Dec. 30, 2007
TAMPA, Fla. – Notre Dame junior Erik Condra started the sixth-ranked Irish hockey team off strong with a goal at the 1:04 mark in the first period, paving the way for a 3-1 win over No. 17 Rensselaer in the third-place game of the Lightning College Hockey Classic Sunday evening at the St. Pete Times Forum.
Notre Dame continued to dominate the Engineers offensively with Ryan Thang knocking in the second Irish goal ten minutes later with an assist from Condra as the Irish cruised to a 3-1 win. A 2-0 Irish lead was short-lived as RPI bounced back on a power play with a goal from Kurt Colling at 14:01.
Despite allowing 11 RPI shots in the second period, the Irish held the Engineers scoreless and continued to dominate defensively throughout the remainder of the game. Notre Dame held RPI to just four shots in the final period.
In the final minute of the game, the Engineers made a final attempt to score on the Irish by leaving an open net. Notre Dame was able to capitalize with Evan Rankin beating a pair of RPI players to score into an empty net with 30 seconds remaining.
Notre Dame and RPI traded twenty shots with Jordan Pearce making 19 saves for the Irish. Mathias Lange made 17 saves for the Engineers.
The next opponent on the Notre Dame schedule is Northern Michigan. The Irish, now 17-5-0, will travel to face the Wildcats on Jan. 4. Today’s contest was Notre Dame’s last non-conference game of the season. The Irish will end with 16 straight CCHA meetings.
IRISH NOTES:
**Erik Condra now has a team-high 25 points in 22 games this season. He also leads the Irish with 67 shots.
**Ryan Thang netted his 11th goal of the season to lead the Irish this season.
**With his game-winning goal against the Engineers, Thang also leads the team with four this season.
**Notre Dame evens the series with Rensselaer, 3-3, after also earning a win at RPI on Nov. 24, 2007. This was the first neutral meeting between the two teams in the six-game series.
**In the first four meetings between the programs, Notre Dame had never managed more than two goals. Through two meetings this season, the Irish have been able to score a total of seven goals against RPI.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#6 Notre Dame (17-5-0) 2 0 1 - 3#17 Rensselaer (8-9-3) 1 0 0 - 1
Scoring
First Period: ND: Erik Condra 10 (Ryan Thang), EV, 1:04; ND: Ryan Thang 11 (Erik Condra), EV, 10:30; RPI: Kurt Colling 1 (Ben Contini), PP, 14:01
Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; RPI: 2 for 4 minutes
Second Period: None
Penalties: ND 6 for 12 minutes; RPI: 4 for 8 minutes
Third Period: ND: Evan Rankin 6 (Christian Hanson), EV, 19:31
Penalties: ND: 8 for 16 minutes; RPI: 9 for 18 minutes
Shots On Goal:RPI 5 11 4 - 20ND 8 6 6 - 20
Goaltender Saves:RPI - Mathias Lange (59:45) 6 - 6 - 5 - 17ND - Jordan Pearce (60:00) 4 - 11 - 4 - 19
Power Plays:RPI: 1 for 7ND: 0 for 6