Irish coach Bobby Clark thought his team would benefit from playing right away after their second loss of the season to Rutgers Saturday.
He probably didn't count on senior Devon Prescod recording the first Irish hat trick in nine years to ensure that the Irish bounced back.
The Irish (8-2-3, 3-2-1 in the Big East) began a four-game road trip with a 6-0 shutout of a struggling Cleveland State (6-8) team Tuesday night.
Prescod led the Irish attack with his first career hat trick. His three-goal performance was the first by a Notre Dame player since Konstantin Koloskov did it against LaSalle on Sept. 24, 1994.
"At some point, I realized it was a possibility," Prescod said concerning his chance at a hat trick. "It wasn't necessarily my intent, but the opportunity presented itself."
Prescod was surprised to find out that there had been such a gap since the last Notre Dame hat trick.
"It really surprised me," he said. "Out of all the talented people I've played with here over the years I would have thought one of them might have already done it."
Notre Dame dominated ball control and pushed the ball in a relentless fashion, drawing 14 offsides calls. The Irish fired 19 shots, putting 16 of them (84 percent) on goal. Cleveland State got off just six shots.
Prescod opened the game's scoring at the 25:45 mark, heading in a cross hit by senior midfielder Chad Riley. Riley has eight assists on the season.
Senior forward Justin Detter then scored his fifth goal of the season less than four minutes later off an assist from senior defenseman Kevin Richards. Prescod headed another ball in just before halftime to make the score at the halfway mark 3-0.
In the second half, Notre Dame maintained the same tempo and scored the same amount of goals.
Senior midfielder Greg Martin tallied his third of the season 13 minutes into the half, and Detter notched his sixth score of the year -and second of the game - five minutes later on a breakaway.
Prescod completed his hat trick at the 71-minute mark off an assist from senior midfielder Filippo Chillemi.
Nineteen different Notre Dame players saw action Tuesday night, including sophomore Justin Michaud, sophomore Ben Crouse, junior Christopher High and senior Roger Klauer.
Michaud and junior Chris Sawyer combined for two saves in net and the seventh shutout of the season for the Irish.
It was the first time that the Irish have scored six goals in a game under Clark.
"That was a game where we really wanted to kind of come back and show that we'd learned from the Rutgers loss," Prescod said. "We sort of went into the game with a no-holding-back attitude."
Notre Dame's next road test comes in a Big East matchup with Connecticut at 7 p.m. on Saturday.