Dartmouth Men's Hockey Opens up 2007-08 Season

10/26/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. ? The Dartmouth men's hockey team travels to Burlington, Vt. to play against the University of Vermont this weekend. Sunday's game at Gutterson Field House begins at 4:00 pm. Last season the Big Green were victorious over the Catamounts, 3-2, at Dartmouth's Thompson Arena. The game can be heard on the Dartmouth Sports Network - http://www.dartmouthsportsradio.net/.

The game can also be watched on B2 Networks.

SCOUTING VERMONT
Vermont opened Hockey East action last weekend in a 3-3 tie with No. 4 Boston College (1-1-0). Prior to that game the Catamounts opened up the season with a pair of losses at No. 2 Miami. Vermont is coached by Kevin Sneddon in fifth year. The Harvard alum has a career record of 116-165-37 in nine seasons while having a 66-68-20 record behind the bench of the Catamounts. Currently UVM has four NHL draftees on its roster as two seniors, a sophomore and freshmen have all been drafted. Offensively junior Peter Lenes leads his squad with three points, two goals and one assist. Classmate Dean Strong has added one goals and an assist in three games this season for the Cats. Defensively Vermont, ranked second in the country with a 2.00 goals against average last year, has seen senior goalie Joe Fallon give up nine goals against in three games for a 2.95 GAA. Fallon boasts a .907 save percentage as he has stopped 88 shots. He enters his senior season with 17 career shutouts and has a 1.97 career goals against average. Vermont was picked to finish fifth in the 2007-08 Hockey East Preseason Coaches' Poll. UVM and Massachusetts both received 54 points to tie for fifth place in the poll. The Cats completed the 2006-07 season at 18-16-5 and 12-10-5 in Hockey East play to finish in a fifth-place tie in the conference. The Catamounts had three victories against teams that eventually made the 2007 Frozen Four including a pair of victories against national runner-up Boston College. In all, the Catamounts faced half of the 2007 NCAA Tournament field during the regular season meeting eight of the 16 participants.

VS. VERMONT
This will be the 71st meeting between Vermont and Dartmouth. The Catamounts hold the series lead, 42-24-4, as Dartmouth started the series off with two wins in 1931 and 1932. Recently the Big Green defeated Vermont, 3-2 in Hanover on Oct. 29, 2007. The two teams are tied with five wins over the last 10 games while Coach Gaudet's teams have gone 11-10-4 against Kevin Sneddon's squad since Gaudet took over the coaching reins at his alma mater.

HIGH SCORERS
Only two current UVM players have scored points in the series against the Big Green. Dean Strong is the high scorer with both goals in Dartmouth's 3-2 win last season. Slavomir Tomko has also notched a goal. For the Big Green four players have recorded assists. J.T. Wyman, John Gibson, Connor Shields and Nick Johnson have all lit the lamp.

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 is slated to make five appearances on television this season. The Big Green will be seen on CN8, WMUR Channel 9 (local New Hampshire ABC affiliate), ESPNU and NESN.

LET'S GET IT STARTED
Dartmouth opens up the 2007-08 season on the road. The last time the Big Green began its season away from the friendly confines of Thompson Arena was 2005-06 against Harvard. Dartmouth is 67-30-3 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 6-4 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)
10/27/06 vs. Harvard (W, 5-2)

UP NEXT
Next weekend the Big Green jumps right into the thick of things, traveling to St. Lawrence and Clarkson. Dartmouth matches up with the Saints on Friday at 7:00 before taking on the Knights, Saturday at 7:00. Currently Clarkson boasts a 3-1 overall record, 1-0 in ECAC Hockey while SLU is 2-2, 0-1 in the league.

IT'S FINALLY HERE
Because of Ivy League rules that state men's hockey teams cannot begin practicing prior to Oct. 12 and can begin play of regular season games on Oct. 26, this will be the first real game for Dartmouth. The game against UVM will take place exactly three weeks and two days after the first regular season ECAC games of the season, which were played on Oct. 7.

STINGY
Dartmouth posted a 2.82 goals against average last season. The Big Green scored 296 points to its opponents 262.

IVY TITLE
Dartmouth and Yale both earned a share of the 2006-07 Ivy title. It was the first Ivy title for Dartmouth since 1980.

EVERYONE LOVES A WINNER
With its 18-12-2 record last season the Big Green finished with a winning record for the seventh year in a row. The 18 wins is third most for head coach Bob Gaudet since he took over coaching duties in the 1997-98 season.

VICTORIOUS
Head Coach Bob Gaudet begins his 11th season with the Big Green, going for his 250th career win. In 2004-05 Gaudet reached a career milestone, garnering his 100th Dartmouth and his 200th overall win. His career numbers stand at 244-277-68 while he's 151-135-37 at Dartmouth. Gaudet's first win at Dartmouth came in his first game, a 7-1 victory over Army Oct. 31, 1997.

STRAIGHT UP
The 2006-07 season marked the sixth 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.

HOME AND AWAY
Dartmouth finished 2006-07 with a 12-5-2 record at home, a 6-4-1 record on the road and was 0-3-0 at neutral sites.

CLOSING IN
Senior Nick Johnson is closing in on 100 points. Johnson has 92 career points in 101 career games. He is Dartmouth's leading returning scorer as he was third last season with 30 points.

IN THE NICK OF TIME
Nick Johnson finished the 2006-07 season strong, notching 22 points in 19 games. His longest scoring streak was four games which he did twice.

SHOOTING HIGH
In 2005-06 Dartmouth outshot its opponents 1,152 to 907. While in 2006-07 the opponents were the big shooters, recording 1, 021 to the Big Green's 962.

FEEL THE POWER LATE
Of Dartmouth's 35 power play goals last year, 22 were scored midway-to-late in the game. The Big Green notched 11 extra-man goals in the second period and 11 in the third.

FIRST SCORE WINS
Dartmouth was 1-10 when its opponent scored the first goal last year.

ALL HIS TIME IN NET
Senior goalie Mike Devine has been the Big Green's starter for the past two season. On Jan. 19, 2007 freshman netminder Joe Grossman was given the nod, breaking Devine's and one of the nation's longest starting streaks by a goalie. Devine had started every game since Dec. 16, 2005, 38 in all.

CALGARY CONNECTION
The Big Green has five players from the province of Alberta. Senior Nick Johnson and Jon Grecu hail from Calgary while Connor Shields is from Edmonton, Rob Smith is from Brooks and John Gibson is from Okotoks. The Dartmouth players from that Canadian province scored 64 points last season.

JUST NUMBERS
Connor Shields scored the first goal of the 2007-08 season at 2:47 in the first period on Oct. 20 in an exhibition game against York University.

THE SCORING GOALIE
Mike Devine was credited with an assist on Jan. 20, 2007 against Sacred Heart. Devine has notched two assists the last two seasons.

ALL IN THE FAMILY
The Big Green have several players on the team who have had relatives attend Dartmouth. Nick Johnson is a sixth generation attendee of Dartmouth; his parents, uncle, grandfather and great uncles all graduated from Dartmouth. Nick's father played hockey for the Big Green and was the team's leading scorer in 1977 and his uncle was the team captain in 1973, his mother was a member of Dartmouth's alpine ski team. Chris Johnson's father graduated from Dartmouth in 1975. Peter Boldt's grandfather, two sisters and two cousins attended Dartmouth with cousin Jennifer playing women's volleyball. Joe Gaudet is head coach Bob Gaudet's eldest son. Both of Joe's parents attended Dartmouth and his younger brother Jim has deferred his admission to Dartmouth for one year, joining his big brother for the 2008-09 season.

CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN
Senior forward Nick Johnson has been selected as the 2007-08 Big Green captain. Joining Johnson as the assistant captains are classmates Mike Devine and J.T. Wyman along with junior Rob Pritchard. Johnson is the 116th captain in Dartmouth men's hockey history.

OH TO BE YOUNG AGAIN
Of the 27 players on the Dartmouth roster this season, 16 are underclassmen. The Big Green has seven sophomores and nine freshmen.

ROSTER BREAKDOWN
The 2007-08 Dartmouth roster features five seniors, six juniors, seven sophomores and nine freshmen. This season's Big Green hail from 11 states and four Canadian provinces.

Alberta (5): Jon Grecu, Connor Shields, Rob Smith, Nick Johnson, John Gibson
Massachusetts (2): Kevin McCarthy, Joe Grossman
Minnesota (6): Chris Johnson, J.T. Wyman, Brandon Harrington, Matt Reber, Adam Estoclet, Joe Stejskal
New Hampshire (1): Joe Gaudet
Ontario (4): Harry Taylor, Josh Gillam, Dan Goulding, Scott Fleming
British Columbia (1): Rob Pritchard
Connecticut (2): Peter Boldt, Jonathan Wolter
Michigan (1): Evan Stephens
New York (2): Mike Devine, Dan Markowitz
Missouri (1): Kyle Reeds
Saskatchewan (1): Andrew Owsiak
Vermont (1): Will Boardman

NEWCOMERS
Dartmouth adds nine newcomers to the 2007-08 roster.

FORWARDS
Adam Estoclet (Orono, Minn. - Benilde-St. Margaret's School)
* 2006-2007 Stats: 27 GP - 32 G, 37 A, 69 Pts.
Scott Fleming (Plainfield, Ont. - Wellington Dukes)
* 2006-2007 Stats: 48 GP - 28 G, 40 A, 68 Pts.
Andrew Owsiak (Moose Jaw, Sask. - Okotoks Oilers)
* 2006-2007 Stats: 60 GP - 30 G, 31 A, 61 Pts.
Matt Reber (Edina, Minn. - Edina High School)
* 2006-2007 Stats: 31 GP - 28 G, 38 A, 66 Pts.
Kyle Reeds (St. Louis, Mo. - Waterloo Blackhawks)
* 2006-2007 Stats: 51 GP - 23 G, 22 A, 45 Pts.

DEFENSE
Dan Markowitz (Jericho, N.Y. - Tri-City Storm/Ohio Junior Black Hawks)
* 2006-2007 Stats: 31 GP - 0 G, 1 A, 1 Pts.
Joe Stejskal (Grand Rapids, Minn. - Grand Rapids High School)
* 2006-2007 Stats: 31 GP - 14 G, 31 A, 45 Pts.
Jonathan Wolter (Branford, Conn. - Boston Junior Bruins)
* 2006-2007 Stats: 33 GP - 9 G, 19 A, 28 Pts.
Evan Stephens (Bessemer, Mich. - Cedar Rapids Roughriders)
* 2006-2007 Stats: 31 GP - 28 G, 38 A, 66 Pts.

SO LONG, FAREWELL
Dartmouth lost eight players from last year's squad. Five graduated and three left school. A key loss to the Big Green will be All-America David Jones. Jones was Dartmouth's leading scorer last season with 44 points. He decided to forego his senior season and sign a contract with the Colorado Avalanche. Key losses on the blue line are Ben Lovejoy, Grant Lewis and Mike Hartwick along with forwards Tanner Glass and Dan Shribman. T.J. Galiardi signed with Colorado and Kevin Swallow transferred to the University of Maine.

MORE FAREWELL
The Big Green lost 148 points, including 55 goals, from the departed quintet of David Jones, T.J. Galiardi, Tanner Glass, Ben Lovejoy and Kevin Swallow.

DARTMOUTH'S NHL STAR
In his third NHL season, Stempniak is fourth on the team with six points (1g, 5a). Last season he set a career-high seven game point streak from Dec. 26-Jan. 9, registering eight points (three goals, five assists) over the span. Stempniak played in his 100th career NHL game on Jan. 10, 2007 at New Jersey. Over the summer he inked a four-year, seven milllion dollar deal.

BIG GREEN IN THE PROS
There are several former Dartmouth men's hockey players who are playing professional hockey. Listed are the players and their stats to this point in the season.

Trevor Byrne '03 Iowa Stars 8 GP, 0-2-2
Tanner Glass '07 Rochester Americans 7 GP, 1-0-1
Mike Hartwick '07 Charlotte Checkers 1 GP, 0-0-0
Hugh Jessiman '06 Hartford Wolfpack 6 GP, 0-3-3
David Jones '08 Lake Erie Monsters 7 GP, 1-2-3
Grant Lewis '07 Chicago Wolves 1 GP, 0-0-0
Ben Lovejoy '07 WB-Scranton Penguins 5 GP, 0-0-0
Mike Ouellette '06 Charlotte Checkers 3 GP, 1-2-3
Eric Przepiorka '06 Youngstown Steelhounds 2 GP, 1-0-1
Lee Stempniak '05 St. Louis Blues 7 GP, 1-5-6

BIG GREEN WALLPAPER AND RING TONES
Dartmouth fans can now get wallpaper to put on their computer screens and mobile phones along with select ring tones. Fans can also become Big Green Insiders which allows them to view coaches shows, games and postgame press conferences. All this and much more can be found at www.DartmouthSports.com.