Dec. 7, 2007
Princeton, N.J. – The Notre Dame hockey team ran its current winning streak to eight straight games on Friday night in front of a sell-out crowd of 2,157 Friday night at Hobey Baker Rink, downing the Princeton Tigers, 4-2.
Garrett Regan, Justin White, Erik Condra and Ben Ryan scored for the Irish with Condra’s short-handed goal at 4:32 of the third period being the game winner.
Eric Pridham and Taylor Fedun scored for the Tigers.
The win improved Notre Dame to 15-4-0 on the year while Princeton falls to 5-6-0 on the season. The eight straight wins is the most for the Irish since an eight-game winning streak in November of 1983.
Princeton would score first in the contest, scoring on the power play at 11:28. The Tigers’ Kevin Kaiser won a face off in the neutral zone to defenseman Jody Pederson. Pederson moved the puck ahead to Pridham at the Irish blue line. He carried the puck into the zone and fired a wrist shot low to the ice that beat Irish goaltender Jordan Pearce just getting inside the left post for his first goal of the season.
The Irish would tie the game just over three minutes later at 14:41 when Regan got the equalizer, jamming the rebound of a Mark Van Guilder shot past goaltender Zane Kalemba for his fifth goal of the season.
Notre Dame carried the play in the second period, out shooting Princeton by a 14-3 margin but it would take almost the entire period before the Irish would break the 1-1 tie.
White would put Notre Dame ahead to stay at 18:29 when he rifled a shot from the right wing circle that beat Kalemba to his glove side for his third of the season. The play was set up by some strong play along the left boards by Calle Ridderwall and Brett Blatchford with Blatchford finding White with a cross-rink pass.
The Irish lead would go to 3-1 at 4:32 of the third period when their special teams struck again. This time Condra and Kevin Deeth teamed up to score Notre Dame’s sixth short-handed goal of the season.
The duo carried the puck into the Princeton zone 2-on-1 and executed a perfect give-and-go pass as Deeth took a pass and returned it to Condra alone in front and where he tucked it home for his eighth goal of the season and third short-handed. The man-down goal was the sixth of the season for the Irish. Kyle Lawson picked up an assist as he put Condra and Deeth ahead on the 2-on-1.
The Tigers weren’t done though as they would cut the lead to 3-2 at 12:36 when Fedun broke in from his defensive spot on the right point and took a pass out of the corner from Lee Jubinville. The freshman defenseman beat Pearce from the bottom of the right circle for his first collegiate goal.
The Irish were able to nurse the one-goal lead until the 18:17 mark when Van Guilder cleared the puck down the ice. Ryan beat Princeton’s defense to the puck inside the blue line and was able to chip it over Zalemba to make it 4-2 for his fifth goal of the season.
Notre Dame out shot Princeton, 32-19, in the game. Pearce finished with 17 saves on the night while Zalemba had 28 for the Tigers.
The Irish were 0-for-4 on the power play while the Tigers were 1-for-4.
The two teams will meet again on Saturday night to close out the series. Game time at Hobey Baker Memorial Arena is 7:05 p.m.
IRISH NOTES:
* Erik Condra’s third short-handed goal of the season is the most by a Notre Dame player since the 1997-98 season when Dan Carlson, Benoit Cotnoir and Ben Simon each had three shorties on the year.
* Friday night’s game marked the halfway point of the season for the Irish as they are now 15-4-0 on the year. After 19 games in 2006-07, Notre Dame was 15-3-1.
* Defenseman Kyle Lawson extended his point streak to six games with an assist on Condra’s short-handed goal. He has one goal and six assists for seven points in the streak. That six-game streak equals his career-best streak set last season.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - F#6/#6 Notre Dame (15-4-0) 1 1 2 - 4Princeton (5-6-0) 1 0 1 - 2
Scoring First Period: PR: Erik Pridham 1 (Kevin Kaiser, Jody Pederson), PPG, 11:28; ND: Garrett Regan 5 (Mark Van Guilder), 14:41. Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; Princeton: 0 for 0 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Justin White 3 (Brett Blatchford, Calle Ridderwall), 18:29. Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; Princeton: 1 for 2 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Erik Condra 8 (Kevin Deeth,Kyle Lawson), SHG, 4:32; PR; Taylor Fedun 1 (Lee Jubinville, Kevin Lohry), 12:29; ND: Ben Ryan 5 (Van Guilder), 18:17 Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; Princeton: 2 for 4 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 13 - 14 - 5 - 32Princeton 10 - 3 - 6 - 19
Goaltender Saves:ND - Jordan Pearce (59:54) 9 - 3 - 5 - 17PR - Zane Kalemba (59:06) 12 - 13 - 3 - 28
Power Plays:ND: 0 for 4PR: 1 for 4
Attendance: 2,157