Granite State Battle Set for Friday as Big Green Visits UNH

Dartmouth Men's Hockey 3-6-1	Game 11 Friday, Dec. 11, 2015 7:30 PM
Dartmouth Men's Hockey 3-6-1
Opponent	New Hampshire 5-6-1
Location	Durham, N.H.
Arena	Whittemore Center
All-Time Series	19-34-3
Streak	0-1-1
Last Meeting	Jan. 9, 2015 // T, 2-2 (OT) \| Durham
Video	Fox College Sports & WBIN-TV // UNHwildcats.TV
Radio	99Rock WFRD
Play-by-Play	Chris Garrett
In-Game Twitter	@Dartmouth_MIH / @UNHHockey
Notes: Dartmouth	UNH Notes / Preview
Tickets	UNH Ticket Office
Information Center / Digital Press Box / Dartmouth Stats / Dartmouth Schedule / Live Stats

TALE OF THE TAPE
	Dartmouth	New Hampshire
Emoji	🌲	🐱
Record	3-6-1	5-6-4
Goals For	19	55
Goals Against	39	56
Assists	32	100
Points	51	155
Streak	0-1-0	2-0-1
Home	1-2-0	3-3-1
Road	2-4-1	2-3-3
Neutral	0-0-0	0-0-0
Goals Leader	Bligh/Barre (4)	Poturalski (14)
Assists Leader	Crema (5)	Kelleher (21)
Points Leader	Crema/Barre (6)	Poturalski (30)
PIMs Leader	Rymsha (22)	Correale/ Furgele (12)
GWG	Three (1)	Gaudreault (2)
Wins	Kruger (2)	Tirone (3)
Goals-Against Average	Buffalo (1.69)	Tirone (3.76)
Save%	Buffalo (.945)	Tirone (.888)

THE BATTLE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
The Dartmouth men's hockey team caps its seven-game road trip Friday in a battle between the two Granite State teams with a 7:30 p.m. contest at New Hampshire. The game will be carried live on Fox College Sports and WBIN.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green are coming off a weekend split in the New York Capital District with a 2-1 win at Rensselaer on Friday, followed by a 3-0 defeat the next evening at Union.

DONE FOR A WHILE
Friday's game marks the final game of 2015 for the team as they head into the holiday break having played the first 11 games of the schedule.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
● UNH has a 5-6-4 overall record and is 2-1-4 against Hockey East competition coming into the weekend. The Wildcats played to a 3-3 tie in Orono on Friday night, before returning home to defeat Maine, 5-2, at the Whittemore Center on Saturday during the annual 'White out the Whit' game.
● The Wildcats are 0-3-0 against ECAC Hockey competition this season with home losses to St. Lawrence (3-2/OT) and Clarkson (4-3) in October and on the road at RPI (4-3) in November. In an odd set of scheduling circumstances, Friday's game will also break up a five-game stretch where UNH plays Maine four times as the two will play again in Portland and Manchester on consecutive days in late December.
● UNH boasts the nation's top-two point producers as sophomore Andrew Poturalski leads the country in both goals (14) and points (30), while junior Tyler Kelleher is second nationally in points with 27 and tied for the most assists in Division I with 21.

AGAINST UNH
These two teams met in Durham back on Jan. 9 with UNH salvaging a tie as Grayson Downing scored twice in the final period, including the tying marker with 40 seconds left and the goalie pulled.

UNH Week. pic.twitter.com/XdFjFUEqmJ
— Dartmouth Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) December 8, 2015

IN DURHAM…
● Dartmouth and UNH have only played 15 all-time games in Durham against one another after last season's 2-2 draw. However, the two have played 18 neutral site games, including 12 in Manchester, three in Boston, two in Burlington and one in Detroit during the 1979 Frozen Four.
● Prior to last season's tilt, the Big Green had not played in Durham since Jan. 3, 2000, a stretch of 5,486 days between games on their in-state rivals' home ice. Before that, the last time Dartmouth and UNH met on the Seacoast was a Dec. 29, 1992 game at Snively Arena, three years before the opening of the Whittemore Center.

FIRST CAREER WIN
Goaltender Devin Buffalo began his career with a great story in Michigan by making 37 saves in a 1-1 tie. However, it was a 28-save performance against RPI in Troy that gave the Alberta native his first collegiate win between the pipes.

DROPPING FAST
Since taking over as the starting goalie against Michigan on Nov. 28, Buffalo has helped the Big Green's team goals against average drop from 4.86 to 3.90 in just three games. Buffalo allowed just one goal in each of his first two starts and just the two first-period markers from Union before the Dutchmen hit the empty net in the final minute.

CARL! SO GOOD TO SEE YOU!
Sophomore Carl Hesler is scoring goals in bunches lately. The second-year forward has three goals in the team's last five games, matching his total output from his first season with the Green and White. In all, Hesler has scored three of the last five Dartmouth goals dating back to the Quinnipiac game on Nov. 14.

WINNING DRAWS ON THE ROAD
● The Big Green have a .580 winning percentage on faceoffs in road games this season, the second-best figure in the nation (BC, .582). UNH is 52nd of 60 Division I teams on the draw at home, winning just .478 percentage of faceoffs in Durham.
● Union was the top faceoff team in the country coming into the game with No. 3 Dartmouth, but the visiting team won 33-of-61 faceoffs in the game (.541).

BACK OFF, THIS ISN'T EASY!
Dartmouth's slate of games remains the toughest in the nation this year according to the strength of schedule figures from across Division I. The Green have already played five teams in the top-16 of the current Pairwise Rankings and another against RPI, who is 17th.

FIRSTS!
Against RPI, both sophomore Kevin Neiley and freshman Karan Toor registered their first career points with assists on Dartmouth's two goals. Neiley set up Hesler's first-period one-timer, while Toor's keep at the blueline helped Grant Opperman collect the puck and hit Brett Patterson in the slot for the winner.

IN THE 3RD…
For just the second time this season, Dartmouth scored a goal in the third period in the game at RPI. The Green had just three third-period goals coming into the weekend with all three coming against Brown in early November as part of a 7-3 win. Patterson's goal 8:51 into the third proved to be the winner against the Engineers, while also marking just the second time in nine games (to that point) the team scored in the final 20 minutes of regulation.

SO LONG, ROAD TRIP!
The game at UNH marks the final contest in the current seven-game road trip, the longest of the season. The last time Dartmouth played seven straight games away from Hanover in one season was at the end of 2013-14 when it finished the regular season with Colgate and Cornell before a three-game first-round match-up at RPI and two games at Union in the quarterfinals. A nine-game stretch (3-2-4) came in the 2003-04 regular season from mid-November through the end of December that ended with a pair of games in Vermont's holiday tournament against UMass and Minnesota State.

FOLLOW ALONG
Fans can follow along with live stats on DartmouthSports.com both nights. The game will also be televised live on WBIN, while subscribers to UNH's video service (UNHwildcats.tv) can watch Friday night's 7:30 p.m. contest if they do not have WBIN. Chris Garrett will also be in Durham handling play-by-play duties on WFRD 99Rock. Fans are also encouraged to follow the team's official Twitter account for in-game updates and insights: @Dartmouth_MIH.

WHAT'S AHEAD?
Following the game, Dartmouth will have a three-week break from action for the holidays. The team returns to action on Jan. 2-3 in the annual Ledyard Classic at Thompson Arena, taking on Robert Morris and Merrimack. Union is the fourth team taking part in the two-day tournament and will play those same schools on opposite days of the home team.

Schedules