ECAC Hockey Road Trip Sends Dartmouth to Colgate and Cornell

Game 18 // Dartmouth (6-8-3, 3-6-1) vs. No. 15 Colgate (14-7-1, 6-3-1)				Game 19 // Dartmouth (6-8-3, 3-5-1) vs. Cornell (7-8-2, 5-5-0)

Date: Friday, Jan. 23, 2015 // Time: 7 PM Location: Hamilton, N.Y. // Arena: Starr Rink All-Time Series: 45-44-5 // Streak: 0-2-0 Last Meeting: Mar. 1, 2014 // L, 2-1 (Hamilton)				Date: Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015 // Time: 7 PM Location: Ithaca, N.Y. // Arena: Lynah Rink All-Time Series: 44-79-5 // Streak: 1-0-1 Last Meeting: Feb. 28, 2014 // W, 1-0 (Ithaca)
Colgate Media				Cornell Media
TV: None // Radio: WFRD 99.3 FM (99Rock) PBP: Chris Garrett // Color: Pat Salvas Online: GoColgateRaiders.com Live Stats: DartmouthSports.com Twitter: @Dartmouth_MIH Digital Press Box Dartmouth Notes // Colgate Preview Ticket Information				TV: None // Radio: WFRD 99.3 FM (99Rock) PBP: Chris Garrett // Color: Pat Salvas Online: Ivy League Digitial Network Live Stats: DartmouthSports.com Twitter: @Dartmouth_MIH Digital Press Box Dartmouth Notes // Cornell Preview Ticket Information

THIS WEEKEND
The Dartmouth men's hockey team is back on the road for a pair of ECAC Hockey games this weekend against No. 15 Colgate and Cornell.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green are coming off a pair of conference losses to St. Lawrence (3-2) and Clarkson (5-2) at home last weekend. The Big Green hit five posts, including two in the final minute, in the loss to the Saints, falling short in their comeback bid. The next night, Dartmouth erased a two-goal deficit in the second period to pull even with Clarkson, 2-2, through 40 minutes only to see the Golden Knights tack on three in the final period.

Game 16 vs. St. Lawrence // L, 3-2	Game 17 vs. Clarkson // L, 5-2

SCOUTING COLGATE
The Raiders play host to the Big Green as the No. 15 team in the nation according to the latest USCHO.com poll. In its most recent game, Colgate overcame a 3-1 deficit to Union last Saturday night to earn a 5-4 win in Schenectady. Tylor Spink scored the winner with 3:23 left to put the visitors up one after Union had tied the game at 4-4 just two minutes earlier. The victory was the fifth in the last six games after falling, 4-1, the night before at RPI. This season, the Raiders are led by junior Tyson Spink and his 20 points on 10 goals and 10 assists, which rank first and fourth, respectively, on the team. Sophomore Charlie Finn has once again been strong in Colgate's crease, posting a 14-6-1 mark with a 1.98 goals against average and a .926 save percentage in 21 appearances this season.

SCOUTING CORNELL
The Big Red left the Capital District with similar results to their ECAC Hockey brethren from Hamilton, defeating Union (5-1) and falling at RPI (3-0) last weekend. In the four-goal win against the Dutchmen, Cole Bardreau dished out three assists to put him atop the team's leaderboard in both helpers (8) and points (9) through 17 games this season. The Big Red's 30 goals this season rank tied for 10th in ECAC Hockey with Brown, ahead of only Princeton (22). However, where the team lacks offensively, it more than makes up for it with some of the best team defense in the nation. Cornell's 1.65 goals against average not only ranks second in the conference, but second in the country behind only Yale (1.53). Their 25.5 shots on goal per game ranks 53rd in the nation (59 teams). Despite all these figures, the Big Red are still 7-8-2 overall this season and 5-5-0 in league games (8th).

THIS TRIP LAST YEAR
Dartmouth ended the regular season with this trip last season, splitting the weekend with these two opponents. Dartmouth started with a 1-0 win at Cornell as Charles Grant became the first Big Green netminder to earn a shutout at Lynah Rink since Tom Wahman '60 accomplished the feat on Jan. 23, 1960, snapping a stretch of 54 years. The following night, Colgate handed the Green a 2-1 defeat with two markers in the third period from Tylor Spink and Joe Wilson. Eric Neiley netted the lone Dartmouth goal at Colgate, while Tyler Sikura's marker the night before was the lone goal of the game in front of the sellout of 4,267 at Cornell.

SENIORS SCORE
All four of Dartmouth's goals in the losses to St. Lawrence and Clarkson came from the sticks of senior players. Eric Neiley and Brandon McNally netted markers in Friday's game with the Saints, while Tyler Sikura and Rick Pinkston scored in the second period of Saturday's contest with Clarkson. In all, 24 of the team's 43 goals this season have come from the senior class, representing 55.8% of the total output.

GOALIE DUO
Dartmouth went with different goalies on back-to-back nights for the first time all season when Charles Grant started against St. Lawrence and James Kruger got the nod the following night against the Golden Knights.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
This weekend marks the first overnight road trip for the Green since a Dec. 5-6 weekend at Quinnipiac and Princeton. Since then, Dartmouth has played six home games and a down-and-back daytrip to UNH.

HOME SWEEP
St. Lawrence and Clarkson became the first teams since… St. Lawrence and Clarkson to sweep a home weekend from the Big Green. The Saints and Golden Knights defeated Dartmouth on Nov. 8-9, 2013 last season, marking the most recent instance when teams handed the Green and White home losses on consecutive nights. The team had gone seven two-game weekends at Thompson without losing both since those contests last November.

CREMA'S COMEBACK
Sophomore Troy made his 2014-15 debut Saturday against Clarkson. Coming back from an injury that sidelined him during the second half of last season and the first half of this year, Crema had sat out Dartmouth's last 29 regular season and playoff games before cracking the lineup on the left side of Jack Barre and Carl Hesler.

0-FOR-'15
The loss to Clarkson pushed the Big Green's current winless stretch to six games (0-4-2), having not picked up a 'W' since the Dec. 14 game against Sacred Heart at Thompson, which ended 8-3 in favor of the home team.

5 AND 3 FOR THE FIRST TIME
Clarkson became the first team this season to score five goals against Dartmouth as well as the first to net three in a period. The third Golden Knights' marker of the period was an empty netter.

THAT'S A LOT OF PENALTIES
The 25 penalty minutes against St. Lawrence tied the Big Green's season high that was also reached in a Nov. 14 home game vs. Yale. The Saints' 27 penalty minutes in the same game were also the most by any opponent this season. Both teams combined to go 0-for-11 on the PP, while Gunnar Hughes' shorthanded goal in the first period was the lone tally on special teams in the game.

MAC WAS BACK
Brandon McNally scored with 1:29 left in regulation and Grant pulled for the extra skater to get Dartmouth to within one goal against St. Lawrence. It was his first goal since the season opener at Harvard on Nov. 1. McNally also added an assist on the Neiley goal for his second multi-point effort of the season and the first since the game in Cambridge.

AGAINST THE TOP DEFENSES
The Big Green will have to improve upon its 1.67 goals per game in January to be successful this weekend against two of the stingiest defensive teams in the country. Cornell's 1.63 goals allowed per game ranks second nationally, while Colgate's 2.09 is 10th. Dartmouth is still in the upper half of teams in the country in terms of team defense with 2.41 goals allowed per game, good for 24th.

OUR PP VS. THEIR PIMS AND PK
Dartmouth's power play is currently in the midst of a 0-for-14 slump in the last three games. It will have to compete with a team on Saturday whose penalty-killing unit is the third best in the nation this season at 90.6% and has been outstanding in the second half with a success rate of 94.1%. What makes Cornell's PK figures so impressive is that the Big Red find themselves in the penalty box more than most teams in the country as their 16.4 penalty minutes per game is second in all of Division I (Alaska Anchorage -16.6). Colgate averages 14.3 PIMs per contest, the 10th most in the country, while its penalty kill ranks 16th at 86.2%

No. 15
Colgate will be the third team Dartmouth has faced this season ranked No. 15 by the USCHO.com Poll at the time of the game. They also played Quinnipiac (L, 2-1/OT) and Boston Collge (L, 3-2) when they were ranked 15th in the nation.

FOLLOW ALONG
Fans can follow the action this weekend with the radio call on 99.3FM WFRD with Chris Garrett providing play-by-play commentary. Saturday's game at Cornell will be broadcast live on the Ivy League Digital Network for subscribers, while Friday's game will be carried live for FREE on GoColgateRaiders.com. Those looking for commentary during the game along with information and insight are encouraged to follow the team's official Twitter account: @Dartmouth_MIH.

WHAT'S AHEAD?
Following the road weekend at Colgate and Cornell, Dartmouth returns home to face off with Rensselaer (Jan. 30) and Union (Jan. 31), two teams they split with back in early November.

Game 20 // vs. Rensselaer // Jan. 30	Game 21 // vs. Union // Jan. 31

Schedules