Dartmouth and Colgate Renew Rivalry in ECAC Hockey Quarters

ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals #5 Dartmouth (17-10-4) at #4 Colgate (19-11-4)				2015 ECAC Hockey Championship

Dates: Fri.-Sun., Mar. 13-15, 2015 // Time: 7 PM Location: Hamilton, N.Y. // Arena: Starr Rink All-Time Series: 45-45-6 // Streak: 0-3-1 Last Meeting: Feb. 14, 2015 // L, 3-0 (Hanover)				Quarterfinals: Mar. 13-15 // No. 1-4 Campus Sites Semifinals and Final: Mar. 20-21 // Lake Placid, N.Y.
Colgate Media				Match-Ups
TV: None // Radio: WFRD 99.3 FM (99Rock) PBP: Chris Garrett Color: Pat Salvas Online: Boxcast / ECACHockey.com Live Stats: DartmouthSports.com Twitter: @Dartmouth_MIH Digital Press Box Dartmouth Notes // Colgate Preview Ticket Information				ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals No. 10 Union at No. 1 Quinnipiac No. 9 Rensselear at No. 2 St. Lawrence No. 6 Harvard at No. 3 Yale No. 5 Dartmouth at No. 4 Colgate

THIS WEEKEND
The Dartmouth men's hockey team hits the road for the final true road weekend of 2014-15, traveling to Hamilton, New York, to take on Colgate in the ECAC Hockey Championship Quarterfinals.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green earned a spot in this weekend's quarterfinal round after sweeping 12th-seeded Princeton at home in the first round. Dartmouth took Game 1 late, 3-2, while needing an empty-netter in the final seconds to seal Game 2 and secure the sweep, 2-0.

Game 1 vs. Princeton (W, 3-2)	Game 2 vs. Princeton (W, 2-0)

MOVIN' ON AGAIN
In sweeping the Tigers and advancing out of the first round, Dartmouth earned a postseason series victory for the fifth straight year, dating back to the 2011 conference playoffs. In each of the last four years, Dartmouth has won its first-round series, while the 2011 team earned a bye before advancing to the ECAC Hockey semifinals in Atlantic City with a three-game quarterfinal win against Harvard.

SCOUTING COLGATE
The Raiders have had more than a week off to rest after earning the league's final bye. Dartmouth and Colgate finished the season tied in the standings as each posted 26 points, but the Raiders earned the No. 4 seed and a spot in the conference quarterfinals thanks to their 1-0-1 record against the Green this season. The junior duo of Tyson Spink and Kyle Baun lead the team in scoring this season with 29 and 28 points, respectively. Charlie Finn is back between the pipe after an injury sidelined him for a short stretch in February and has an 18-9-4 record to go along with a 2.02 goals against average and a .925 save percentage.

AGAINST THE RAIDERS THIS YEAR
These two met twice in the regular season with Dartmouth earning a 2-2 tie at Colgate on Jan. 23, while the Raiders blanked Dartmouth, 3-0, in Hanover on Valentine's Day. The game in Hamilton was highlighted by a game-tying goal from Brad Schierhorn at 10:31 of the third period, while the Hanover contest was the first career win and shutout for Colgate goalie Zac Hamilton.

POSTSEASON HISTORY VS. COLGATE
- Dartmouth has played Colgate in the ECAC Hockey postseason on six prior occasions. Of those previous match-ups, only two have been in a multiple-game series format. They played one another in both the 2002 and 2003 quarterfinals with each taking place in Hanover. Both series went to Dartmouth, 2-0 and 2-1, respectively. The 2003 series began with a four-overtime thriller than lasted 121:05 of action before Kyle Wilson gave the Raiders the win in what was then the third-longest game in NCAA history (now the sixth).
- Dartmouth's nine games against Colgate in the postseason are the third most against any other program, trailing only Rensselaer (15) and Harvard (10).

Year	Record	Results
1993	0-1	No. 9 Colgate 4, No. 8 Dartmouth 3 (2OT) (First Round)
2002	2-0	No. 7 Colgate at No. 4 Dartmouth (QF)
		W, 5-4 (2OT) / W, 4-1
2003	2-1	No. 6 Colgate at No. 3 Dartmouth (QF)
		L, 4-3 (4OT) / W, 3-1 / W, 5-2
2004	0-1	No. 1 Colgate 3, No. 4 Dartmouth 2 (3rd Place)
2006	1-0	No. 1 Dartmouth 3, No. 2 Colgate 2 (3rd Place)
2011	1-0	No. 3 Dartmouth 5, No. 12 Colgate 3 (3rd Place)
Total	6-3

WHY IS IT ALWAYS NY?
For the fourth straight year, the Big Green will head to the Empire State for a Quarterfinal series. Dartmouth was bested by Cornell in 2012 (0-2), as well as by Union in both 2013 (0-2) and in 2014 (0-2) in the quarterfinal round. The 2014 postseason also began in New York with the Green pulling a thrilling three-game stunner at Rensselaer in the first round.

TOP-LINE TRIO
Dartmouth's top line of Brad Schierhorn, Tyler Sikura and Eric Robinson picked a great time to come up big this past weekend. Schierhorn scored the game-winner in Saturday's contest, with Robinson adding the insurance marker into the empty net in the final seconds. The night before in Game 1, Sikura and Robinson tallied markers with Schierhorn assisting on the Robinson power-play goal just 36 seconds after Sikura's marker. The trio combined for four goals, three assists and seven points in the two games.

NEILEY GONNA NEILEY
Is there anyone else in ECAC Hockey who scores bigger goals than Eric Neiley? If cumulative game-winners from the entire 2014-15 season is any indication then the answer is no. Neiley potted his league-leading sixth GWG of the year with just 1:27 left in regulation of Game 1 to give Dartmouth the 3-2 victory. Since the start of February, Neiley has scored the game-winner for the Big Green four times and assisted on the winner twice more. During Dartmouth's 11-2-1 stretch since Jan. 23, Neiley has eight goals, nine assists and five winners.

HOW SWEEP IT IS!
Dartmouth has been on the losing end of two-game sweeps in each of the last three years, but with its win Saturday night against the Tigers, the Green and White earned their first sweep of an opponent since 2012 in a first-round series at St. Lawrence. In all, Dartmouth has ended the season of its opposition six times via the sweep since 1993.

BIG MAN, BIG WEEKEND
Junior netminder James Kruger has been truly outstanding the last month of the season and he continued that trend against Princeton. His shutout on Saturday was the third of the season and of his career. In his last eight starts dating back to the end of January, Kruger is 8-0-1 with a .943 save percentage, the best figures in ECAC Hockey in that time. His 1.54 goals against average on just 12 goals allowed ranks second only to Yale's Alex Lyon's 1.51 in that stretch as well.

POSTSEASON SHUTOUT
Kruger's blanking of Princeton gave Dartmouth its first postseason shutout since a 1-0 win in Game 3 of the 2004 quarterfinals against RPI in Hanover. It was actually the second straight shutout for goaltender Dan Yacey, who also posted a 6-0 victory in Game 2 of the series.

#McTALLY LENDS A HAND
Brandon McNally scored twice in the regular season win against Princeton, but in the postseason series,he aided his team in other ways. His puck possession was outstanding, leading to the primary assist on Neiley's Game 1 winner as well as Robinson's ENG to wrap things up. He was the only player all weekend with multiple assists.

BLOCK PARTY
Senior Andy Simpson continues to lead the conference in blocks this season with 81 (10 more than the second-place individual). If he holds on through the end of the season, it will mark the second straight year that a Big Green player will lead all ECAC Hockey in blocks as then-sophomore Geoff Ferguson led the way in 2013-14 with 72. Simpson's total thus far ranks fourth nationally, while his 2.61 per-game figure is second.

FIRST-ROUND SUCCESS, QUARTERFINAL WOES
Where Dartmouth has been successful in the first round of the tournament the last three seasons, it has been snake bit in the quarters. The Big Green have been swept out of the postseason in the quarters in each of the last three years. All-time, Dartmouth is just 1-13 in road quarterfinal games, while an unbelievable 16-3 at home in the same round.

KEEP ON STREAKING
No other ECAC Hockey team can say it has been better than Dartmouth in the last five weeks. The Green's eight wins and .800 winning percentage are both the best among the conference's 12 teams, while only UNH can match the eight wins in all of Division I.

WINNERS!
With Brad Schierhorn's game-winner in Game 2, the junior and Alaska native now has four GWGs this season. No other duo in ECAC Hockey has combined to score more winners over the course of 2014-15 than Schierhorn and Neiley's 10. St. Lawrence and Harvard have a pair with a combined eight, while Quinnipiac's Landon Smith (4) and Travis St. Denis (5) have nine.

AWAY FROM HANOVER
The Princeton series concluded the home portion of Dartmouth's schedule, closing the doors on Thompson Arena's 39th season with an 11-7-1 home mark. The 11 victories ties the Big Green with Quinnipiac for the most wins on home ice. On the road this season, the Green are 6-3-3 (.625) overall, the fourth-best mark in the conference. Colgate's 8-5-2 (.600) ranks as the sixth-best home-ice advantage in ECAC Hockey.

AROUND ECAC HOCKEY
Dartmouth heads to Colgate in the 4/5 match-up, while No. 1 Quinnipiac gets to host No. 10 Union, the defending national champion and three-time defending league tournament champion after the Dutchmen swept seventh-seeded Cornell in Ithaca. Harvard took care of Brown in two games and set up a quarterfinal series with archrival Yale this weekend. The only first-round series that needed three games to decide a winner was No. 9 RPI taking down No. 8 Clarkson in Potsdam after the Golden Knights won the opener. The Engineers' reward is another trip to the North Country to take on second-seeded St. Lawrence.

#ECACHockey Quarterfinal matchups are now set. pic.twitter.com/PFiJwOpkOQ
— Dartmouth Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) March 9, 2015

TICKETS
Fans looking to follow the Big Green to Hamilton this weekend can purchase tickets at BleedColgateMaroon.com or by calling the Colgate ticket office at 315-228-7600.

FOLLOW ALONG!
The conference quarterfinals will also be streamed live via the Boxcast video service and through the league's website. You can watch each night's game HERE. Each contest in Hamilton can also be heard this weekend on Dartmouth hockey's flagship station: 99Rock WFRD. Chris Garrett will handle play-by-play duties with color commentary from Pat Salvas. Fans are also encouraged to follow the team's official Twitter account (@Dartmouth_MIH) for in-game updates and insights.

WHAT'S AHEAD?
The winner of this weekend's series will head to Lake Placid and the ECAC Hockey Championship Semifinals on Friday, Mar. 20 at either 4:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. The conference title game will take place the following evening on Saturday, Mar. 21 at 7 p.m. All three games will take place at the 1980 Rink - Herb Brooks Arena, home to the 1980 Miracle on Ice.|

GAME NOTES

Schedules