Moses' Four Goals Sink Big Green Against UNH in Manchester

Saturday, January 14

Manchester, N.H. (Verizon Wireless Arena)

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

New Hampshire

Moses' Four Goals Sink Big Green Against UNH in Manchester

1/14/2012 10:09:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Sophomore Matt Lindblad (Winnetka, Ill.) scored the game's opening tally, but four goals from UNH's Stevie Moses was too much for the Dartmouth's men's hockey team to overcome, falling to the Wildcats, 4-1, in Saturday night's Battle for the RiverStone XI at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester.

Moses, who earned the game's MVP honors, scored once in both the first and third periods and twice in the middle stanza.

UNH (8-11-2) claimed its first RiverStone Cup since the 2010 season after Dartmouth (7-7-2) took home the title last season.

Senior goaltender James Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.) was peppered all night by a relentless UNH attack. In his first game in nearly a month-and-a-half, Mello finished with 28 saves, including 15 in the second period.

Lindblad's second goal of the season was the result of a nice breakout and pretty passing play with linemate and last year's MVP Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) as a UNH power play expired.

Sophomore defender Taylor Boldt (Niwot, Colo.) hit Jones with an outlet pass, who promptly fed the puck to Lindblad in the neutral zone. Two passes back and forth between the two Dartmouth forwards eventually led to Lindblad finishing the play with a high backhander over the blocker of Wildcat goaltender Casey DeSmith.

Jones' assist was the 70th of his career, giving him sole possession of 14th place all-time at Dartmouth. He had been tied with Peter Summerfelt '03 coming into the game. The helper was also the 92nd point of Jones' career as he approaches becoming the 36th player in program history with 100 points in a Big Green sweater.

UNH's Stevie Moses scored the game's next four goals. His first came with the Wildcats on a 5-on-3 power play with five minutes left in the first period. Dartmouth began the second with a man-advantage of its own, but Moses managed to score shorthanded just 1:03 into the middle frame to give his team its first lead of the night, 2-1.

Moses went on to net one more in the second and anther in the third to secure MVP honors.

UNH was able to capitalize on Dartmouth miscues throughout, going 2-for-5 on the power play in the game. The Big Green were 0-for-3 with the man-advantage and managed just one shot in in those opportunities.

DeSmith, a Rochester, N.H., native had 21 saves, including 14 in the third period.

Dartmouth has not defeated UNH in consecutive games since the 1979-80 season, a streak that now spans 27 contests.

The Big Green go back out on the road for two more games next weekend as trips to Cornell (Friday) and Colgate (Saturday) will close out a five-game homestand before returning home to take on Yale and Brown on Jan. 27-28.

NOTES: Mello started in the Dartmouth goal for the first time since Nov. 27 at Vermont...Stevie Moses' second goal of the game was a shorthanded marker; the first allowed by Dartmouth since Feb. 25 of last season when St. Lawrence's Aaron Bogosian netted one a man down...The line of Jason Bourgea (South Burlington, Vt.), Alex Goodship (Blackfalds, Alberta) and Paul Lee (Garden City, N.Y.) was broken up for the first time since Nov. 4 against Quinnipiac when Bourgea and Goodship made their season debuts; a streak of 14 games...Jones finishes his career with two goals and four assists in four games against the in-state Wildcats...The hat trick by Moses was the first in the RiverStone Cup since Jarret Sampson did so for Dartmouth in the wild 9-8 affair in 2005.