Dartmouth Men's Hockey Ties Clarkson in Final Regular Season Game

Saturday, February 27

Potsdam, N.Y.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Clarkson

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Dartmouth Men's Hockey Ties Clarkson in Final Regular Season Game

2/27/2010 9:26:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

POTSDAM, N.Y. – The Dartmouth men's hockey team took a lead over the home Clarkson Golden Knights on Saturday but Clarkson came back to tie the game at 3-3 as the neither side could get the game winner in overtime.

The two teams skated to a scoreless tie after the first period but the stanza wasn't without excitement as the home team was giving all it could to netminder James Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.). It wasn't a very clean frame as both teams had trouble making passes and blocking shots. The defenses did start tightening up in the waning minutes and with less than a 1:00 to play, the Big Green got whistled for two seperate penalties giving Clarkson 20 seconds of 5-on-3 time to end the first and begin the second with the same advantage.

The Golden Knights capitalized on one of its power play opportunities of the 5-on-3 just 13 seconds into the second frame as Adam Pawlick used the fact that the Big Green was shorthanded and Scott Fleming (Plainfield, Ont.) had no stick to take an early lead. But just over a minute later with 22 seconds left in the power play, Joe Stejskal (Grand Rapids, Minn.) tipped in a Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) wraparound for the tying score.

Dartmouth continued to pressure netminder Paul Karpowich as Scott Fleming scored 2:28 into the frame to give the Big Green its first lead of the contest. Adam Estoclet (Orono, Minn.) was able to draw Karpowich to the right side of the cage as Fleming shot into the empty left side for his team leading 20th goal of the season.

An odd man rush at 10:12 as Brandon DeFazio was coming out of the box had the Golden Knights tying the game up at two as the momentum, which had been going Dartmouth's way, looked to be changing sides.

The Big Green began the period outshooting the Golden Knights but the home team had some timely shots on net but still trailed Dartmouth 22-17 after two periods of play.

Just 5:00 into the final period, the Big Green had a power play advantage that Nick Walsh (Shannonville, Ont.) took advantage of, scoring early into the penalty to give Dartmouth the lead. Stejskal and Peter Boldt (Greenwich, Conn.) worked the puck back and forth finally getting the puck to Walsh just outside the circle for the sophomore's sixth goal of the season.

But not even a minute later a hard shot by Markus Piispanen had the puck just bouncing off the pipe and going in behind Mello as the Golden Knights tied the game again.

Both teams had plenty of good chances in the remaing minutes of the third but neither could find that elusive game winning goal as the game ended in regulation tied at three.

Dartmouth has several great shots on net during the extra frame but could not capture its first overtime victory of the season as the Big Green and the Golden Knights ended the game in a tie.

Dartmouth ended the regular season with a 9-17-3 overall record, 7-12-3 in the ECAC while Clarkson was 8-22-4, 4-15-3 in the league. Mello finished with 21 saves while Karpowich had 38 for the Knights. Dartmouth outshot Clarkson, 41-24.

The Big Green ended the season in a tie with Harvard for ninth place but the Crimson will win the head-to-head battle. Dartmouth will now travel to Quinnipiac next weekend for the first round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs.