Dartmouth Blanks Princeton, 2-0, to Complete First-Round Sweep

Saturday, March 7

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

PRINCETON

Dartmouth Blanks Princeton, 2-0, to Complete First-Round Sweep

3/7/2015 9:36:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – A game-winning goal from junior Brad Schierhorn and a 17-save shutout from goalie James Kruger helped Dartmouth to a 2-0 victory Saturday night at Thompson Arena to complete the ECAC Hockey First-Round sweep of Princeton.

The fifth-seeded Big Green (17-10-4) will now head to take on fourth-seeded Colgate next weekend in Hamilton, New York, in an ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal match-up. The two teams finished the regular season tied for fourth in the standings with 26 points, but the Raiders earned the bye by virtue of a 1-0-1 mark vs. Dartmouth this season.

Princeton —the 12th seed — finishes its season with a 4-23-3 mark and without a win away from Hobey Baker Rink, going 0-13-1 in true road games and 0-1-1 in neutral-site contests.

The Schierhorn marker at the 16:59 mark of the second period broke a scoreless tie as the junior from Anchorage, Alaska, buried a one-timer at the top of the right circle on an odd-man rush.

The top line of Schierhorn and seniors Tyler Sikura and Eric Robinson has been potent all season, but came up big Saturday night as the latter two set up the eventual game-winner with some nice passing entering the zone before Robinson finally slid the puck over to his right for the Schierhorn shot.

It would remain a one-goal game until the waning seconds of regulation when Robinson deposited his second marker of the weekend into the empty net with just five seconds remaining, sealing the win and earning the Big Green a playoff series victory for the fifth straight season. Fellow seniors Brandon McNally and Andy Simpson were credited with helpers on the empty-netter.

“We played well tonight against a Princeton team that was excellent this weekend,” head coach Bob Gaudet '81 said. “We got great goaltending, a huge performance on the penalty kill late and played outstanding when we absolutely needed it.”

For Kruger, the shutout was his third of the season and career. All three occurred at Thompson with the most recent coming in a 2-0 win against No. 1 Boston University back on Nov. 30.

But the story of the night was the play of the top line when Dartmouth needed it most. This year, the Green are 7-0-2 when Schierhorn scores a goal and 13-0-2 when the winger picks up a point. As it stands now, the trio of Schierhorn, Sikura and Robinson has helped their team to a 16-9-4 record when playing together and has posted a combined scoring line of 24 goals and 37 assists for 61 points.

Looking ahead to the next opponent, Dartmouth and Colgate last met in the postseason in the 2011 ECAC Hockey Consolation Game in Albany, which the Green and White won, 5-3. The last series between the two was a quarterfinal battle in 2003 that saw Dartmouth overcome a four-overtime loss in Game 1 to win the series in three.

Check back with DartmouthSports.com for more information regarding tickets and broadcast information about next weekend's contests in Hamilton.