Dec. 8, 2007
Princeton, N.J. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish got off to a fast start on Saturday night at Hobey Baker Arena; scoring two early goals on the way to a 7-0 win over the Princeton Tigers.
Dan Kissel and Dan VeNard scored twice to pace the Notre Dame attack with both players turning in career-high point games. Kissel had four points in the contest with two goals and two assists while VeNard had the first two-goal game of his career and added an assist for three points in the game.
Christian Hanson, Garrett Regan and Evan Rankin added single goals on the night. Freshman goaltender Brad Phillips recorded his first career shutout, making 24 saves in his third career start.
The win extended Notre Dame’s current winning streak to nine straight games, the longest for the Irish since 1987. The Irish go into the Christmas break with a 16-4-0 record while Princeton falls to 5-7-0 on the season.
The Irish would score twice in the opening period and never looked back as they dominated the Tigers all night long.
VeNard got things going at the 10:05 mark as he scored on a one-timer from the right wing circle, beating goaltender Alan Reynolds up under the cross bar. The goal came on the power play as VeNard took a cross-rink pass off the left wing boards from Ben Ryan. Ian Cole also assisted on the goal.
The lead would go to 2-0 at 13:18 as the trio of Kissel, Christian Hanson and Evan Rankin, who combined for four goals and six assists in the game, got their first of the night. Rankin slid a pass from the right side of the goal to Kissel coming off the left circle and the sophomore hammered a shot past Reynolds for his fourth of the season.
Notre Dame exploded for four goals in the second period with Kissel getting his second of the night, this one short-handed. Defenseman Brock Sheahan broke up a Princeton rush at the Irish blue line with Kissel grabbing the loose puck in the neutral zone. From there he out raced the defense and flipped a shot over Reynolds for his second goal of the night and sixth of the year.
The short-handed goal was the seventh of the year for the Irish. They have now given up seven power-play goals this season while scoring seven times when the opposition has the man advantage.
Hanson made it 4-0 at 11:18 when he tucked the rebound of a Rankin shot behind Reynolds for his fifth of the season.
Regan scored his second goal of the weekend just 1:30 later when he took a pass from Robin Bergman at the bottom of the left circle and whipped a shot past Reynolds for a 5-0 lead. The goal was the sixth of the season for Regan and sent Reynolds to the Tiger bench in favor of Thomas Schyterz.
VeNard welcomed Schyterz to the game just 1:16 later when he scored his second goal of the night. Erik Condra made a nice break out pass to VeNard in the neutral zone and the senior defenseman carried it down the left side and beat the new goaltender with a high shot at 14:04 and Notre Dame led 6-0.
Rankin closed out the scoring at 16:30 of the third period with Kissel setting him up from the left side of the goal. VeNard also assisted for the first three-point game of his career.
In the game, the Irish out shot Princeton by a 28-24 margin. Phillips made 12 of his saves in the third period. Reynolds had 11 saves while giving up five goals in 32:48 and Schyterz made 10 saves while giving up a pair of goals in the final 27:12.
The Irish will now break for finals and the Christmas holidays and will have three weeks off before returning to action on Dec. 29 versus Massachusetts in the opening game of the Lightning College Hockey Classic at Tampa, Fla. Colorado College and Rensselaer will also play in the tournament.
IRISH NOTES:
** Senior defenseman Dan VeNard now has five goals and three assists for eight points in 20 games this season. Prior to this year, in 71 games, he had two goals and six assists for eight points. His three-point game versus Princeton was the first multiple-point game of his career.
** A balanced attack has been a key to Notre Dame’s 16-4-0 start this season. Through 20 games, the Irish have only one player with 10 goals (Ryan Thang) but have nine players with five or more goals. Notre Dame is out scoring the opposition by a 71-38 margin or 3.55 goals per game to 1.90 goals per game.
** Brad Phillips’ first career shutout gives Notre Dame four shutouts (Jordan Pearce – 3) on the season. The most shutouts the Irish have ever had in a season are seven and that occurred last year (David Brown – 6, Jordan Pearce -1).
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#6/#6 Notre Dame (16-4-0) 2 4 1 - 7Princeton (5-7-0) 0 0 0 - 0
Scoring
First Period: ND: Dan VeNard 4 (Ben Ryan, Ian Cole), PPG, 10:05; ND: Dan Kissel 4 (Evan Rankin, Christian Hanson), 10:18.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; Princeton: 1 for 2 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Kissel 5 (Brock Sheahan), SHG), 7:08; ND: Hanson 5 (Rankin, Kissel), 11:18; ND: Garrett Regan 6 (Robin Bergman, Mark Van Guilder), 12:48; ND: VeNard 5 (Erik Condra, Luke Lucyk), 14:04.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; Princeton: 3 for 6 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Rankin 5 (Kissel, VeNard), 16:30.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; Princeton: 1 for 2 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 8 - 15 - 5 - 28Princeton 8 - 4 - 12 - 24
Goaltender Saves:ND - Brad Phillips (60:00) 8 - 4 - 5 - 17PR - Alan Reynolds (32:48) 6 - 5 - x - 11 Thomas Sychterz (17:12) x - 6 - 4 - 10
Power Plays:ND: 1 for 4PR: 0 for 5
Attendance: 2,218