Dartmouth Men's Hockey Battles Brown to the End

Saturday, February 6

Providence, R.I.

4:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Brown

Dartmouth Men's Hockey Battles Brown to the End

2/6/2010 6:00:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – With a two-goal lead going into the final period, the Dartmouth men's hockey team looked had all the momentum but the Bears roared back to tie and take the lead before Adam Estoclet's (Orono, Minn.) goal took his team to overtime as the game ended in a 5-5 tie.

Brown used its special teams early in the first period as the Big Green had two players sitting in the box, Aaron Volpatti wound up and blasted the puck over James Mello's shoulder for the 1-0 score.

Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) and Joe Gaudet (Etna, N.H.) almost tied the score with a shorthanded strike but Jones' shot went just wide of the net. Dartmouth put intense pressure on netminder Mike Clemente midway through the stanza as Matt Reber (Edina, Minn.) and Scott Fleming (Plainfield, Ont.) went one-on-one with Clemente but the goalie made the kick save.

On the power play, Fleming finally got the equalizer after the Big Green worked the puck around. Estoclet passed down to Jones who got it to Fleming on the right side of the cage.

Less than five seconds into a power play opportunity, Brown to the lead again when Devin Timberlake was able to get the puck behind Mello for the go-ahead. A much improved Brown team gave Dartmouth fits as the Big Green went into the first break down, 2-1.

Paul Lee (Garden City, N.Y.) potted the tying goal on his first career goal early in the second period. Connor Goggin (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) passed down to Lee in front of the Brown net and with traffic in front the sophomore got several shots on Clemente before it was finally ruled a goal.

Estoclet finally gave his team its first lead of the day at 9:32 of the second period. Fleming and Stephens skated stride-for-stride down the ice with Estoclet trailing behind. Fleming passed across to Stephens who passed back to Estoclet for the go-ahead strike.

Midway through the final stanza Stephens gave Dartmouth a two-goal lead. Fleming stripped the puck and passed to Stephens who went alone on Clemente after some fancy maneuvering for his sixth goal of the season.

Volpatti gave his team some life with around 6:00 to play in the game when he one-timed the puck past Mello hard enough that the goalie's water bottle was lifted off the back of the net. Then, just a few seconds later as penalties were ending and players were getting back in position, Brown took advantage of traffic in front as Chris Zaires put the puck in behind Mello to net the tying goal.

With 1:35 left in the game, Brown took the lead off a hard slap shot by Jeff Buvinow from the point. Stephens was not down however as the junior defenseman potted the tying goal with less than 20 seconds left in the game, sending the Big Green to just its second overtime of the season.

Neither team had much of an advantage in the extra period as Dartmouth earned its first tie of the year and Brown picked up its third.

Mello finished with 41 saves while Clemente had 36. The tie gives the Big Green a 6-16-1 overall record, 4-11-1 in the ECAC while Brown is now 7-13-3, 5-8-3.

Dartmouth will be home next weekend for Winter Carnival with a pair of ECAC Hockey contests against Union and Rensselaer.