When Michigan hockey senior Matt Rust skates around in warm-ups this upcoming Friday at Yost Ice Arena, he’ll see his little brother at the opposite end of the rink — no, not Michigan State.

Instead, freshman forward Bryan Rust will be donning Notre Dame's blue and gold, a team currently atop the conference, one point ahead of the Wolverines (4-1-1-0 CCHA, 5-2-3 overall).

It will be the first time besides last year’s game against the U.S. National Team Development Program Under-18 squad — in which the younger Rust played for the Ann Arbor-based program — that the two brothers have faced each other.

Prior to playing for the USNTDP, Bryan skated for Honeybaked, a AAA program based out of metro Detroit. While playing for the elite program, Michigan assistant coach Mel Pearson observed Bryan’s game. But Pearson and the Wolverines didn’t successfully secure the younger brother’s commitment.

“We talked to Bryan, and he was a very good hockey player,” Pearson said. “We were well aware of him when he played at Honeybaked, and then over at the U.S. program. He made an early decision and unfortunately, he wanted to get it out of the way, and we didn’t get a chance to really talk to him a whole lot about coming to Michigan.”

Up until now, Bryan has played in all nine games for the Fighting Irish (4-1-1-1, 6-2-1), tallying a goal and an assist while playing on coach Jeff Jackson’s third line. And even though the brothers have different styles of play — with Matt playing a more defensive brand of hockey compared to Bryan’s power-forward style — both have something to prove in the two-game series.

According to Matt, it’s been the younger brother who’s been “talking a little bit of smack.”

“He sent me a little text, ‘Matt, you better be ready’,” the older Rust said. “I think he’s a little scared.”

Matt added that he thinks that in the back of Bryan’s mind, “he wants to make sure everyone knows he did this himself” and didn’t navigate his way to Division I college hockey because of his brother's success or the name on the back of his jersey.

And while it certainly sounds cliché, Matt admitted after Wednesday’s practice, he thinks it’s natural for a younger brother to be overshadowed by an older sibling. With Bryan finally making it to South Bend, he could vault himself out of his older brother’s shadow and cement his own identity in the CCHA.

“I personally think my brother is a better player than me,” Matt said. “He’s got a lot of skills and smarts, and his hard work has paid off. The kid has changed completely from when he was younger until where he is now.”

As Michigan coach Red Berenson said Wednesday, both the Wolverines and the Fighting Irish are trying to bounce back from a year in which they finished in the lower half of the conference, with Michigan in seventh place and Notre Dame in ninth. Both teams are “looking to prove something” after the less-than-stellar regular-season finishes last season.

Just don’t let the big brother fool you — he won’t be taking it easy on Bryan.

“I’ve been letting him have it a little bit this week and definitely making sure he knows his role out there.”