Big Green Heading to Atlantic City, Defeat Harvard, 4-3

Sunday, March 13

Hanover, N.H.

4:00 PM

Dartmouth College

HARVARD

Big Green Heading to Atlantic City, Defeat Harvard, 4-3

3/13/2011 5:52:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. - Freshman Matt Lindlbad (Winnetka, Ill.) broke out of a five-game scoring slump to tally two in the third period, lifting the Dartmouth men's hockey team to a 4-3 victory over Harvard in the final game of the ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series.

Lindblad and Evan Stephens (Bessemer, Mich.) both proved heroic in the final period of play as the Big Green rallied from a 2-1 deficit to take a 4-2 lead with one minute remaining on the clock. Harvard was not going to go down without a fight as head coach Ted Donato pulled his goalie in favor of the extra skater with over two minutes remaining. The Crimson were able to get one back at 19:40 with a power play strike by Alex Fallstrom but the Big Green held on with both the defense and netminder James Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.) coming up big in the waning seconds.

A great second-chance goal by the Crimson gave the visitors the early lead in the opening period. Alex Killorn took a hard shot on Mello that the junior netminder kick saved to his left. Fallstrom was there to gather the rebound and come in hard on the net, putting it past Mello's outstretched hand for the go-ahead at 12:45 in the first.

Dartmouth quickly tied things up in the second period with a power-play strike by Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.). With just eight seconds gone in the extra-man advantage, Scott Fleming (Plainfield, Ont.) took a shot that netminder Ryan Carroll went down low to save. Traffic in front allowed Jones to come in and hammer at the puck several times before poking it past Carroll for the equalizer. Stephens also assisted.

Harvard took the lead again just four minutes into the third when Michael Del Mauro took advantage of a defensive break down to sneak one past Mello. That goal, however seemed to really light a fire under the Big Green as Dartmouth got a little jump in its skates.

A patient Lindblad midway through the third allowed Dartmouth to tie the contest at 2-2 on a power-play goal. Dustin Walsh (Shannonville, Ont.) got the puck on the far boards then drew the goalie over to him before passing across ice to Lindblad. Lindblad waited for just a split second before shooting the puck behind Carroll.

Stephens gave the Big Green its first lead of the game when traffic in front had the puck squeaking out to the senior defenseman who stood between the circles. He roofed the puck over the pile of bodies to tally the go-ahead and bring the crowd of 2,430 to its feet.

Lindblad scored his second with under five minutes to play on a give-and-go with Eric Robinson (Foxboro, Mass.). Connor Goggin (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) also assisted.

Mello finished the day with 35 saves and improved to 16-8-3 on the season while Carroll had 27 saves and ended the year with a 9-10 record. Harvard held a 38-31 advantage in shots as Dartmouth was 2-for-4 on the power play and the Crimson was 1-for-3.

The second-seeded Big Green will square off with third-seeded Cornell at 7:30 p.m. in the semifinals in Atlantic City, N.J., on March 18. The other semifinal game will pit 12th-seeded Colgate against top-seeded Yale. The semifinals and championship game will be held at Boardwalk Hall.