Offensive Outburst Sees Big Green Outlast Clarkson, 6-4

Friday, February 24

Hanover, N.H.

7:30 PM

Dartmouth College

CLARKSON

Offensive Outburst Sees Big Green Outlast Clarkson, 6-4

2/24/2012 10:42:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. - A four-goal offensive explosion in the first period helped the Dartmouth men's hockey team take down Clarkson, 6-4, Friday night at Thompson Arena.

The win allows the Big Green (11-13-4, 8-10-3 ECAC) to control its own destiny Saturday night when it hosts St. Lawrence, 4-1 losers at Harvard Friday night. The winner of tomorrow's tilt will earn the final home-ice spot (No. 8 seed) in the first round of the ECAC Hockey Tournament set to begin next weekend.

Dartmouth can also clinch that No. 8 seed with a tie against the Saints, a team it defeated in November in the first league meeting between the two teams.

Clarkson's (15-14-6, 9-8-4 ECAC) loss means that it no longer controls any scenario to lock up a bye in the first round, but have assured itself at least one home playoff series.

The Big Green opened the game with the Golden Knights with a high-level of play that led to the early offensive onslaught. On a weekend the team will honor the 10-member senior class (the largest in ECAC Hockey), it was the freshman and sophomores that were littered through the final scoresheet.

Freshmen Tyler Sikura (Aurora, Ontario) and Eric Neiley (Warminster, Pa.) each had three points in the first period.

Sophomore Matt Lindblad (Winnetka, Ill.) was also back in a big way after missing the last four games with an injury. Lindblad opened the scoring just 5:24 into the game with a rebound out in front, while also assisting on Neiley's sixth of the season five minutes later.

Sikura scored his 10th of the season three minutes after Neiley's tally to put Dartmouth up 3-0. The freshman center is now second on the team in goals, moving ahead of senior Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) who also had nine entering the game.

The first period seemed all but over for Clarkson as they had the puck deep in its offensive zone looking to kill of the final few seconds. But a pass up the boards from freshman defender Rick Pinkston (Trenton, Mich.) was then guided forward by Jones to freshman Brandon McNally (Saugus, Mass.) streaking through center ice.

Taking the feed and coming in alone on Paul Karpowich with time dwindling down, McNally made a quick stick fake to his left and opened up the league's defending goaltender of the week to bury a wrist shot on the blocker side. The goal came with just 0.3 showing on the clock and sent Dartmouth into the locker room with a 4-0 lead.

Goals from Andrew Himelson on an odd-man rush and Adam Pawlick in the slot helped cut the Golden Knights' deficit to two through 40 minutes of play as Karpowich held the Big Green off the scoreboard in the middle period.

Midway through the third, a Connor Goggin (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) slapshot from the point beat Karpowich high over the glove right off the face off. The goal was his fifth of the year, eclipsing his previous career high of four set last season.

Two Clarkson goals in a 26-second span from Himelson and Louke Oakley in the minutes that followed pulled the team back to within one with just under five minutes remaining.

That's when senior goaltender James Mello (Rehobtoh, Mass.) closed the door on the Golden Knights, stopping several close scoring chances in the waning minutes.

The result became no longer in doubt when McNally's long shot from center ice crossed the goal line of an empty net with 46 seconds remaining. It was the first two-goal game of his career and gives the first-year forward five goals in the team's last five games.

Goggin's third-period power-play blast went from an insurance marker to the eventual game winner after the two Clarkson tallies made it close in the final minutes of regulation.

Mello finished the night with 35 saves in earning his fifth win of the year. Only once this season has Mello posted more saves in a game as he stopped 36 against Princeton on Nov. 5.

Karpowich had 29 stops on the night, taking the loss to drop to 15-12-6.

Both teams were 1-for-4 with the power play.

Dartmouth and St. Lawrence will now battle Saturday night with the final home ice spot in the first round on the line. Game time is set for 7 p.m. from Thompson Arena.

NOTES: Senior Kyle Schussler (Winnipeg, Manitoba) made his first appearance of the season and the first since the second half of his sophomore season. Schussler wasted little time getting on the stat sheet in one way, taking a cross checking penalty in the first three minutes of the first...The win helped Dartmouth salvage a season split with Clarkson, a team that had shutout the Big Green, 4-0, in mid-November...Doug Jones had two assists in the game and now ranks eighth all-time at Dartmouth with 77 in his career ... In all the freshmen combined to score nine points on this night, while Lindblad (1g/1a) and Eric Robinson (1a) gave the sophomores three points... Sikura had been in the midst of a five-game scoring drought before his three-point first period. The three points are also a new career high for the first-year center...The four goals in the first matched the team's season-high for markers in a period. The Big Green scored four times in the first period against Yale on Jan. 28...

TEAM	Possible Seeds	Scenarios
Cornell	1-2	clinched bye, needs 2 pts to clinch #1 seed
Union	1-2	clinched bye
Colgate	3-6	clinched home ice, needs 1 pt to clinch bye
Harvard	3-6	clinched home ice, needs 1 pt to clinch bye
Clarkson	3-7	clinched home ice
Quinnipiac	3-7	clinched home ice
Yale	5-8	clinched home ice
Dartmouth	8-9	needs 1 pt to clinch home ice
St. Lawrence	7-9	needs 2 pts to clinch home ice
RPI	10-11	will travel first round
Princeton	10-12	will travel first round
Brown	11-12	will travel first round