Big Green to Host No. 11 Union and RPI This Weekend at Thompson

Game 24 - Friday, Feb. 10, 2012 - 7 p.m.
Dartmouth Big Green (9-10-4, 6-7-3 ECAC) vs.
No. 11/11 Union Dutchmen (16-6-7, 10-3-4 ECAC)
Location: Hanover, N.H. - Thompson Arena (4,500)
All-Time Series: Dartmouth, 23-16-4
First Meeting: Dec. 16,1977 - Home - W, 5-3
Last Meeting: Jan. 7, 2012 - Away - L, 7-1
Streak: Union, 1-0-0
Last Dartmouth Win: Jan. 21, 2011 - Away - W, 4-1

Game 25 - Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012 - 7 p.m.
Dartmouth Big Green (9-10-4, 6-7-3 ECAC) vs.
Rensselaer Engineers (7-19-2, 4-10-2 ECAC)
Location: Hanover, N.H. - Thompson Arena (4,500)
All-Time Series: RPI, 40-31-4
First Meeting: Jan. 17, 1908 - Away - T, 4-4 (2OT)
Last Meeting: Jan. 6, 2012 - Away - W, 4-3
Streak: Dartmouth, 1-0-0
Last Dartmouth Win: Jan. 6, 2012 - Away - W, 4-3

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

Dartmouth Notes • Union Notes • Union Preview • RPI Notes • RPI Preview • Live Stats • Live Video

HANOVER, N.H. - Dartmouth's stretch of five games in eight days is over and after a week of practice and rest, the team is returning home for a big weekend of ECAC Hockey play.

This weekend's opponents could not be anymore different in terms of their places in the league standings. Union comes to Thompson Arena for its only trip this season with 24 points and the top spot in ECAC Hockey.

The first meeting between these two teams was the most lopsided game of the season for the Big Green, who fell 7-1 to the Dutchmen at Messa Rink on Jan. 7. The lone bright spot that night was a shorthanded goal from freshman Jesse Beamish (Mississauga, Ontario) when the game was already out of hand.

In contrast, Saturday's opposition has been struggling this season. Rensselaer makes the trip to Hanover in 12th place in ECAC Hockey standings. A 4-10-2 record in league play has the Engineers with just 10 points, trailing Brown by two to get out of the conference basement.

In the first nationally-broadcast college hockey game on the new NBC Sports Network, Dartmouth went into Houston Field House and walked away with a 4-3 win.

That victory came in large part due to a strong second period that saw the Big Green score three times in a seven-minute window. RPI showed a great deal of resiliency that night, coming back and scoring two goals on the power play in a short period of time to make it a one-goal game. However, stellar play in goal that night from sophomore Cab Morris (Wilmette, Ill.) helped preserve the win.

After a 6-2 win over Brown two Fridays ago, the Big Green have hit a bit of a rough patch, despite making a slight move up in the standings.

Winless in its last four contests, Dartmouth has dropped a home game to Yale and a road game at Quinnipiac. Sandwiched between those defeats were two very different ties.

At Harvard in a rare Tuesday night contest, the Big Green allowed Harvard to come back from a two-goal deficit to earn a 2-2 tie as the Crimson put on a late surge that eventually led to the equalizer.

This past Friday saw Princeton score three times, and after each Tigers' goal, the Big Green answered with one of their own. Controlling play nearing the midway point of the third period, a Beamish wrist shot shattered a pane of glass over the shoulder of the Princeton goalie, delaying the game for exactly 60 minutes.

Coming out of the delay, neither team was able to find the back of the net again and the game ended deadlocked at three apiece. Early momentum saw the Big Green hit two posts, but that would be as close to scoring as either side would get with each taking the ECAC Hockey point for their efforts.

GAME NOTES
MOVING ON
Dartmouth returns to Thompson Arena after three games on the road in a five-day period. Ties at Harvard and Princeton and a loss at Quinnipiac have pushed the team's winless streak to four games (0-2-2), its longest of the season and the longest stretch since January 2010 (0-4-0).

STUCK
Senior Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) has been stuck at 99-career points for three games. Jones notched an assist 9:51 into the first period of the loss to Yale two Saturdays ago. Since then, the senior winger has been unable to get back on the scoresheet and become the 36th player in program history to hit the century mark in points.

NEILEY'S PAIR
Freshman Eric Neiley (Warminster, Pa.) has hit his stride at the midway point of the season. His two goals at Hobey Baker Rink marked the first two-goal game of his young career and just his second multi-point game. It was also just the second time this season that a Dartmouth player had two goals in a game, joining sophomore Eric Robinson (Foxboro, Mass.) who did so on Nov. 27 at Vermont.

CONNOR COME LATELY
After just three points in the Big Green's first 16 games, senior Connor Goggin (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) has come on strong at the offensive end of the ice lately. Since Jan. 20 against Cornell, the elder Goggin has eight points (2g/6a), including three multi-point games in that time. At Princeton, he notched a third-period goal and assist on Neiley's second.

JODY SAVES
In three games of work this week, senior goaltender Jody O'Neill (Nepean, Ontario) was tested often. The Dartmouth netminder had 26 saves in a tie at Harvard before stopping 36 and 38, respectively, at Princeton and Quinnipiac over the weekend. The latter were the two best save totals this season for O'Neill in five starts and six appearances.

PLETHORA OF PEOPLE WITH POINTS AT PRINCETON
Despite scoring just three times at Princeton, Dartmouth saw four players record more than one point on the night. Neiley had two goals, while Connor Goggin scored once and assisted on another. Sophomore Matt Lindblad (Winnetka, Ill.) and freshman Tyler Sikura (Aurora, Ontario) each finished the night with two helpers as well.

LAST TIME OUT VERSUS THESE TEAMS
The Big Green travelled to the Capitol District in early January and came out with a weekend split.

A 4-3 win at RPI on Jan. 6 came thanks in large part to an explosive second period by the visitors and two tremendous saves by sophomore goalie Cab Morris (Wilmette, Ill.) late in the game to preserve the lead. In that game, freshman Rick Pinkston (Trenton, Mich.) scored the first goal of his career on a shot through traffic from the point. Junior Alex Goodship (Blackfalds, Alberta) and freshman Brandon McNally (Saugus, Mass.) scored their second goals of the season in that game as well with McNally's marker being the first non-empty net goal of his college career.

Against Union the following night in Messa Rink, things got off to a bumpy start and never improved as the Dutchmen handed Dartmouth its worse loss of the season, 7-1. Jesse Beamish's (Mississauga, Ontario) shorthanded breakaway goal late in the third erased Troy Grosenick's shutout bid, but did little more than stop the bleeding late in a lopsided game. Union was 4-for-6 in the game with the power play, including converting on the first four of its opportunities. Troy Grosenick turned aside 29 shots in the game, while Daniel Carr and Trevor Mingoia each had two goals for the Dutchmen, while Shayne Gostisbehere, Jeremy Welsh and Cole Ikkala each had one for the home team.

SOPHOMORE SCORING
After just three goals and 11 points as a freshman, Robinson has proven to be a top-level scoring threat for the Big Green in 2011-12. Already this year, the Foxboro, Mass., native has a team-leading 10 goals and is tied for first in points with 17. His goal late in the third period at Quinnipiac helped Dartmouth cut the deficit in half, 2-1, and set up a late-game surge for the equalizer that ultimately fell just short. Nine of Robinson's goals have come at even strength.

RACKING UP ASSISTS
Lindblad's two helpers at Princeton gave him a team-leading 14 this season. Only Jones has reached double-figures in assists this year for the Big Green. Lindblad also has three goals as a sophomore and is one of four players tied for the team lead with 17 points.

SPEAKING OF HELPERS
Sikura had two assists at Princeton, marking the first time in his career that he had more than one helper in a game. On three previous occasions, the freshman sniper had a goal and an assist in a contest for multiple points, but had never had two of either in a single game.

HOME SWEET HOME
Dartmouth returns home to the confines of Thompson Arena this weekend, a place that has been very good to the Big Green this season. Six of the team's nine victories in 2011-12 have come on its own rink, a figure that bodes well considering four of its six remaining games are at home. Currently seventh in the league standings, Dartmouth is playing for postseason positioning in a league where the top eight teams are guaranteed at least one home playoff round.

STRETCH RUN
The stretch run (February/March) of any season is important to a team looking to lock up a higher seed in postseason play. During the tenure of this year's senior class (2008-9 to present), the Big Green are 13-18-4 down the stretch. Last season's mark of 7-6-0 has been the best in that time (which includes this season's 0-1-1 record) and featured a run to Atlantic City and the Consolation Game of the 2011 ECAC Hockey Championships.

100 GAMES FOR ANOTHER
Friday's game at Princeton was the 100th in the career of senior Nick Walsh (Shannonville, Ontario). He is the fourth player this season to reach the century mark in career games, joining Connor Goggin, Jones and Jim Gaudet (Etna, N.H.). Fellow senior Paul Lee (Garden City, N.Y.) is the next player on the list capable of reaching the figure as he enters the weekend with 97 games played in a Dartmouth sweater.

PANE IN THE GLASS
Dartmouth's game with Princeton was delayed an hour due to the third pane of glass being broken that day at Hobey Baker Rink. Each team broke one at opposite ends during their morning skates, before a Beamish wrist shot from above the circles sailed over the net and broke another piece below the press box, sending both teams to the locker room for an hour while a new pane was located and installed with 12:36 remaining in regulation.

CENTURY MARK
Jones is on the cusp of becoming the 36th player in a Dartmouth uniform to reach 100 points. In doing so, he will try and join former teammates Adam Estoclet '11 (Orono, Maine) and Scott Fleming '11 (Plainfield, Ontario) who both reached the figure last season. Estoclet and Fleming didn't just reach the milestone in the same season, but both did so on the same night in a 4-2 home victory over St. Lawrence on March 3. After Jones, the next closest Dartmouth player to 100 points is sophomore Matt Lindblad with 45 (16g/29a). Fleming finished his career with 106 points (54g/52a), while Estoclet's time in Hanover ended with 104 (39g/65a).

Schedules