Dartmouth Men's Hockey Extends Season with Huge Win over Quinnipiac

Saturday, March 6

Hamden, Conn.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Quinnipiac

Dartmouth Men's Hockey Extends Season with Huge Win over Quinnipiac

3/6/2010 9:15:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HAMDEN, Conn. – The Dartmouth men's hockey team extended its season to another game as the Big Green (10-18-3) took a huge 6-3 victory over Quinnipiac (18-16-2) during the second game of the best-of-three series at the TD Banknorth Sports Center. The two will meet tomorrow in the deciding game at 7:00 pm.

Dartmouth got on the board first at 17:10. Alex Goodship (Blackfalds, Alta.) took a shot on net from the side of the net, just trying to get the puck out front. Paul Lee (Garden City, N.Y.) was right there in front for the rebound, lifting the puck up and over goalie Dan Clarke for the score.

The Big Green had several great looks at the net throughout the frame as it looked like the visitors were looking to break it open at anytime. Dartmouth held not only the overall lead at the first break but had nine shots to Quinnipiac's six going into the locker room.

The Big Green came out in the second and immediately fired three shots on net in under two minutes of play. The first penalty of the game came at 18:15 when the Bobcats got whistled for slashing. Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) capitalized on the opportunity with a power play goal that just snuck between Clarke's legs. Scott Fleming (Plainfield, Ont.) worked the puck around, passing to Matt Reber (Edina, Minn.) down front. Reber's rebound came out to Jones who got the puck to slowly roll behind Clarke for the score.

The Big Green extended its lead in the second off a goal by Adam Estoclet (Orono, Minn.) just thirty seconds into another Bobcat penalty. Reber and Jones both assisted. Then Reber joined in on the fun with his first goal of the game at 3:33 on the clock with linemates Estoclet and Fleming assisting as the home team called a timeout.

The break worked for head coach Rand Pecknold and his Bobcats as QU came out and proceeded to put tremendous pressure on netminder James Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.) with Bobby Tyson finally ending Mello's first career shutout with 1:16 left in the stanza. Dartmouth took a three-goal lead to the break and held the advantage in shots, 28-18.

An early third period penalty to Reber had the Big Green a man-down early but unlike last night, Quinnipiac struggled to find that extra-man goal as Dartmouth had killed off both of the Bobcats opportunities up to that point.

A huge even-strength goal by the home team at 15:37 had the Big Green playing from its heels as Quinnipiac started to get some momentum going and was looking to claw its way back into the contest.

A big penalty on Jones at 14:26 was a crucial two minutes for both sides as the Bobcats looked to get its first power play goal of the contest and the Big Green needed to kill off the penalty and hold on to its two-goal lead. Dartmouth was able to keep QU off the board but not even a minute after the penalty expired, Estoclet was whistled for one as suddenly Dartmouth found itself getting calls it hadn't been getting earlier in the contest.

Fleming potted the fifth Big Green goal during a 4-on-3 situation. He roofed the puck over Clarke from the right side post as Dartmouth was 3-for-3 on its power play chances as of 9:58.

The floodgates were officially opened at 8:03 when Reber, Estoclet and Fleming paired up for the sixth Big Green goal and the fifth time on the night that at least one of them had a hand in a Dartmouth goal on the night.

With under 2:00 to play in the game, Lee got sent to the box and pretty quickly into the power play opportunity Jean-Marc Beaudoin tallied Quinnipiac's first extra-man tally of the evening as the home team was still hanging around but Dartmouth closed the door and evened the series.

The Big Green ended the game with the shot advantage, 37-29. Mello finished with 27 saves while Clarke had 28.