Dartmouth Men's Hockey Drops First Game to Quinnipiac

Friday, March 5

Hamden, Conn.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Quinnipiac

Dartmouth Men's Hockey Drops First Game to Quinnipiac

3/5/2010 9:00:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HAMDEN, Conn. – Quinnipiac used two power play goals to take a late lead on the Dartmouth men's hockey team as the Big Green dropped the first game of the ECAC Playoff series to the Bobcats, 3-2. The two teams will meet again tomorrow in a 7:00 pm tilt at the TD Banknorth Sports Center.

Quinnipiac looked like it had broken through with under 10:00 to play in the first period. The first shot was saved by netminder James Mello as the rebound came right back out to a waiting Eric Lampe who rang his shot off the crossbar. A point-blank shot by Clay Harvey in the final minutes of the frame had Mello making a terrific save to prevent a goal as the two teams seemed to pick up some energy in the final 4:00.

Despite taking an early lead in shots, Dartmouth was overtaken by the home team in the final minutes of the frame as the Bobcats had 10 to the Big Green's eight going into the first break.

Dustin Walsh (Shannonville, Ont.) back from an injury that's nagged him all year, got his team on the board early in the second period as the Big Green controlled the opening minutes of the frame much like it did in the first. Walsh cashed in on traffic in front of the net when his older brother Nick fed him a quick pass that he put between Clarke's legs for the score. Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) also assisted.

A 5-on-3 opportunity for the Bobcats midway through the period had the home team looking to even the score and Brandon Wong helped them out. With one second left in Connor Goggin's penalty Quinnipiac moved the puck around getting it to Wong at the left side circle as he roofed the puck over Mello for the tying score.

Evan Stephens (Bessemer, Mich.), Adam Estoclet (Orono, Minn.) and Scott Fleming (Plainfield, Ont.) each had some terrific chances in the final minute or so of the second as all three was able to get shots on Clarke but just couldn't find the back of the net.

Two great chances early in the third by the Big Green had Dartmouth looking for the go-ahead. Fleming won the faceoff and put a quick shot on Clarke that got the goalie out-of-position as Matt Reber (Edina, Minn.) just could not corral the puck for a decent shot off. Peter Boldt (Greenwich, Conn.) was able to scoop up the puck and ring a hard shot off the post.

No more then a minute later freshman Alex Goodship (Blackfalds, Ont.) had a huge shot that Clarke had to stretch left to get a glove on. But it was the Bobcats that got the elusive go-ahead goal at 14:29 when Eric Lampe put a turn-around shot on net right at the corner for 12th goal of the season.

A nice bang-bang play by the Bobcats at 10:27 gave Quinnipiac its second power play goal as the home team took a 3-1 lead on the Big Green. Wong camped out on the left side of the net while Jean-Marc Beaudoin was on the right side. Beaudoin's goal was almost identical to Wong's from earlier in the night, roofing it over Mello for the score.

Dartmouth rallied with it's own boom-boom goal, a power play goal at 1:23. Estoclet on the left side circle passed up to Reber at the point who immediately shot down to Fleming who put the puck in behind Clarke for the score.

Mello came out of the net again with 25 seconds left to play as Dustin Walsh was able to get a quick shot on net but it wasn't enough as the Big Green dropped the first game of its ECAC Hockey playoffs to the host Bobcats.