Dartmouth Continues Road Swing in NY Capital District

Dartmouth Men's Hockey 2-5-1, 2-4-0 ECAC Hockey	Game 9 Friday, Dec. 4, 2015 7 PM	Game 10 Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015 7:30 PM
Dartmouth Men's Hockey 2-5-1, 2-4-0 ECAC Hockey
Opponent	RV Rensselaer 8-5-2, 4-0-2 ECAC	Union 4-6-3, 1-5-0 ECAC
Location	Troy, N.Y.	Schenectady, N.Y.
Arena	Houston Field House	Messa Rink
All-Time Series	35-46-5	26-23-7
Streak	1-0-0	2-0-0
Last Meeting	Jan. 30, 2015 // W, 3-1 \| Hanover	Jan. 31, 2015 // W, 3-2 \| Hanover
Video	RPI TV (Free)	UnionAthletics.tv ($)
Radio	99Rock WFRD
Play-by-Play	Chris Garrett
In-Game Twitter	@Dartmouth_MIH @RPI_Hockey	@Dartmouth_MIH @UnionHockey
Notes: Dartmouth	RPI Notes / Preview	Union Notes / Preview
Tickets	RPI Ticket Office	Union Ticket Office
Information Center / Digital Press Box / Dartmouth Stats / Dartmouth Schedule / Live Stats

TALE OF THE TAPE
	Dartmouth	Rensselaer	Union
Emoji	🌲	📐	🌷
Record	2-5-1 (2-4-0)	8-5-2 (4-0-2)	4-6-3 (1-5-0)
Goals For	17	40	33
Goals Against	35	40	35
Assists	28	66	55
Points	45	106	88
Streak	0-2-1	0-0-1	1-0-0
Home	1-2-0	4-1-1	2-4-2
Road	1-3-1	3-2-1	2-2-0
Neutral	0-0-0	1-2-0	0-0-0
Goals Leader	Bligh/Barre (4)	Bourbonnais (8)	Scarfo (6)
Assists Leader	Crema (4)	Prapavessis (8)	Pontarelli (8)
Points Leader	Crema (5)	Bourbonnais (12)	Pontarelli (9)
PIMs Leader	Rymsha (22)	Liljegren (34)	Wilkins (40)
GWG	Bligh/Barre (1)	Bourbonnais/Miller (2)	Four (1)
Wins	Kruger (2)	Hackett (5)	Sakellaropoulos (8)
GAA	Buffalo (1.90)	Kasdorf (2.46)	Sakellaropoulos (1.75)
Save%	Buffalo (.942)	Hackett (.929)	Sakellaropoulos (.924)

THIS WEEKEND
The Dartmouth men's hockey team is back in action this weekend in the New York Capital District with a pair of games at Rensselaer and Union on Friday and Saturday evenings.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green are back from a trip to No. 12 Michigan that they split with the Wolverines. Dartmouth dropped the first game, 7-0, before a total-team effort on Saturday night saw it earn a hard-fought 1-1 tie at Yost Arena.

OH… THE ROAD AGAIN?
This weekend in Troy and Schenectady marks the fifth and sixth contests in a seven-game road trip. So far, the Green are 1-2-1 in the first four with the win at Princeton, losses at Quinnipiac and Michigan and the tie against the Wolverines.

SKATE WITH THE BIG GREEN / CHaD TOY DRIVE
On Sunday afternoon (12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.), the team will host its annual “Skate With the Big Green.” This year's event will also be combined with another Big Green hockey tradition: the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD) toy drive. Fans are encouraged to bring a new, unwrapped toy to be donated to CHaD. Players and staff will be on hand to collect the toys that they will then bring to the kids on Monday morning. (Complete Release)

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
● Rensselaer is one of the hottest in ECAC Hockey right now and sits atop the league standings at 4-0-2 along with No. 3 Quinnipiac. The Engineers are coming off a weekend in South Bend where they finished as runners up in Notre Dame's Shillelagh Tournament. RPI fell to Harvard, 4-0, in the title game, but had knocked off Western Michigan, 4-1, to reach Saturday night's tilt with the Crimson.
● Junior Riley Bourbonnais leads the team in scoring (12) and goals (8), while Dallas draft pick Mike Prapavessis has a team-high eight assists.
● Senior Jason Kasdorf (3-4-0/.927/.246) and freshman Cam Hackett (5-1-2/.929/2.56) have split time in goal this season with nearly identical numbers.

AGAINST RPI
These two split last season's games, 1-1, with the home team winning both. RPI's Zach Schroeder scored with 19 seconds left in regulation to give the Engineers the 2-1 win on Nov. 8 in Troy. The Big Green won the Hanover game, 3-1, on Jan. 30 with Troy Crema and Kyle Nickerson each scoring their first goals of the season. For Nickerson, it was the first goal of his career.

SCOUTING THE DUTCHMEN
● Union is coming off just its second win in the last nine games with a 4-0 win at then-No. 13 Merrimack on Saturday night. The Dutchmen are 4-6-3 overall, but just 1-5-0 in ECAC Hockey, which has them tied for 10th in the conference standings with both Princeton and Clarkson as all three have just two points early in the league schedule.
● Union has played 13 games this season with just the contest at Merrimack coming over the New York state line. The Dutchmen have played nine games at Messa Rink, two in the North Country against St. Lawrence and Clarkson and one at cross-town rival RPI.
● Junior Michael Pontarelli's eight points and six assists are both the most by any player on the Union roster to this point. Sophomore Ryan Scarfo has a team-high six goals. Junior Alex Sakellaropoulos (3-4-3/.924/2.19) has been the Dutchmen's goalie nearly three-quarters of the minutes played so far in 2015-16.

AGAINST UNION
With its 2-0-0 mark last season, Dartmouth swept a season series from Union for the first time since the 1999- 2000 campaign. The Big Green trailed the Dutchmen entering the third period in both regular-season games in 2014-15. Both times, Dartmouth came back to win:
● Nov. 7: trailed 3-0 in second period in Schenectady, won 4-3 in OT (Tim O'Brien scored the winner)
● Jan. 31: Trailed 2-1 entering third period in Hanover, won 3-2 (Carl Hesler scored late in regulation)

THROWN TO THE WOLVERINES
Devin Buffalo made his first career start Saturday night at Michigan, stopping 37 shots in the 1-1 draw. The sophomore netminder had made just one appearance in goal in his career prior to Saturday night, a relief stint in the final 30 minutes of the season opener vs. Harvard on Oct. 31. For his stellar play, Buffalo was tabbed as the game's first star.

OFF THE SKATE COUNTS
Carl Hesler scored his second goal of the season in the second Michigan game just 2:40 into the contest. Hesler was credited with the tally after Jack Barre's shot redirected in off the sophomore's skate and then again off the skate of a Wolverines defender. Geoff Ferguson also picked up an assist on the play, his first point of the season.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
Dartmouth currently has the toughest schedule of any team in the nation. The top-ranked strength of schedule is a result of the Big Green playing six of their first eight games against teams ranked 12th or better in that week's national polls. Miami of Ohio and Western Michigan are second and third, respectively.

BLOCK PARTY
Michigan and Dartmouth put on a clinic when it came to blocking shots. Over the weekend, only Michigan State (48) blocked more shots than the Wolverines (41) and Big Green (38). Michigan's Nolan De Jong (10) was second in the country amongst individuals, while senior Geoff Ferguson was sixth nationally with seven blocks in the two games.

AT THE DOT
Dartmouth won 74 draws in Ann Arbor, the fourth-best figure in the country last weekend. Its 55.2% rate of success at the dot was the 11th best in that time as well. Overall this season, the Green and White are third nationally in FO% with a 56.0%. Union currently ranks first at 56.7%.

TOO MUCH SIN BIN
Expect special teams to once again play a large role this weekend as RPI (14.73) and Dartmouth (12.88) are the two most penalized teams in ECAC Hockey right now. The Big Green were whistled for 12 penalties in Michigan, the same number as RPI at Notre Dame. However, the dozen calls against the Engineers also included some 10-minute infractions as they accumulated 46 PIMs, the third-most of any DI team over the Thanksgiving weekend.

IN OVERTIME
Until last season's 4-3 comeback OT win capped by Tim O'Brien's winner off a faceoff, Dartmouth had never beaten either RPI or Union in overtime. Prior to that night, the Green were a combined 0-9-12 in OT games against the two teams from the Capital District. Dartmouth and RPI nearly went to OT the following night in Troy, but a late goal from the home team prevented the visitors a chance to erase an 0-7-5 mark against the Engineers in the extra period.

FOLLOW ALONG
Fans can follow along with live stats on DartmouthSports.com both nights. RPI TV will feature an HD video feed for free on Friday, while subscribers to Union's video service can watch Saturday night's 7:30 p.m. contest. Fans are also encouraged to follow the team's official Twitter account for in-game updates and insights: @Dartmouth_MIH.

WHAT'S AHEAD?
The Big Green will cap its seven-game road trip with a Friday night tilt at Granite-State rival New Hampshire next Friday night (Dec. 11). Puck drop from the Whittemore Center is set for 7:30 p.m.

The 7-game road trip continues this weekend at @RPI_Hockey and @Union. pic.twitter.com/0flnyqXB7M
— Dartmouth Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) December 2, 2015

Schedules