campaign in which he recorded 12 goals and 39 points in 34 games, his production dipped this year, finishing with nine goals and 22 assists across 36 contests. Notre Dame struggled throughout the season, managing just five conference wins and nine victories overall.
Despite the step back in production, Knuble has continued to show flashes of the skill set that made him an intriguing prospect. He stood out at the Flyers’ development camp in each of the last two summers, and a change of environment could help him rediscover a bit more of the offensive touch he showed a year ago. Knuble projects as a bottom-six center at the NHL level, though he spent time on the wing this season as Notre Dame experimented with their lineup, and he very well may prove to be a winger at the next level.
Knuble logged plenty of minutes on the penalty kill and was often being trusted in key defensive situations. That responsibility could translate well to the professional level, and may help him carve out a bottom-six role early in his career. Knuble, 21, is the son of longtime NHL forward Mike Knuble, who spent five seasons with Philadelphia.
Now that his college season has come to an end, the next step feels almost imminent. While he could theoretically go back, the Flyers have been expecting him to join the organization at the conclusion of this season for a while now. Knuble could sign his entry-level contract immediately, burn the first year, and potentially join the Flyers for the final stretch of the season. The more likely path, however, would be signing a contract that begins next year while joining the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the remainder of the season. Ahead of Wednesday’s games, fellow prospect Noah Powell took that exact route.
It’d be yet another welcomed boost for the team, with the Phantoms in the midst of a playoff push and really struggling of late. They are winless in their last four and have gone 3-5-2 over their last ten games. They’re currently two points up on the Springfield Thunderbirds for the final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division with one game in hand.
Elsewhere in the Big Ten, No. 3 Penn State defeated No. 6 Minnesota 6-2, while No. 5 Ohio State defeated No. 4 Wisconsin 7-1. The semifinals are set for Saturday night, with Penn State meeting Michigan and Ohio State facing No. 1 Michigan State.
