Big Green Bested by Harvard, 2-0, at Thompson in Mid-Week Tilt

Tuesday, November 18

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

HARVARD

Big Green Bested by Harvard, 2-0, at Thompson in Mid-Week Tilt

11/18/2014 9:07:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men's hockey team was held scoreless by visiting Harvard, 2-0, in an ECAC Hockey home loss Tuesday night at Thompson Arena.

Crimson netminder Steve Michalek had 29 saves in posting the shutout win, while the Big Green's James Kruger allowed only one goal and had 22 saves in the loss.

Dartmouth (2-3-1, 2-3-1 ECAC Hockey) attempted 90 total shots in the game, but Harvard (4-1-2, 3-1-2 ECAC Hockey) managed to block 29, while allowing just 29 to find their way through to Michalek, who managed to turn aside everything he saw.

“We played a hard, tough game tonight,” head coach Bob Gaudet said outside the locker room afterward. “I thought we defended 200 feet and played with great pace, we just couldn't score against a team that played really well on the defensive side of the puck.”

Patrick McNally netted the eventual game winner 9:26 into the opening period on a wrist shot from the point that found space to Kruger's left. For McNally, it was his third marker of the season with all three coming against the Big Green after scoring twice in the season opener on Nov. 1 in Cambridge.

Jimmy Vesey's empty netter with 44.4 seconds remaining was the only other time that a puck managed to find the back of the net. The Nashville draft pick sent in a long shot to seal things and help the Crimson to a season series win (1-0-1) and his team's first shutout of Dartmouth in Hanover since Jan. 10, 1953.

It wasn't for a lack of trying that the Big Green were beaten in the middle contest of their current five-game homestand. Kruger made several big-time stops and the home team held the opposition to 41 fewer shot attempts.

Harvard remains perfect on the penalty kill this season at 26-for-26 after denying Dartmouth on all five of its chances with the man-advantage Tuesday.

“We worked our tails off and we moved the puck on the power play like it was on a string, but we just could not put it in. I can't fault the guys for their preparation, their effort or their energy level. We just didn't win,” Gaudet added.

The Big Green will have a bit of a respite, as they don't play again until Saturday Nov. 29 against American International and Sunday Nov. 30 against No. 3 Boston University. The two contests will serve as the collection days for the annual Children's Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD) Toy Drive.