Men's Hockey Tames Tigers

Saturday, February 12

Hanover, N.H.

4:00 PM

Dartmouth College

PRINCETON

2/12/2011 7:26:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. - The No. 17 Dartmouth men's hockey team jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead early in the first period and never looked back as the Big Green defeated Princeton, 4-1, on Saturday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd at Thompson Arena. It's the first sellout for Dartmouth since 2006.

Rookie Matt Lindblad (Winnetka, Ill.) tallied two goals to extend his scoring streak to four games while senior Adam Estoclet (Orono, Minn.) scored the first and sophomore Dustin Walsh (Shannonville,Ont.) potted the second goal of the contest.

Dartmouth is now 15-7-3 overall, 11-5-2 in the ECAC. The Big Green is in third place in the ECAC Hockey standings with 24 points, three behind Union in first. Princeton is 14-9-2 overall and 9-7-2 in the league. The Tigers fall to sixth in the league standings as Dartmouth now holds a four-point edge over the orange and black.

Dartmouth had the game's first five shots, including two that rang off the post and Estoclet capitalized on one of two to give his team the early lead, 6:12 into the opening frame. Evan Stephens (Bessemer, Mich.) pushed the puck down to Rob Smith (Burnaby, Ont.) in the corner. Estoclet came behind the net, got the puck and sniped a back-door shot for the power-play strike.

Less than 20 seconds later, Walsh used a feed from Eric Robinson (Foxboro, Mass.) and shot through a Princeton screen to give the home team a 2-0 advantage. The Tigers got one back with 26 seconds left in the frame when Mike Kramer deflected Kevin Ross' point shot past goalie James Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.).

In the second period, Dartmouth immediately took away whatever momentum Princeton had at the first break when Lindblad lit the lamp with his first. Robinson's shot hit Lindblad in the arm as the rookie was able to get his stick down and punch it past netminder Sean Bonar for the score.

The Tigers continued to push back in the final frame but could not find an answer for Mello, one of the ECAC's top goaltenders. The Big Green added the insurance marker with 7:20 left when Lindblad used a Connor Goggin (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) pick to put the game away.

Dartmouth outshot Princeton 33-29 in the game. Mello made 28 saves to pick up his 14th win of the season while Bonar made 29 saves in the loss.

The Big Green will be back in action next weekend, traveling to Colgate and Cornell. The Big Green takes on Colgate Friday at 7 p.m. and then Cornell on Saturday at 7 p.m.