Dartmouth Opens 2015-16 With Home-and-Home Against Harvard

Dartmouth Men's Hockey This Weekend	Game 1 Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015	Game 2 Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015
Dartmouth Men's Hockey This Weekend
Opponent	No. 11 Harvard (0-0-0, 0-0-0)	No. 11 Harvard (0-0-0, 0-0-0)
Location	Hanover, N.H.	Cambridge, Mass.
Arena	Thompson Arena	Bright-Landry Hockey Center
All-Time Series	Harvard, 130-62-13	-
Streak	0-2-1	-
Last Meeting	Nov. 18, 2014 / L, 2-0 (Hanover)	Nov. 18, 2014 / L, 2-0 (Hanover)
Video	ILDN	ILDN
Radio	99Rock WFRD
Play-by-Play	Chris Garrett
In-Game Twitter	@Dartmouth_MIH / @Harvard_Hockey
Notes	Dartmouth Notes	Harvard Notes / Preview
Tickets	Dartmouth Ticket Office	Harvard Ticket Office
Information Center / Digital Press Box / Dartmouth Stats / Dartmouth Schedule / Coach's Corner

THIS WEEKEND
The Dartmouth men's hockey team will open the 2015-16 season with a home-and-home series against Harvard, the defending ECAC Hockey Tournament Champion. The weekend begins Saturday night in Hanover at 7:30 p.m., before the two Ivy foes move to Cambridge for a 7 p.m. contest Sunday night.

SEASON OPENERS
Since 1997-98, Dartmouth is 8-8-2 in season-opening games, including a 2-1-2 mark since 2010. In that 18-year stretch, the Big Green and Crimson have squared off in the opener seven times with Harvard winning five. The lone Dartmouth victory came in Cambridge on Oct. 27, 2006 (5-2), while the two played to a 3-3 draw in last season's first game in the newly renovated Bright-Landry Hockey Center.

HOW WE FINISHED 2014-15
The Big Green saw their 2014-15 campaign end in Hamilton, New York, to Colgate in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals in two games. Dartmouth and the Raiders finished tied for fourth in the standings, but Colgate earned the No. 4 seed and the first-round bye via the tiebreaker. The regular season ended with a pair of wins against Princeton and No. 10 Quinnipiac before the Tigers returned to Hanover the following weekend only to be swept by the fifth-seeded Big Green in the first round of the conference's postseason. Dartmouth finished the year 17-12-4 overall, 12-8-2 in ECAC Hockey contests and 7-2-1 against the other Ivies, finishing second to Yale by just one point.

SCOUTING HARVARD
The Crimson start the season with a plethora of expectations. Picked first by the league's coaches, the defending postseason tournament champions rolled through the competition last March in Lake Placid and earned the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Jimmy Vesey returns to the Harvard lineup for his senior season, spurning offers from the Nashville Predators to sign a pro contract following last season's 32-goal, 58-point season that saw him finish in the top-3 for the Hobey Baker voting. Also back is 48-point scorer Kyle Criscuolo and Alex Kerfoot, a 30-point scorer, to play alongside Vesey. In goal, freshman Michael Lackey played the first 40 minutes of the Crimson's exhibition against New Brunswick on Saturday night, making 12 saves and allowing just one goal before senior Peter Traber came in for the third period and overtime, stopping eight and allowing two.

LAST SEASON AGAINST THE CRIMSON
Dartmouth was 0-1-1 against Harvard last season, playing the Crimson twice at the beginning of the season when they were racing up the national rankings. After the 3-3 tie in Cambridge to start the season, the two played a Tuesday night contest on Nov. 18 in Hanover in which the visitors won 2-0 with Vesey hitting the empty net in the final minute.

BACK BEHIND THE BENCH
Bob Gaudet '81 returns for the 19th season as head coach of his alma mater. His 261 wins rank second in program history behind only the legendary Eddie Jeremiah '28 (301). Last season, Gaudet reached 250 wins at Dartmouth and 350 wins overall in his 27th season as a head coach between Hanover and a nine-season run with Brown (1988-97).

SENIOR STRONG
This year's roster features 10 seniors. Only Miami (OH) has a roster that has as many players in their final campaigns as the Big Green and Redhawks. That senior class features two goaltenders, five forwards, two defensemen and Brett Patterson who plays both positions.

BETWEEN THE PIPES
Seniors James Kruger and Charles Grant, along with sophomore Devin Buffalo, will make up the trio of goalies on the roster this season. Kruger (13-9-4, 1.98 GAA, .926 S%) is coming off the best statistical season by a goalie in the program's 109-year history, recording the first sub-2.00 goals against average. Grant (4-3-0, 3.18 GAA, 8.76 S%) has proven to be a No. 1 goalie in the past and will battle Kruger for time between the pipes. Buffalo did not see action during his freshman season, but looked sharp in not allowing a goal during his period of play against Prince Edward Island during the preseason scrimmage.

WEARING THE 'C'
Senior Brad Schierhorn will wear the 'C' on his sweater as captain this year, becoming the 117th captain in program history. The Anchorage native also is the first Alaskan player ever to be named captain of a Dartmouth hockey team on either the men's or women's side.

WEARING THE 'A'
It was announced late this week that senior defenseman Geoff Ferguson will serve as the team's alternate captain and wear the 'A' on his chest. Ferguson — a native of Kanata, Ontario — is a veteran of 93 career games and is an imposing 6-foot-2, 215-pound staple on the Dartmouth blueline. Last season, Ferguson was second on the team in blocked shots with 45, while he led all of ECAC Hockey in blocks as a sophomore in 2013-14.

PRESEASON RECAP
The preseason began with a last-minute 5-4 exhibition loss to the US National Team Development Program on Oct. 17. The Big Green bounced back with a 7-0 victory this past Saturday in a formal scrimmage with PEI. In that game, six different Dartmouth players registered goals with sophomore Corey Kalk scoring twice. Kalk also had a goal against Team USA the week before.

THOMPSON TURNS 40!
Thompson Arena is celebrating its 40th anniversary this season after opening its doors for the 1975-76 season. This year's senior class has helped Dartmouth to a 26-19-5 home mark during their time in Hanover. The Big Green are just 13-25-2 in home openers since the move from Davis Rink to Thompson Arena.

BOUNCING BACK FROM INJURY!
After missing most of the second half of last season with a leg injury, senior winger Tim O'Brien is back and healthy for the start of the 2015-16 campaign. The Winnetka, Illinois, native played well in the preseason, finishing a plus-2 with a pair of assists in the win against PEI.

PRESEASON POLLS
Dartmouth was picked seventh in ECAC Hockey's preseason media poll, while the conference's head coaches tabbed the Green and White ninth in their preseason rankings.

NATIONAL RANKINGS
The Big Green were in and out of the receiving votes section of the national polls during their preseason, earning 18 points in the Oct. 19 poll that followed the team's 5-4 loss to the USNTDP. Despite the convincing win against PEI this weekend, Dartmouth did not garner a single vote and will start the season unranked.

DEPTH AT DEFENSE
The Big Green will have six returning defensemen this season. Seniors Ferguson and Ryan Bullock will be joined by juniors Josh Hartley and Brandon Kirk and sophomores Tim Shoup and River Rymsha. Freshmen Cameron Roth, Karan Toor and Connor Yau will all be making their collegiate debuts this season on the Dartmouth blueline.

FILLED AT FORWARD
In addition to Schierhorn and O'Brien, Nick Bligh, Jack Barre and Connor Dempsey will make-up the five senior forwards. Juniors Grant Opperman and Troy Crema and sophomores Kevin Neiley, Carl Hesler and Kalk all return looking to earn spots in the forward rotation. Kevan Kilistoff, Alex Jasiek and John Ernsting are the newest members of the forward group and comprise half of the Class of 2019.

FOLLOW ALONG
Both games this weekend will be carried live and in HD on the Ivy League Digital Network for subscribers. Fans can also follow along with live stats on DartmouthSports.com as well as the team's official Twitter account (@Dartmouth_MIH) for in-game updates and commentary. You can also find this weekend's game as well as every game all season on 99.3FM WFRD 99Rock with Chris Garrett providing play-by-play.

WHAT'S AHEAD?
Following the weekend with the Crimson, Dartmouth will return home for a pair of contests against Brown (Nov. 6) and Yale (Nov. 7). The Green will then head out on the road for sevent straight games and not return to Hanover again until the Ledyard Classic on Jan. 2-3.

Game 3 Friday, Nov. 6, 2015 - 7:05 PM	Game 3 Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015 - 7:05 PM

Thompson Arena / Hanover	Thompson Arena / Hanover

Schedules