Nov. 3, 2006
Columbus, Ohio – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team is ready to play at home soon, but who can argue their success on the road this season.
On Friday night at the Value City Arena, the tenth-ranked Irish ran off their fifth straight win away from home as they jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead and took a 4-2 win over Ohio State in the CCHA opener for Notre Dame.
The Irish got single goals from Erik Condra, Christian Hanson, Mark Van Guilder and Jason Paige while red-hot goaltender David Brown stopped 22-of-24 Buckeye shots in the win. Tommy Goebel and Andrew Schembri scored second-period goals for the Buckeyes.
The victory improves Notre Dame to 6-1-0 overall and 1-0-0 in the CCHA. Ohio State falls to 2-5-0 on the year and 2-3-0 in conference play.
“The CCHA is a tough league and it’s great to get that first win,” said Irish head coach Jeff Jackson. “Most of our guys understand the importance of these games when you are playing for points. They saw how close things ended up last year, so it’s good to get off to the strong start overall and in the league.
The 6-1-0 start is the best for the Irish since starting the 1998-99 season with a 6-1-0 record while the five-game winning streak is the first for Notre Dame since opening that season with six straight wins. The Irish have also now won five straight away from the Joyce Center for the first time since the 1987-88 season.
Notre Dame broke out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Condra and Hanson.
Condra knocked down a pass from Brett Blatchford in the left wing circle and snapped a shot off the blocker of Ohio State starter Nick Filion at 8:54. The goal was Condra’s second of the season.
Hanson made it 2-0 at 16:16 off strong cycling by linemates Justin White and Michael Bartlett. White left the puck behind the net and the sophomore center was able to wrap it inside the right post for his third goal of the season and third in as many games.
Freshman goaltender Joe Palmer replaced Filion to start the second period for Ohio State and the Irish greeted him with a goal at 1:52.
Van Guilder beat the freshman in close off strong cycling by linemates Josh Sciba and T.J. Jindra for his sixth goal of the season.
From there, the pace of the game slowed down as Ohio State worked its way back into the game. Goebel cut the Notre Dame lead to 3-1 when his shot from the bottom of the left-wing circle went off defenseman Wes O’Neill’s skate and past Brown at 5:11 of the middle period.
The goal was Goebel’s third of the season and snapped Notre Dame’s shutout streak at 180:14 and Brown’s personal streak at 120:14.
Schembri cut the lead to 3-2 at 16:23 when he scored his second of the season off a Mathieu Picard assist.
“The game became very methodical in the second period,” said Jackson. “It became more of a cycling game. We’ve been playing up-tempo this season, but for some reason we got away from that tonight.”
With Brown playing strong in goal, the Irish were able to hold off Ohio State and got the insurance goal they would need at 8:29 of the third period when Paige deflected a Josh Sciba shot from the right wing boards under Palmer for his third goal of the year to give Notre Dame the 4-2 final score.
Notre Dame out shot Ohio State in the game by a 30-24 margin. Filion made 11 saves in the first period while Palmer finished with 15 saves over the final two periods.
The game featured just three penalties with the Irish getting whistled for one minor and Ohio State two. The Irish have now killed off 18 straight opponent power-play chances and haven’t given up a man-advantage goal since the Boston College game.
The two teams close out the weekend series on Saturday with a 7:05 p.m. game at the Value City Arena.
IRISH NOTES:
** After only winning once in 17 games dating back to 2000-01 versus Ohio State, Notre Dame has now won two in a row against the Buckeyes with both wins coming at Value City Arena.
** The Irish close out their seven-game road swing on Saturday night. They are now 5-1-0 on the road this season. A year ago, Notre Dame was 6-8-3 away from the Joyce Center.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 3 - FNotre Dame (6-1-0/1-0-0) 2 1 1 - 4Ohio State (2-5-0/2-3-0) 0 2 0 - 2
Scoring
First Period: ND: Erik Condra 2 (Brett Blatchford, Kevin Deeth), 8:54; ND: Christian Hanson 3 (Justin White, Michael Bartlett), 16:16.
Penalties: ND: 1 for 2 minutes; OSU: 0 for 0 minutes.
Second Period: ND: Mark Van Guilder 6 (Josh Sciba, T.J. Jindra), 1:52; OSU: Tommy Goebel 3 (Johann Kroll, John Dingle), 5:12; OSU: Andrew Schembri 2 (Mathieu Picard), 16:23.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; OSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Jason Paige 3 (Sciba, Van Guilder), PPG, 8:29.
Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; OSU: 1 for 2 minutes.
Shots On Goal:
Notre Dame 13 - 10 - 7 - 30
Ohio State 6 - 10 - 8 - 24
Goaltender Saves:
ND - David Brown (60:00) 6 - 8 - 8 - 22
OSU - Nick Filion (20:00) 11 - x - x - 11
Joseph Palmer (38:42 x - 8 - 6 - 14
Power Plays:
ND: 1 for 2
OSU: 0 for 1
Attendance: 5,200