Jason Paige picked up his first goal of the season in Notre Dame's 6-1 win over Providence College.

Irish Roll To A 6-1 Win Over Providence College

Oct. 21, 2006

Final Stats

Providence, R.I. – Freshman left wing Dan Kissel scored the first three goals of his Notre Dame career and Jason Paige, Kevin Deeth and Michael Bartlett added single goals as the Fighting Irish capped their East coast weekend with a 6-1 win over the Providence College Friars in front of 2,104 at Schneider Arena.

The victory moves Notre Dame to 3-1-0 on the season and 2-1 on their seven-game road swing to start the year. The 3-1-0 mark is the best start for the Irish since a 3-0-1 start in 2002-03. Providence falls to 1-3-0 on the season.

Kissel got his night and the Irish evening off to a positive start with a power-play goal at 11:04 of the first period when he tucked a loose puck behind Friar goaltender Ryan Simpson for his first of the year.

Notre Dame took a 1-0 lead into the second period and scored twice in the first 2:02 of the period to push the lead to 3-0.

Kissel got his second of the night at 1:15 of the middle period when he took a feed from Mark Van Guilder and one-timed a shot from the bottom of the left wing circle past Simpson for the 2-0 lead.

The lead would go to 3-0 just 47 seconds later at 2:02 when Paige tapped a rebound in the crease behind Simpson for his first of the campaign. Garrett Regan deflected a Dan VeNard pass at the Friar blueline to Evan Rankin. Rankin moved in and got a shot off that Simpson stopped but the rebound fell behind him and Paige was there for the score.

Providence cut the lead to 3-1 at 5:02 when Nick Mazzolini intercepted an Irish clearing attempt in the slot and left a pass for Colin McDonald who drilled a wrist shot past David Brown for the only blemish on the Irish goaltender’s evening.

The Irish answered back with their second power-play goal on the night at 11:15. Deeth picked up his second goal of the weekend when he one-timed a centering pass from fellow frosh Ryan Thang for his fourth of the season. Erik Condra triggered the passing play that set up the goal that sent the game to the intermission with Notre Dame on top 4-1.

In the final period, the Irish put the defensive clamps on the Friars, limiting the home team to just three shots on goal.

The lead would go to 5-1 when Michael Bartlett stole a pass at center ice and went in on Simpson all alone for his first goal of the year.

Kissel closed his hat trick with a short-handed goal at 19:21. The freshman broke up a pass at the Irish blue line and raced the length of the ice before beating Simpson with a back-hander to close the scoring at 6-1.

Providence out shot Notre Dame, 23-20, in the game with Simpson finishing with 14 saves to Brown’s 22-save night. The Irish converted on two of five power-play chances while the Friars were 0-for-6. Notre Dame continues its’ seven-game road swing next weekend when the Irish travel to Tampa, Fla., to host the first-ever Lightning College Hockey Classic. Notre Dame will face Army at 8:05 p.m. while Air Force faces Alabama-Huntsville at 5:05 p.m.

IRISH NOTES:

** On Friday night, Mark Van Guilder scored a hat trick for the Irish. On Saturday, freshman Dan Kissel scored his first career hat trick. The back-to-back hat tricks marked the first time that Irish players have scored three goals in back-to-back games since Feb. 7-8, 1992 when Lou Zadra and Sterling Black had hat tricks on back-to-back nights.

** Of Notre Dame’s 29 points on the weekend, freshmen accounted for 13 of them.

** The Irish have out scored the opposition 21-6 over the first four games of the season.

GAME SUMMARY                   1    2    3  -  FNotre Dame (3-1-0)             1    3    2  -  6Providence College (1-3-0)     0    1    0  -  1
Scoring
First Period: ND: Dan Kissel 1 (Mark Van Guilder, Josh Sciba), PPG, 11:04.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; PC: 4 for 8 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Kissel 2 (Van Guilder), 1:15; ND: Jason Paige 1 (Evan Rankin, Garrett Regan), 2:02; PC: Colin McDonald 4 (Nick Mazzolini), 5:02; ND: Kevin Deeth 4 (Ryan Thang, Erik Condra), PPG, 11:15.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; PC: 2 for 4 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Michael Bartlett 1 (unassisted), 15:53; ND: Kissel 3 (unassisted), SHG, 19:22.
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; PC: 0 for 0 minutes.
Shots On Goal:
Notre Dame 4 - 7 - 9 - 20
Providence College 11 - 9 - 3 - 23
Goaltender Saves:
ND - David Brown (60:00) 11 - 8 - 3 - 22
PC - Ryan Simpson (60:00) 3 - 4 - 7 - 14
Power Plays:
ND: 2 for 5
PC: 0 for 6
Attendance: 2,104