Dartmouth Men's Hockey Comeback Falls Short

Saturday, January 30

Hanover, N.H.

4:00 PM

Dartmouth College

PRINCETON

1/30/2010 6:00:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men's hockey team scored late in the third period to cut Princeton's lead to one but the rally came a little too late as the Tigers took a 5-3 victory on Saturday afternoon in Thompson Arena.

Princeton lit the lamp first at 12:41 when the Tigers leading goal-scorer Dan Bartlett wound up and slapped the puck at netminder Jody O'Neill (Nepean, Ont.). O'Neill got a glove up and thought he had the save but the puck glanced off his glove and into the back of the net for the score.

Dartmouth tied things up late in the first period with a power play strike by Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.). Jones had several shots during the extra-man attempt and finally was able to bury the puck off assists from Evan Stephens (Bessemer, Mich.) and Matt Reber (Edina, Minn.).

The Tigers pulled ahead just four seconds into its first power play of the second period. Matt Arhontas knotched the go-ahead on a pass that he was trying to center but got behind O'Neill instead.

Princeton went up by two less than two minutes later when Kevin Lohry just shot down on O'Neill trying to get the puck in the Dartmouth end, instead it ended up in the back of the net.

Joe Gaudet (Etna, N.H.) got one back for the Big Green at 8:30 with 15 seconds left in a Princeton penalty for the second Dartmouth power play goal of the contest. Nick Walsh (Shannonville, Ont.) brought the puck down the center of the ice passing over to a streaking Gaudet on the right side boards. The senior shot towards the left side of the net, sneaking the puck between Kalemba's stick side and the post.

Lohry lit the lamp for the second time at 3:33 when he shot down on O'Neill from the point with the puck sailing past the Dartmouth goalie. That goal knocked O'Neill out of the net in favor of classmate James Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.).

The third period was a bit of a grind as the Tigers dug in and attempted to hold onto the lead and the Big Green couldn't seem to get anything going. Adam Estolcet (Orono, Minn.) and Scott Fleming (Plainfield, Ont.) made things interesting in the final 6:00 of play teaming up for a shorthanded goal at 5:56.

Estoclet stripped the puck in the Dartmouth end, skating down and around several Princeton players, dangling the puck back to Fleming who took a shot that was saved. Estoclet got the rebound and put a shot on Kalemba with Fleming there to stuff it back past the netminder after the save.

Dartmouth pulled Mello in favor of the extra skater at 1:30 but it was Princeton that capitalized with an empty net strike at 1:15.

The loss drops the Big Green to 6-15, 4-9 in the ECAC while Princeton improves to 9-10-2, 5-8-1 in the league.

Dartmouth hits the road next weekend with an ECAC road swing to Yale on Friday at 7:00 and then Brown on Saturday at 4:00.