Justen Close made 21 saves and Jaxon Nelson and Matthew Knies scored goals midway through the second period to lead the No. 3 Gophers to a 3-0 victory over No. 12 Notre Dame on Saturday night at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

Logan Cooley added an empty-netter in the waning seconds of the game.

Well, exactly what we knew, it was going to be a battle," Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. "We got the first one and we got a power-play goal. And then it kind of turned into an arm-wrestling match.

"We won some battles and lost some. Close was good when we needed him."

Nelson got his goal at 10 minutes, 15 seconds of the middle period. And the Fighting Irish received a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct on that play, which Minnesota capitalized on. Knies doubled the lead at 13:31 on a power-play goal.

After a shot by Jimmy Snuggerud trickled behind Notre Dame goalie Ryan Bischel, Knies made a diving swipe at the puck to make sure it got into the net.

The win gave Minnesota (7-3, 3-1 Big Ten) a sweep of the series; the Gophers won the first game 4-1 with Knies getting the game-winner. He has goals in five of his past six games.

Bischel stopped 29 shots for Notre Dame (4-4-2, 1-2-1).

This was the second shutout for Close this season and the Gophers third win in a row.