Dartmouth Men's Hockey Loses Heartbreaker to Vermont, 2-1

March 13, 2005

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BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Dartmouth men's hockey (20-13-2) saw a stellar season potentially wrap up in a 2-1 loss to Vermont (21-12-4) in the final game of a three-game series to determine the fourth and final spot in the ECACHL Championship round next weekend. The Catamounts will now meet Cornell who captured the No. 1 seed. Dartmouth still sits on the bubble for an NCAA Tournament bid.

"It was a great game and a great series," said head coach Bob Gaudet. "It's tough to lose this way but a couple of bad breaks, penalties and missed opportunities didn't help us much. This is a terrific, highly skilled team and I'm very proud of the way they've worked all year."

With a five-on-three opportunity at 13:55 of the first period the Vermont Catamounts struck first. Jaime Sifers hit the post that wrapped around the twine putting the 'Cats up 1-0. Scott Mifsud and Kenny Macaulay also assisted on the goal.

Dartmouth had its own five-on-three opportunity in the waning minutes of the stanza but Vermont was able to kill it. With 2:00 to go the Big Green went on another power play but was unable to produce the equalizer. Vermont went into the intermission the leader on the scoreboard, 1-0. The Big Green outshot Vermont by a very slim margin while the Catamounts killed five Dartmouth power play chances.

A breakaway and pass from Jarrett Sampson (Prince Albert, Sask.) to Eric Przepiorka (Grosse Point, Mich.) gave Dartmouth the equalizer at 2:00 into the final 20 minutes.

Another power play goal by Vermont at 13:28 gave the Catamounts the one-goal lead right back and effectively closed the door on the Big Green. Mark Lutz shot high on Yacey who had come out of the net to try and make the save but saw the puck go sailing over his shoulder.

Yacey finished with 24 saves and saw his 2004-05 record fall to 14-9-1 while Joe Fallon improved to 17-8-4 and made 24 saves in the win.

Dartmouth's All-America candidate Lee Stempniak was held off the scoresheet in what could effectively be his last game in a Dartmouth uniform. Stempniak has played a stellar four-year campaign for the Big Green as he is has played in134 career games with 151 points.

The power play did the Big Green in as Vermont neutralized 19 Dartmouth power play chances in the three-game series.

"Our chances were there and we struggled to make anything happen," Gaudet said. "We know our power play unit is very good, it's been all year, but that's the way the game goes."

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