Dartmouth Men's Hockey Falls to League-Leading Yale

Saturday, February 7

New Haven, Conn.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Yale

Dartmouth Men's Hockey Falls to League-Leading Yale

2/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - In an extremely heated match theNo. 19 Dartmouth men's hockey team played No. 14 Yale University tight but it was the Bulldogs that was able to come out on top, winning 3-1 in a battle of top ECAC teams. The Big Green falls to 12-8-3 overall, 9-5-2 in the league while the Bulldogs improve to 17-5-1, 12-3-1.

A 1-0 lead by Dartmouth after the first period did not hold up as Yale notched the tying goal early in the second and then pulled ahead late in the same period.

Early in the first, Dartmouth pressured with five shots on net. Adam Estoclet (Orono, Minn.) took a shot immediately off the faceoff as the rebound came out to Connor Shields (Edmonton, Alta.) whose shot went just high over the crossbar. Evan Stephens (Bessemer, Mich.) had a great look at the net as his shot through traffic was saved to the side by netminder Alec Richards. Yale did not record its first shot on goal until 3:00 into the contest.

The Big Green had its first power play opportunity at 13:06 in the first, generating just one shot on the chance as the Bulldog penalty killers were up to the task.

Yale garnered its first extra-man chance at 10:29 but this time it ws Dartmouth that was able to kill off the opportunity.

The Big Green almost got the first goal of the game when Scott Fleming (Plainfield, Ont.) and Rob Pritchard (Burnaby, B.C.) tried to team up but the shot went just wide. The Elis got the rebound and came down the other way with a terrific shot on goalie Jody O'Neill (Nepean, Ont.) that the rookie saved but a penalty on Dartmouth gave Yale its second power play of the game.

With its own extra-man opportunity Fleming recorded two shots on net but was unable to find the back of the net but another penalty on the Bulldogs gave the Big Green a 5-on-3 that Joe Stejskal (Grand Rapids, Minn.) capitalized on with a slap shot from the point that gave Dartmouth a 1-0 lead. Linemate Stephens along with Pritchard assisted on the play.

The Big Green tried to extend its lead as the Elis still had a man in the box. Shots by Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) and Estoclet put tremendous pressure on Richards but the senior was up to the task as he prevented no more goals in the period.

Yale tied the game up at 13:39 in the second off a slapshot by Denny Kearney that sailed over O'Neill. The Bulldogs kept the pressure up as the puck stayed in the Dartmouth end for most of the period.

At 3:11 of the second the Bulldogs took the lead when a penalty was called on the Big Green but the Elis still controlled the puck. Brendan Mason brought the puck behind the net passing to Matt Nelson on the left side of the net. Nelson just barely pucked the puck over the line between O'Neill's skate at the post.

Early in the final period of play Josh Gillam (Peterborough, Ont.) was robbed by Richards for the tying goal as the Yale netminder made a diving catch to prevent Gillam's shot from going into the net.

Fleming had the tying goal in his sights as he was going in one-on-one with Richards but was brought down from behind by Yale's Ken Trentowski resulting in Dartmouth's fourth power play chance of the evening. Sean Backman scored the empty net goal for Yale with :20 left in the game.

O'Neill finished the contest with 41 saves while Richards recorded 35.

The Big Green will be back in action next weekend with a pair of home contests. Dartmouth will welcome Cornell and Colgate to Thompson Arena for a pair of 7:00 pm games during Winter Carnival weekend.