Dartmouth Looks For Key ECAC Points Against North Country Teams

Game 26 // Dartmouth (12-9-4, 9-7-2) vs. Clarkson (11-15-4, 8-8-2)				Game 27 // Dartmouth (12-9-4, 9-7-2) vs. No. 20 St. Lawrence (16-11-3, 12-5-1)

Date: Friday, Feb. 20, 2015 // Time: 7 PM Location: Potsdam, N.Y. // Arena: Cheel Arena All-Time Series: 28-69-7 // Streak: 0-1-0 Last Meeting: Jan. 17, 2015 // L, 5-2 (Hanover)				Date: Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015 // Time: 7 PM Location: Canton, N.Y. // Arena: Appleton Arena All-Time Series: 34-56-3 // Streak: 0-1-0 Last Meeting: Jan. 16, 2015 // L, 3-2 (Hanover)
Clarkson Media				St. Lawrence Media
TV: None // Radio: WFRD 99.3 FM (99Rock) PBP: Chris Garrett Color: Pat Salvas Online: ClarksonAthletics.tv Live Stats: DartmouthSports.com Twitter: @Dartmouth_MIH Digital Press Box Dartmouth Notes // Clarkson Preview Ticket Information				TV: None // Radio: WFRD 99.3 FM (99Rock) PBP: Chris Garrett Color: Pat Salvas Online: SaintsAthletics.com Live Stats: DartmouthSports.com Twitter: @Dartmouth_MIH Digital Press Box Dartmouth Notes // SLU Preview Ticket Information

THIS WEEKEND
The Dartmouth men's hockey team is set to hit the road for the final time in the 2014-15 regular season this weekend with a pair of ECAC Hockey games at Clarkson and St. Lawrence Friday and Saturday.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green split with visiting Cornell and Colgate last weekend at Thompson. Friday night started with a 3-2 Dartmouth win against the Big Red thanks to a third-period goal from Eric Neiley. The following night saw the Raiders pick up a 3-0 win in Hanover at the expense of the home team.

Highlights vs. Cornell // Feb. 13 (W, 3-2)	Highlights vs. Colgate // Feb. 14 (L, 3-0)

SCOUTING CLARKSON
The Golden Knights took a major hit in their bid to earn the coveted first-round bye with a pair of losses on the road last weekend at Princeton (2-1) and Quinnipiac (4-1). Coming into the weekend, Clarkson was part of the four-way tie for third in the standings along with Yale, Harvard and Dartmouth as each had 18 points. However, the two losses, combined with wins and ties by other teams around them pushed the Golden Knights to eighth in the standings, but with a four-point lead over ninth-place RPI. Jeff Di Nallo leads the team with 14 assists and 19 points, while Joe Zarbo's eight goals are the most on the roster.

SCOUTING ST. LAWRENCE
The Saints played in the most anticipated game of last weekend when they traveled to Hamden to take on Quinnipiac in a battle of the conference's top-two teams. The Bobcats earned the 2-1 win with a pair of second-period goals and stopping a third-period penalty shot from SLU. The Saints played to a 1-1 tie the following night in Princeton, but still sit in the driver's seat for the No. 2 position in the league standings. Hanover native Patrick Doherty leads the team in scoring with 20 points, while Gunnar Hughes' nine goals is the best total among players on the roster. Rookie goaltender Kyle Hayton sits atop many people's rankings as the league's best first-year player thanks in large part to his 16-10-3 record, 1.88 goals against average and .940 save percentage.

AGAINST THESE TEAMS THIS YEAR
Prior to Dartmouth's loss to Colgate this past weekend, these two teams were the last to defeat the Big Green, doing so in Hanover on Jan. 16-17. St. Lawrence earned a 3-2 victory, before Clarkson's three-goal third period gave the Golden Knights a 5-2 win.

MOST IMPORTANT GAME OF THE WEEKEND!
According to PlayoffStatus.com, Friday's game between Dartmouth and Clarkson is the most important game on the ECAC Hockey schedule this weekend. Here is their breakdown:

The Most Important Games are the league games in the upcoming week whose outcome most changes the final standings. The Importance Factor provides a relative importance between games. Use this table to identify the most interesting ECAC Hockey games in the upcoming week of play.

Series		Remaining Games	Importance Factor (0-100)
Home	Visitor	Remaining Games	Importance Factor (0-100)
Clarkson (11-15-4)	Dartmouth (12-9-4)	1	63
St. Lawrence (16-11-3)	Harvard (13-8-3)	1	62
Colgate (16-11-3)	Union (14-14-2)	1	44
Quinnipiac (20-8-2)	Yale (15-7-3)	1	41
Cornell (10-11-4)	Rensselaer (9-22-1)	1	23
Princeton (4-17-3)	Brown (7-17-1)	1	0

WHERE WE SIT… NOW: ECAC
All but one of the 12 ECAC Hockey teams have just four games left in the regular season as only two weekends remain (Harvard plays BC in the Beanpot Consolation Game Monday, Feb. 23). Quinnipiac needs just one win to take the regular season crown and can finish no lower than second. Mathematically, Dartmouth can finish anywhere between second and 10th in the standings with either end of that window unlikely. The Big Green only control their own destiny up to the No. 5 position — a spot they currently hold. With 20 points, Dartmouth is three back of Yale for third, one back of Harvard for fourth (and the final first-round bye), while ahead of Colgate by one and two points up on both Cornell and Clarkson.

HOME ICE
Dartmouth can clinch home ice through at least the first round on Friday with:
Case 1
-Dartmouth beats Clarkson, and
-Cornell beats or ties Rensselaer
Case 2
-Dartmouth ties Clarkson, and
-Cornell beats Rensselaer, and
-Colgate beats or ties Union
Case 3
-Dartmouth ties Clarkson, and
-Cornell beats Rensselaer, and
-Harvard beats or ties St. Lawrence

WHERE WE SIT… NOW: IVY
With just one Ivy League game remaining on the schedule, Dartmouth will have to scoreboard watch over the final two weeks to keep an eye on Yale. The Big Green have 13 points (6-2-1), just one more than the Bulldogs' 12 (6-2-0). Yale still has Princeton on the road this weekend and a home game with Cornell the final night of the season. Dartmouth's remaining Ivy contest is at home against Princeton on Friday, Feb. 27 in the second to last game of the regular season.

MR. CLUTCH
- Eric Neiley scored his fourth game-winning goal of 2014-15 in the 3-2 victory against Cornell. For Neiley, it was the second winner of the year against the Big Red after his two-goal, four-point night in Ithaca on Jan. 23. In the most recent game, Neiley found the back of the net on a one-timer following some nifty passing from classmates Rick Pinkston and Brandon McNally with 7:59 left in regulation.
- Since the start of 2015, only two players in Division I have more GWGs than Neiley's three (QU's Landon Smith and Tanner Kero of Michigan Tech).

EARLY AND OFTEN
Brad Schierhorn scored just 19 seconds into the Cornell game for the fastest goal to start a period of the season for the Green and White, besting his old mark of 23 seconds into the third period at Brown the week before. In all, Dartmouth has seven goals in the first two minutes of periods this season with five coming in the last two weekends. The Big Green and seven other teams have scored four goals in the opening two minutes of the first period this season, more than any others in the nation.

KRUGER ON FRIDAY THE 13TH
Junior James Kruger picked up his eighth win of the season Friday night against Cornell, stopping 21 shots and not allowing the Big Red to score after the first period.

MAKING THEIR MARK
Jesse Beamish and Nick Bligh had faced the adversity of sitting out games as healthy scratches this season, but have made the most of their return to the lineup in recent weeks. Both had goals in their first two games back, while Bligh put together a three-game point streak (2-2-4) after assisting on Beamish's goal against Cornell.

SWEEPING RED
With two wins this winter against Cornell, the Big Green earned the first season sweep of their counterparts from Ithaca since the 2006-07 season. In fact, the Big Red have not defeated Dartmouth since Feb. 15, 2013 (4-2). Dartmouth is 3-0-1 against Cornell in the last two seasons.

SHUTOUTS
The Big Green have been shutout just twice this season. In addition to the 3-0 loss to Colgate, Dartmouth was bested, 2-0, by Harvard on Nov. 18 in a game that was also at Thompson Arena.

SNAPPED
- The Big Green's six-game win streak was halted with the loss to Colgate. The last time Dartmouth had strung together six consecutive victories was the 2006-07 season when it beat Brown (4-3), Yale (5-1), Cornell (5-1) and Colgate (3-1) to conclude the regular season and Princeton (6-2 and 3-2) in a quarterfinal round sweep.
- The shutout vs. the Raiders also snapped the scoring streaks of seven players: Eric Neiley (6GP/6-5-11), Brandon McNally (3GP/2-1-3), Tyler Sikura (3GP/1-3-4), Jesse Beamish (2GP/2-0-2), Eric Robinson (3GP/1-2-3), Nick Bligh (3GP/2-2-4) and Brad Schierhorn (4GP/3-3-6).

349
Head coach Bob Gaudet '81 currently sits at 349 career victories following the win against Cornell. Gaudet has amassed 256 career wins at his alma mater after 93 at Brown in nine seasons in Providence.

SIKURA HITS 20 AGAIN
With his between the legs pass to Schierhorn, Sikura reached the 20-point mark for the third time in his Dartmouth career. The Aurora, Ontario, native led the team in scoring as both a freshman (11-14-25) and sophomore (12-20-32) before injuries last season limited him to just 11 points on three goals and eight assists. This season, Sikura leads the team with 13 assists and tied for third on the team with seven goals behind only Neiley (12) and Schierhorn (9).

FOLLOW ALONG
Fans can watch both games this weekend from the North Country for FREE via SaintsAthletics.com and ClarksonAthetics.com. Fans can also listen to the 99Rock radio broadcast (99.3FM/WFRD) with Chris Garrett handling play-by-play duties and Pat Salvas providing color commentary. As always, for in-game insights and musing, fans are encouraged to follow the team's official Twitter account: @Dartmouth_MIH.

WHAT'S AHEAD?
Following the road trip to Northern New York, Dartmouth will close out the regular season with a pair of home games against Princeton and Quinnipiac on Feb. 27-28. ECAC Hockey First Round dates will take place on Mar. 6-8 at the home venues of the No. 5-8 seeds.

Game 28 // vs. Princeton // Feb. 27	Game 29 // vs. Quinnipiac // Feb. 28

GAME NOTES

TWEETABLES

With just 4 games left in the regular season, here is a look at Dartmouth's play vs. #ECACHockey. pic.twitter.com/0LByA85j09
— Dartmouth Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) February 18, 2015

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