Box Score
TAMPA, Fla. – Notre Dame scored twice in the first period and junior netminder Jordan Pearce (19 saves) made the goals stand as the No. 6 Fighting Irish defeated the No. 17 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men’s hockey team, 3-1, in the third place game of the Lightning College Hockey Classic at the St. Pete Times Forum.
Notre Dame opened a 2-0 lead on goals by linemates Erik Condra (Livonia, MI/Lincoln Stars) and Ryan Thang (Edina, MN/Lincoln Stars). Condra, a junior, put the Irish ahead 1-0 when he finished a 2-on-1 with Thang just 1:04 into the contest. Thang, a sophomore, made it a two goal advantage for Notre Dame when he swept home his own rebound from outside the crease midway through the stanza.
RPI’s Kurt Colling (Ripley, ON/Vernon Vipers) cut the Engineers’ deficit in half when he slipped the puck past Pearce (Anchorage, AK/Lincoln Stars) with 5:59 left in the opening period. Freshman Ben Contini (Toronto, ON/North York Rangers) earned the only assist on the goal, Colling’s first, which was a power play marker.
Rensselaer had several other opportunities to score in the first period as Jake Morissette (Fruitvale, BC/Williams Lake Timberwolves) and Tyler Helfrich (Calgary, AB/Prince George Spruce Kings) both hit posts and Andrei Uryadov (St. Petersburg, Russia/South Kent School) had a shot slip through Pearce but go wide.
Neither team could find the back of the net despite numerous power play opportunities. The Engineers were 0-for-4, including an extended 5-on-3 advantage. The Fighting Irish were 0-for-2. They had an 18 second two-man advantage.
Evan Rankin (Portage, MI/Lincoln Stars) added an empty net goal for the final margin.
RPI’s Mathias Lange (Klagenfurt, Austria/New York Apple Core), who was named to the All-Tournament Team, finished with 17 saves in the loss. Pearce stopped four shots in the first period, 11 in the second and four in the third period.
Rensselaer returns to the ice next Sunday when it travels to Portland, Maine, to face the Black Bears at the Cumberland County Civic Center (2pm). Notre Dame is at league foe Northern Michigan for a pair of games next weekend.
