The Dartmouth Men's Hockey Team Jumps Into 2006-07 with Games Against Harvard and Vermont

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men's hockey team kicks the new season off with a bang, hosting Harvard on Friday at 7:00 p.m. and then Vermont on Sunday at 7:00 p.m. The Big Green have played just two preseason games prior to this weekend.

SCOUTING HARVARD
Harvard comes into Thompson ranked 11th and 12th in the nation in both major Division I college hockey preseason polls. The Crimson was picked by both the league's coaches and the media to finish second in the ECAC Hockey League.
The Crimson is coming off a 21-12-2 campaign in 2005-06 when Harvard advanced to the NCAA tournament for the fifth straight year. Led by senior All-America candidates Dylan Reese and Kevin Du, the Crimson returns 21 letterwinners and four 20-point scorers.
Last weekend Reese began his tenure as the captain of this year's Harvard squad with a goal and an assist as the Crimson overcame 16 penalties and a 55-save performance by the Prince Edward Island goalie to record a 4-3 win in the exhibition contest.

VS. HARVARD
Harvard leads the series 120-53-8 with the Crimson taking two of three last season. Harvard won the first meeting of 2005-06, 6-2. The Big Green rebounded with a 5-1 win at home in December with the Crimson winning 10-1 in the ECACHL semifinal game in Albany.

SCOUTING VERMONT
The University of Vermont is off to a 2-2-1 start to the season after losing two games to Michigan Tech last weekend. The Cats won a 6-0 contest to ECACHL rival Colgate to start the season and then earned a 4-1 victory over Miami before tying Northeastern, 2-2.
Two sophomores and a junior are currently leading the Catamounts in scoring. Dean Strong, Corey Carlson and Torrey Mitchell have five points apiece.
In goal, Joe Fallon has appeared in all five games. He has a .926 save percentage and a 1.71 goals against average with a 2-1-1 record.

VS. VERMONT
Vermont leads the series 42-23-4 and has won the last three meetings. Last season the Catamounts pulled out a 1-0 victory in the first round of its TD Banknorth/Sheraton tournament. Dartmouth's last victory came on March 11, 2005 when the Big Green won 3-2 in the first round of the ECACHL Quarterfinals held in Burlington.

LET'S GET IT STARTED
Dartmouth opens up the 2006-07 season at home. The last time the Big Green began its season in Thompson Arena was 2004-05 against Quinnipiac. Dartmouth is 66-30-3 in its home openers and is 31-20-2 when opening up on the road. Under the tutelage of Bob Gaudet, the Big Green has gone 5-4 in the first game of the year.

Gaudet's Opening Games
10/31/97 vs. Army (W, 7-1)
11/8/98 vs. Niagara (W, 8-5)
11/5/99 at Harvard (L, 2-7)
11/3/00 at Western Michigan (L, 0-5)
11/4/01 at Harvard (L, 2-5)
11/2/02 vs. Wayne State (W, 5-3)
11/1/03 vs. Holy Cross (W, 2-1)
10/30/04 vs. Quinnipiac (W, 3-1)
10/29/05 at Harvard (L, 2-6)

A LITTLE PRESEASON ACTION
Dartmouth won two preseason games last weekend, scoring 15 goals while giving up just five. The Big Green defeated Prince Edward, 8-1, before downing Trois-Rivieres, 7-4.

A LITTLE MORE PRESEASON ACTION
Nine different Big Green players scored goals in the two preseason games. Dartmouth scored 10 power play goals on the weekend.

LAST PRESEASON ACTION
Junior Nick Johnson and freshman T.J. Galiardi led the team in scoring with five points apiece while sophomore Connor Shields had four points including a hat trick on Sunday.

GETTING STINGY
Dartmouth posted a 2.79 goals against average last season. The Big Green has started the 2006-07 season off playing great defense once again. The two exhibition teams last weekend managed just five goals.

MORE STINGY
Dartmouth ranked 13th nationally in 2005-06 in penalty killing, stopping 33 of 178 power play chances.

SO LONG, FAREWELL
Dartmouth lost five players from last year's squad to graduation. A key loss to the Big Green will be All-America Mike Ouellette. Ouellette was Dartmouth's leading scorer last season with 37 points.

NEWCOMERS
Dartmouth adds eight newcomers to the 2006-07 roster.

FORWARDS
T.J. Galiardi (Calgary, Alta. - Calgary Royals)
* 2005-2006 Stats: 56 GP - 19 G, 37 A, 56 Pts.
Joe Gaudet (Hanover, N.H. - N.H. Junior Monarchs)
* 2005-2006 Stats: 42 GP - 16 G, 19 A, 35 Pts.
Josh Gillam (Peterborough, Ont. - Peterborough Stars)
* 2005-2005 Stats: 53 GP - 50 G, 54 A, 104 Pts.
Rob Smith (Brooks, Alta. - Calgary Canucks)
* 2005-06 Stats: 56 GP – 17 G, 19 A, 36 pts.
DEFENSE
Peter Boldt (Greenwich, Conn. - Sodertalje, Sweden)
* 2005-2006 Stats: 46 GP - 3 G, 7 A, 10 Pts.
Kevin McCarthy (Stoneham, Mass. - Phillips Exeter)
* 2005-06 Stats: 29 GP – 15 G, 20 A, 35 Pts.
Harry Taylor (Toronto, Ont. - Saint Michaels Buzzers)
* 2005-06 Stats: 70 GP – 3 G, 27 A, 30 pts.
GOALIE
Joe Grossman (Foxboro, Mass. - Waterloo Blackhawks)
* 2005-06 Stats: 43 GP – 3.13 GAA, .890 S%.

VICTORIOUS
Head Coach Bob Gaudet begins his 10th season with the Big Green. In 2004-05 Gaudet reached a career milestone, garnering his 100th Dartmouth and his 200th overall win. His career numbers stand at 133-123-34 and 226-265-65. Gaudet's first win at Dartmouth came in his first game, a 7-1 victory over Army Oct. 31, 1997.

PROMOTIONS
For the Harvard game on Friday, Oct. 27 the first 2,500 fans will receive a novelty puck courtesy of Irving Oil. Then on Sunday, Oct. 29 for the Vermont game the first 1,000 through the door will receive seat cushions courtesy of Unicel.

STRAIGHT UP
The 2005-06 season marked the fifth straight that Dartmouth played more than 30 games with 33. The former record of 34 games in one season was broken in 2004-05 when the Big Green had 35 games.

FACE TIME
Last season Mike Ouellette and Eric Przepiorka were the Big Green's key faceoff men leaving big holes for Dartmouth to fill. The two combined for 690 of 1,240 faceoffs. In the preseason games this season between four and five guys were in the faceoff circle for the Big Green.

DEVINE AND CONQUER
Junior Mike Devine earned two shutouts last season with an 18-8-2 record. Devine helped Dartmouth to its first ECACHL title going 12-4-2 after winning the starting job in mid December.

COUNTING DOWN
Senior Tanner Glass needs just eight games to have played in 100.

BETWEEN THE PIPES
Three Dartmouth netminders will be vying for time in goal. Junior Mike Devine will get the nod early but will be pushed by sophomore Dan Goulding and freshman Joe Grossman. Devine played in 30 games in 2006-07 with a final .915 save percentage and a 2.32 goals against average. Devine was 18-8-2 last year.

CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN
Senior forward Tanner Glass has been selected as the 2006-07 Big Green captain. Joining Glass as the assistant captain is junior David Jones. Glass will be the 115th captain in Dartmouth men's hockey history.

RADIO
Once again the 2006-07 season will showcase the Dartmouth men's hockey team on the radio. All Big Green games can be accessed through the Dartmouth Sports Network at www.dartmouth.edu/~brdcast/sports/.

TELEVISION SCHEDULE
Dartmouth will make a minimum of six appearances on television this season. The Big Green will be on CN8, CSTV, WMUR channel 9 (local New Hampshire ABC affiliate) and ESPNU.
CN8 is part of The Comcast Network which will launch throughout New Hampshire on November 7. The Vermont game can be viewed on Channel 74 and once launched will move to Channel 18. CN8 currently has a viewing area of over nine million customers and can be watched live on CN8.com.

A NEW LOOK
Along with televised games this season Dartmouth athletics also has a new look. The official Big Green athletics site underwent revamping over the summer and can now be found at DartmouthSports.com. One of the services provided on the new website is the opportunity to become a Big Green Insider which will allow fans full access to Dartmouth athletics and everything Big Green Insider has to offer: live and on-demand events, coach and player interviews, game previews, and press conferences. There will be more than 100 live events and more than 300 events available on-demand in 2006-07. Subscriptions run on a yearly or monthly basis.

COMMISSIONERS' CUP SERIES
For the third year in a row Commissioners from the nation's six Division I ice hockey conferences announced a 33-game series to be played among the conferences throughout the 2006-07 season. This year the game on Jan. 16 against Holy Cross will be the Big Green's Commissioners' Cup contest. The ECACHL has won the first two Cups.

FEELIN' DRAFTY
The Dartmouth men's hockey team currently has five drafted players on its roster. Senior forward Tanner Glass (Florida Panthers), senior defenseman Grant Lewis (Atlanta Thrashers) and junior forwards J.T. Wyman (Montreal Canadiens), Nick Johnson (Pittsburgh Penguins) and David Jones (Colorado Avalanche). Lewis will be the highest recruited player in the ECAC Hockey Leauge for 2006-07. He was a second round pick in the 2004 Entry Draft.

NHL NOTABLES
Former Dartmouth players are making names for themselves in the National Hockey League. Lee Stempniak '05 signed a contract with the St. Louis Blues after graduating in 2005. Stempniak is currently leading the Blues in scoring and has played in every game so far this season. Hugh Jessiman '06 is still with the Hartford Wolfpack after signing a contract with the New York Rangers in 2005. Mike Ouellette '06 is with the Charlotte Checkers of the ECHL.

Schedules