Men's Hockey Closes Out Regular Season with Loss to Clarkson

Saturday, February 26

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

CLARKSON

Men's Hockey Closes Out Regular Season with Loss to Clarkson

2/26/2011 7:20:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. - The Dartmouth (16-10-3, 12-8-3 ECAC) men's hockey team wrapped up the regular season with a Saturday night tilt against Clarkson (15-17-2, 9-12-1 ECAC) in Thompson Arena. Unfortunately the Big Green were unable to overcome a Clarkson team that was needing important points in the ECAC standings as the Knights came away with a 4-1 victory. Despite the loss, Dartmouth still finished in third place in the ECAC Hockey standings and will have a bye in the first round of playoffs that begins next weekend.

Dartmouth scored the first goal of the game but it was Clarkson that tallied three straight in the third, breaking a 1-1 tie to take a lead it would never relinquish.

The Big Green lit the lamp with a textbook power-play goal at 12:32 of the first period. Evan Stephens (Bessemer, Mich.) pushed the puck up to a streaking Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.). Jones faked the goalie to the left and passed across to Scott Fleming (Plainfield, Ont.), who quickly put the puck into the empty spot behind Clarkson goalie Paul Karpowich.

Brandon DeFazio tied things up at 9:13 of the same frame by scoring on his own rebound. The Knights brought the puck down on an odd-man rush as DeFazio got a quick shot on James Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.) then gathered the rebound for the putback and score.

An uneventful second period had both sides playing fairly even as each had shots on net, but play remained between the dots for most of the second period. Jones had a great look for the Big Green late in the frame when he took a quick shot after winning the faceoff but was unable to get it past Karpowich. Both goalies made athletic saves to keep the score tied going into the second break.

A second-chance effort by Julien Cayer early in the third period gave the Knights taking the lead for the first time in the game. Cayer put a shot on Mello that the junior netminder saved high only to have Cayer bat the puck down and put it right back on goal for the go-ahead score. A goal by Adam Pawlick with under five to play and an empty-netter by Jake Morley ended the scoring for the Knights.

Dartmouth's goal was the only power play tally in the contest, despite the seven extra man chances between the two squads. The Big Green held the total in shots at 44-31. It was the sixth time this season, Dartmouth has had more then 40 shots on goal.

Mello finished with 27 saves on the night while Karpowich had a stellar 43.

Dartmouth's round of the ECAC playoffs will begin on March 11 in a best-of-three series. Keep checking DartmouthSports.com for information on the quarterfinal games that will be held at Thompson Arena. Tickets can purchased online or by calling (603) 646-2466.