Men's Hockey Prepares For Final Home Weekend on 2011-12

Game 28 - Friday, Feb. 24, 2012 - 7:30 p.m.
Dartmouth Big Green (10-13-4, 7-10-3 ECAC) vs.
RV/NR Clarkson Golden Knights (15-13-6, 9-7-4 ECAC)
Location: Hanover, N.H. - Thompson Arena (4,500)
All-Time Series: Clarkson, 66-23-6
First Meeting: Feb. 4, 1929 - L, 4-1 (Away)
Last Meeting: Nov. 19, 2011 - L, 4-0 (Away)
Streak: Clarkson, 2-0-0
Last Dartmouth Win: Nov. 19, 2010 - W, 7-1 (Road)

Game 29 - Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012 - 7 p.m.
Dartmouth Big Green (10-13-4, 7-10-3 ECAC) vs.
St. Lawrence Saints (13-16-3, 9-10-1 ECAC)
Location: Hanover, N.H. - Thompson Arena (4,500)
All-Time Series: St. Lawrence, 52-30-3
First Meeting: Jan. 13, 1950 - L, 3-2 (Home)
Last Meeting: Nov. 18, 2011 - W, 3-1 (Away)
Streak: Dartmouth, 5-0-1
Last Dartmouth Win: Last Meeting

Broadcast Information:
Radio: WFRD 99.3 FM Play-by-Play: Chris Garrett
In-Game Updates: On Twitter - @Dartmouth_MIH

Dartmouth Notes • Clarkson Notes • Clarkson Preview • St. Lawrence Notes • Live Stats • Live Video and Audio

HANOVER, N.H. - It's come down to the final two games of the regular season for the Dartmouth men's hockey team and the rest of ECAC Hockey. With the end of February upon us and the 2011-12 season nearing its end, the annual celebration of senior classes is taking place across each of the 12 league arenas over the course of the final two weekends.

Nowhere else in ECAC Hockey, though, will there be a celebration quite like we will see Saturday night at Thompson Arena.

Dartmouth's 10-member senior class is the largest in the league this season. Colgate ranks second in terms of veteran players in their final season with eight, while four others programs have seven.

These 10 seniors have seen a lot in their time in Hanover, but would like to use the final stretch of this, their final season, to leave a lasting impression on the Dartmouth hockey program.

Goaltenders Jody O'Neill (Nepean, Ontario) and James Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.) have each earned accolades in their careers splitting time in the Big Green net. Both rank near the top of several statistical categories all-time at Dartmouth; impressive accomplishments when one considers the talented men who have played between the pipes over the last 106 seasons.

Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) will be remembered for his scoring prowess, becoming the 36th player in program history to reach the 100-point plateau. Nick Walsh (Shannonville, Ontario) and Paul Lee (Garden City, N.Y.) have been constants in the lineup during the last four years. All three reached 100 career games played this season, illustrating the consistency of this class over the course of their collegiate careers.

Walsh is a player that plays with a tremendous amount of skill, but has adapted his game to better gel with linemates for the good of a team game. Lee's style embodies old-time hockey: blocking shots, taking and delivering hits and playing to win at all costs.

Troy Mattila (Rockford, Ill.) has been a heart-and-soul type player, doing whatever has been asked of him. Killing penalties, playing on the second scoring line or with the grinders, Mattila is a guy who will do anything on the ice to make this team better.

On defense, Connor Goggin (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) and Jim Gaudet (Etna, N.H.) could not be any more different in terms of their styles of play. That contrast, however, has suited both just fine as they round out this year's group of five players to reach 100 games in a Dartmouth sweater.

Goggin is a physical player who will deliver some of the hardest hits in the league or jump up into the offensive rush with as much skill as any forward and make plays.

Gaudet is a solid stay-at-home defender that plays with a great deal of smarts in his own zone. That high hockey IQ has served his team well as he is not only a top penalty killer, but also a tremendous leader on the ice.

Dan Nycholat (Calgary, Alberta) transferred from Northeastern and has been with the Big Green the last two seasons. Like Goggin, Nycholat will jump up in the rush and create odd-man rushes for his team without taking himself too far out of position to get back defensively.

Kyle Schussler (Winnipeg, Manitoba) has not seen a great deal of ice time in four seasons, but that hasn't stopped him from being one of the most well-liked and respected players at Dartmouth in some time.

With the final two regular-season home games on the horizon for this group of 10 players, building on previous success is essential. Making it to the semifinals of last year's ECAC Hockey Tournament was nice, but it didn't put the banner on the wall of Thompson that all 10 want so badly.

Coming into the weekend, not one of the league's 12 teams has locked up a particular seed in the upcoming postseason, demonstrating just how tight ECAC Hockey has been this season.

Every player and coach knows that a strong finish to the regular season could lead to a nice run in the tournament, and with Clarkson and St. Lawrence in the building Friday and Saturday night, there is no better time than now to get the ball rolling.

GAME NOTES

THIS WEEKEND
Dartmouth will take on Clarkson and St. Lawrence Friday and Saturday nights in the final weekend of the 2011-12 regular season. Like all other programs in the country, Dartmouth will use Saturday night's final home contest as a celebration for the 10 members of its senior class.

LAST TIME AGAINST CLARKSON
In the first road trip of the season, Dartmouth made its way to Upstate New York in mid-November. In the second game of the weekend, the visitors were blanked by the Golden Knights for the second time in 2011-12, falling 4-0 in front of a hostile crowd at Cheel Arena on Nov. 19. Jody O'Neill surrendered three goals in net before Clarkson added an empty netter with 54 seconds left. Paul Karpowich turned aside all 37 shots he faced in the game to earn his seventh win of the season.

LAST TIME AGAINST ST. LAWRENCE
The Saints came to Hanover in late December to take part in the 2011 Ledyard Classic. After beating No. 7 Merrimack in a nine-round shootout, St. Lawrence moved on to play Dartmouth in the championship. After 65 minutes, the score remained deadlocked at 2-2. All three Saints shooters found the back of the net in the second shootout of the weekend to give them their second Ledyard Classic title (1996). Ties by NCAA standards, the Saints were champions of the annual holiday tournament despite not winning a game over the weekend. Dartmouth sophomore Eric Robinson (Foxboro, Mass.) tied the game with a goal with just 4:55 remaining in regulation to force OT.

In the league game between these two teams on Nov. 18, Dartmouth defeated St. Lawrence, 3-1, at Appleton Arena in Canton.

SENIOR STATS
Dartmouth's 10-member senior class is the largest in ECAC Hockey this season. During the last four seasons, the Big Green has won 53 games and has reached the ECAC semifinals once (2011). Entering the weekend, the 10 players have combined to play in 818 games, score 77 goals and dish out 164 assists for 214 total points.

James Mello was named All-ECAC Second Team as a junior, while Jody O'Neill was honored with a spot on the league's All-Rookie Team as a freshman in 2008-09.

Jones was named a member of the Academic All-Ivy Team as a freshman.

Five have earned Academic All-ECAC Hockey recognition during their time in Hanover, including four players to earn the honor in each of their first three seasons (Jones, Lee, Mattila, Walsh).

ROBOCOP
Robinson was named the DartmouthSports.com Male Athlete of the Week for his weekend performance on the road against Yale and Brown. Against the Bulldogs, Robinson assisted on Doug Jones' third-period goal; the 100th point of the senior's career. He followed that with a three-point night at Brown, setting a new career high. Scoring twice in the first ten minutes of the game, Robinson again assisted on a Jones tally in the third. Jones had previously scored two goals in a game earlier this season at Vermont on Nov. 27.

FINALLY SNAPPED
Jones' eighth goal of the season came 10:23 into the third on a long wrister from the high slot and snapped a five-game scoring drought. It was the 100th point of Jones career, making him the 36th player in program history to reach the century mark. Jones added a goal and an assist at Brown for 102 points after the weekend to sit tied for 32nd all-time at Dartmouth. His 75 career assists rank 10th.

SO LONG SKID
The win on Saturday in Providence snapped a seven-game winless skid (0-5-2) for the Big Green. Taking an early 2-0 lead, Robinson's second of the night on a redirect out front at 9:44 of the first proved to be the winner. It was the longest stretch without a win for Dartmouth since opening the 2009-10 season at 0-7-0.

SCENARIOS
With the final weekend of ECAC Hockey play here, here is a look at the playoff scenarios as they stand now:

TEAM	POSSIBLE SEEDING	WHAT THEY NEED
UNION	1-2	clinched bye, needs 3 pts to clinch No. 1 seed
CORNELL	1-2	clinched bye, needs 4 pts to clinch No. 1 seed
COLGATE	3-7	clinched home ice, needs 2 pts to clinch bye
CLARKSON	3-8	clinched home ice, needs 3 pts to clinch bye
HARVARD	3-9	needs 4 pts to clinch bye, 1 pt to clinch home ice
QUINNIPIAC	3-9	needs 2 pts to clinch home ice
ST. LAWRENCE	3-9	needs 3 pts to clinch home ice
YALE	4-9	needs 2 pts to clinch home ice
*DARTMOUTH*	*5-11*
PRINCETON	9-12	will travel first round
RENSSELAER	9-12	will travel first round
BROWN	10-12	will travel first round

Union and Cornell will be the top two seeds with the positioning to be determined this weekend. Six teams are still vying for the final two first-round byes with three (Colgate, Harvard, Clarkson) controlling its own destinies. It has been determined that Princeton, RPI and Brown will finish in the bottom four and will be on the road the first weekend of postseason play.
The top four teams get first-round byes, while No. 5-8 host No. 9-12, winners advance to No. 1-4 for quarterfinals.

GAME TIME
Due to the women's hockey first-round home series with St. Lawrence, Friday's men's game with Clarkson has been pushed back from 7 to 7:30 p.m. Game 1 between the No. 4 Big Green and No. 5 Saints is set for a 3:30 p.m. faceoff at Thompson Arena. Game 2's 2 p.m. start time on Saturday will not affect the start time of the men's game with the Saints.

NOT HIS FIRST RODEO
Senior netminder Jody O'Neill stepped up to help Dartmouth snap its winless skid with a 34-save performance at Brown Saturday night. Taking a shutout into the third period, O'Neill finished the night allowing just one goal, while picking up his second win of the year (2-3-2). It was the third time in seven starts this season that O'Neill turned aside 30 or more shots.

LOVING THE LIGHTS
In both nationally-televised games this season, freshman Brandon McNally (Saugus, Mass.) has found the back of the net. Against RPI on Jan. 6, the winger scored the first non-empty-net marker of his career, while potting the seventh of the season at Yale. Both games were the NBC Sports Network game of the week and broadcast across the country.

POWER PLAYS
Dartmouth has been on the power play just 93 times this season, five fewer than any other team in Division I. The Big Green were 0-for-11 this past weekend (0-for-7 at Yale, 0-for-4 at Brown). Cornell and Bemidji State each have 98 power plays and are the only other teams in double-digit chances with the man-advantage. The remaining 55 teams have had at least 100 power plays.

LEE JOINS THE GROUP
Friday night at Ingalls Rink, Paul Lee became the fifth senior this season to reach 100 games played in a Dartmouth uniform. Lee made a nice backhanded pass from the side of the net to McNally to set up the first Big Green score of the night. He was originally given an assist on Connor Goggin's goal, but had it taken away upon video review, denying Lee the first two-point game of his career in his 100th game played. The senior made up for it the following night with a second-period goal at Brown on a deflection in the slot to give his team a 3-0 lead.

PINKSTON'S POINTS
Freshman defender Rick Pinkston (Trenton, Mich.) picked up two assists at Brown for the first multi-point game of his collegiate career. Pinkston had a helper on the opening Robinson tally before his shot from the point in the second period was redirected by Brown's Mike Clemente in goal by Lee for his second assist of the evening. Pinkston now has one goal and four assists and ranks third on the team in scoring by a defenseman.

THREES COMPANY
Saturday night will be the third game of the season against St. Lawrence for the Big Green (1-0-1). Dartmouth also played Yale (0-3) and Brown (3-0) three times this year. During 2010-11, the Big Green also played Yale (0-3), Princeton (3-0) and Colgate (2-1) three times during the regular season. When factoring in the postseason, Dartmouth played Harvard a total of five times (4-1) and Colgate (3-1) four times. The program record for most games against one opponent in a season is six, set against Vermont in 2004-05 (3-3)

GOGGIN'S GOAL
Defender and senior assistant captain Connor Goggin jumped up in the rush at Yale late in the second period with McNally and Lee to start an odd-man rush. A give-and-go passing play with the freshman helped Goggin get the puck as the third man high and put a nice move to juke the goalie out of position and tie the game at 2-2. The goal was his fourth of the season, tying his career high set last year. His 0.46 points per game rank 22nd among defensemen in ECAC Hockey this season.

121 MEANS 24TH
Against Brown, Jones pulled the Dartmouth sweater over his head for the 121st time since coming to Hanover in 2008-09. That figure ranks 24th all time in program history. Prior to 2011-12, just 75 players had ever played in at least 100 career games at Dartmouth. This season, Jones (121), Connor Goggin (117), Jim Gaudet (113), Nick Walsh (105) and Lee (101) have all joined that exclusive club.

EIGHT IS ENOUGH
Robinson's second goal of the night at Meehan Auditorium proved to be the eventual game winner as the Big Green held on, 4-1. Despite leading the team in goals with 12 this season, that was the first game-winning goal of the year and just the second of his career. In all, eight players have scored winners in 2011-12 for Dartmouth, with freshman Tyler Sikura's (Aurora, Ontario) three leading the way.

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