Dartmouth Men's Hockey Sweeps Harvard

Saturday, November 27

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

HARVARD

11/27/2010 9:23:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men's hockey team used its offensive firepower to net a second victory over Harvard in as many nights on Saturday in Thompson Arena. The Big Green tallied four goals in the first period to take the early lead en route to a 5-2 win, giving Dartmouth its first sweep of the Crimson since 1995-96 and the second since head coach Bob Gaudet was a senior at Dartmouth in 1980-81.

Four Big Green players had multiple-point games, led by senior captain Scott Fleming (Plainfield, Ont.) with a goal and three assists. Adam Estoclet (Orono, Minn.), Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) and Evan Stephens (Bessemer, Mich.) all had two points.

Junior netminder James Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.) picked up his fifth win of the season, making 31 saves in the win. Ryan Carroll fell to 0-2 for Harvard despite coming away with 37 saves. The victory gives Dartmouth a 6-3-1 overall record, 5-2-1 in the ECAC and a perfect 3-0 mark in the Ivy League. The Crimson fell to 2-6 overall and in the ECAC as well as 0-3 in the Ivy standings.

Dartmouth scored four goals in a six-minute span of the first period and got 25 saves from Mello over the final two frames to hold on for its third-straight win.

The contest was scoreless and the shots were tied at four apiece shortly before the Big Green earned the first power play opportunity of the contest but Dartmouth was unable to get on the board. Another Crimson penalty followed in the middle of the period as the Big Green took advantage of its second power play chance, as Estoclet shot through traffic, burying a Jones rebound, in front of the Harvard goal at 12:39 of the opening frame to give the crowd and the home team some serious momentum.

Carroll made a diving save on Fleming to keep the score at 1-0, but Dartmouth soon built on its lead with three goals in 87 seconds. Matt Lindblad (Winnetka, Ill.) made it 2-0 at the 16:45 mark before Nick Walsh (Shannonville, Ont.) tallied his fourth goal of the weekend at 17:27 and Fleming followed at 18:12. Lindblad scored after hitting an open net following Dustin Walsh's (Shannonville, Ont.) length-of-the-rink rush. Nick Walsh's goal came after he tipped a long Taylor Boldt (Niwot, Colo.) wrister over Carroll before Fleming one-timed a Matt Reber feed (Edina, Minn.) following a Harvard giveaway.

James Mello and Evan Stephens celebrate a goal against Harvard

The Crimson survived another Dartmouth power play early in the second period and then earned its first chance with the extra skater. Matt McCollem capitalized, pushing a rebound over the goal line after he was knocked down from behind.

The Big Green then committed consecutive penalties but kept the Crimson from inching closer by killing a Harvard two-man advantage that lasted 52 seconds. Back at even strength, Mello made great back-to-back saves on an acrobatic move by McCollem and a follow-up by Marshall Everson before Stephens extended the lead back to four goals, sending in a point shot that found its way through traffic and into the top corner of the net.

Carroll made a glove save on Rob Smith (Brooks, Alta.) at the buzzer, as the home team went to the locker room with a 5-1 lead despite being edged in second-period shots, 16-10.

The Crimson outshot the Big Green by an 18-13 margin in the third period and trimmed the Dartmouth lead to 5-2 in the waning seconds of the game as Dan Ford beat Mello with a low shot for his first collegiate goal.

The Big Green will be back in action on Dec. 12 by hosting twin-state rival, Vermont in a game that will be broadcast on ESPNU. Game time is set for 4 p.m. and it will be the second time fans will be able to bring a toy for the Big Green's annual Toy Drive for CHaD.