Dartmouth Takes Down No. 10 Quinnipiac, 3-1, on Senior Day

Saturday, February 28

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

QUINNIPIAC

Dartmouth Takes Down No. 10 Quinnipiac, 3-1, on Senior Day

2/28/2015 10:06:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – The 10th-ranked Quinnipiac men's hockey team came into Thompson Arena on Saturday night looking to cap its regular season by pushing its unbeaten streak to 14 games (10-0-3).

What they met was a senior-laden Dartmouth team battling for positioning in the upcoming ECAC Hockey Championship on a night in which the eight members of the Class of 2015 would be honored.

The Big Green were powered by two goals from Brandon McNally and another from fellow senior and team captain Tyler Sikura to beat Quinnipiac, 3-1.

Saturday's victory was the first against the Bobcats in seven tries dating back to November of their freshman year.

Dartmouth finishes the 2014-15 regular season with a 15-10-4 overall record. But the team's 12-8-2 ECAC Hockey mark and 24 points secured the Big Green the No. 5 seed in the league's upcoming first round next weekend where they will play 12th-seeded Princeton.

Quinnipiac's 13-game run was halted, but they still finished as the league's regular season champion with a 16-3-3 mark in conference games and a 21-9-4 overall mark.

Scoreboard watching was quickly thwarted early in the day as a Colgate win at Brown during the afternoon meant Dartmouth's bid for a bye week was gone, while a Yale win later in the evening gave the Bulldogs the outright claim to the 2014-15 Ivy League title by one point over the Green and White.

That did little to diminish the spirit of the home team on this night as McNally's first of the game and second of the weekend came just 1:34 into the contest. After Eric Neiley intercepted a pass at center ice and fed his left wing at the blueline, McNally used a dazzling display of hands to beat two defensemen and QU netminder Michael Garteig with a wrist shot under the crossbar.

Sikura would add his eighth of the year at the 13:39 of the first, depositing a rebound into the back of the net with a backhand shot past a diving Garteig and a sliding Bobcats defender. Senior Eric Robinson and junior Brad Schierhorn were credited with the helpers.

Quinnipiac made it interesting in the second as Sam Anas scored with exactly three minutes remaining in the frame on a knuckling puck off the bottom of James Kruger's glove hand.

That would be the only time all night the top team in ECAC Hockey would solve Kruger, who finished the game with 26 saves, including several of the spectacular variety against the talented visiting opposition.

For good measure, McNally and Neiley hooked up one more time with 1:51 left in regulation for the insurance marker. Neiley forced a turnover in the offensive zone, pushing it over to McNally who corralled the puck, turned it to his backhand and went upstairs again, sealing the two-goal win.

Dartmouth had just one power play in the game, while its Hamden, Connecticut, counterparts had three. Neither team managed to score in those four chances, though. The Big Green outshot the Bobcats, 32-27, in the game as Garteig made 29 saves, including 20 in the final two periods.

The boys from Hanover are hot at the right time, finishing the season with nine wins in their final 11 games, including a weekend sweep of Princeton and Quinnipiac to close out the regular season. Dartmouth swept the Tigers this season, 4-2 back in December and 3-1 this past Friday night.

The two teams have only played once before in postseason play, a 2007 Quarterfinals series in which Dartmouth swept, 6-2 and 3-2.

Check with DartmouthSports.com this week for updates regarding game times, ticket information and broadcast schedules.