Men's Hockey Bests Holy Cross For 1,000th Win in Program History

Friday, December 30

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

HOLY CROSS

Men's Hockey Bests Holy Cross For 1,000th Win in Program History

12/30/2011 11:00:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. - It took 106 seasons, but the Dartmouth men's hockey team reached the milestone 1,000th victory in program history Friday night against Holy Cross, 3-2, in the second game of the 2011 Ledyard Classic. Playing in front of nearly 3,900 fans at Thompson Arena, the Big Green (6-5-1) used a surge midway through the second period to put the Crusaders (8-8) away and advance to Saturday night's championship game.

Dartmouth will move on to play St. Lawrence in Saturday's tilt (7 p.m.) as the Saints won a wild affair with No. 7 Merrimack in the first game of the day. The contest finished as a 6-6 tie, but St. Lawrence moves on after a nine-round shootout victory.

Following an 18-day break between games for the Big Green, the team came out quickly and made it a 1-0 game early. Freshman Jesse Beamish (Mississauga, Ontario) scored just 2:02 into the contest as his line of senior Nick Walsh (Shannonville, Ontario) and freshman Eric Neiley (Warminster, Pa.) combined for the tally on their first shift of the game.

It wasn't long after that Holy Cross knotted the game at 1-1 as Adam Schmidt collected a loose puck on the boards and found space between the pads of sophomore Cab Morris (Wilmette, Ill.) in goal for Dartmouth. The Crusaders' goal was at the 5:31 mark of the first.

Senior Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) scored his fourth of the season and fourth in as many games 13:30 into the middle period. The goal came on the power play, marking the Big Green's first tally with the man-advantage since a Nov. 18 contest at St. Lawrence. Sophomore Matt Lindblad (Winnetka, Ill.) picked up his team-leading seventh assist of the season by setting up his linemate from behind the net.

Just 22 seconds later, freshman Tyler Sikura (Aurora, Ontario) scored his seventh of the year on a rebound out in front of Crusaders goalkeeper Matt Ginn. After junior Dustin Walsh (Shannonville, Ontario) banged one off the post, Sikura knocked home the rebound for the third game-winner of his freshman season.

Freshman winger Brandon McNally (Saugus, Mass.) collected a helper on the play as he found Sikura, who toe-dragged a defenseman and passed to Walsh to start the play.

With 53 seconds left and its goalie on the bench for the extra attacker, Holy Cross was able to pull within one after Matt Gordon redirected a shot from the point in front and beat Morris.

Getting one by the Dartmouth goaltender on this night was rare as, in just his second start of the season, Morris turned aside 30 shots for the win. His counterpart at the other end of the ice Holy Cross' Ginn had 18 saves in a losing effort.

The Big Green will take on the Saints tomorrow night for an opportunity to win the 2011 Ledyard Classic title. The last time Dartmouth won the event was in 2008, defeating Bemidji State, 4-2. St. Lawrence lost the 2007 Ledyard Classic Championship Game to North Dakota, 4-2, in its last appearance in the final. The two met for the 1996 title with the Saints taking the game, 3-2.

No. 7 Merrimack will play Holy Cross in the Consolation Game set to begin at 4 p.m.

NOTES: Morris made his second straight start and just the third of his career between the pipes for the Big Green. Morris picked up his first career win against Sacred Heart in the team's last outing (Dec. 11)...After missing the last six games, junior Dustin Walsh was back in a big way, assisting on Sikura's marker in the second and making several pretty plays in the offensive end...The 22 seconds between the Jones and Sikura goals was the fastest of the season, beating out the 28 seconds between Nick Walsh and Connor Goggin's markers at the end of the Quinnipiac game (Nov. 4)...Dartmouth and St. Lawrence have combined to win seven (7) Ledyard Classic titles between the two with the Big Green winning six... St. Lawrence and Dartmouth are guaranteed to play each other three times this season thanks to tomorrow's meeting. Dartmouth also plays Brown and Yale three times in 2011-12...Dartmouth is now 1,000-1,065-107 all-time in 106 seasons.