Night of Firsts Help Big Green to 5-2 Win vs. Clarkson

Friday, January 15

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

7-8-1,4-5-1

Clarkson

9-10-2,1-5-2

Team	1	2	3	F
Clarkson	0	2	0	2
Dartmouth	2	2	1	5

Night of Firsts Help Big Green to 5-2 Win vs. Clarkson

1/15/2016 9:03:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – Three sophomores all scored their first career goals Friday night for the Dartmouth men's hockey team in a 5-2 ECAC Hockey win against visiting Clarkson at Thompson Arena.

Kevin Neiley netted the first two goals of his career, while classmates Tim Shoup and River Rymsha each notched the firsts of their careers with blasts from the point.

Senior Jack Barre had a career-high three assists for the Big Green (7-8-1, 4-5-0), while Carl Hesler and Grant Opperman each had two helpers.

Making his fifth straight start in goal, senior Charles Grant stopped 25 in the win against the Golden Knights (9-10-2, 1-6-2). At the other end of the ice, starter Greg Lewis made eight saves in 21:24 before getting chased in favor of Steve Perry who finished the night with 12 saves.

“Everybody has to chip pucks in,” head coach Bob Gaudet '81 said. “And everyone has to go hard to the net and that's what we were doing tonight. We played well in the offensive zone, which is something we knew we needed to be doing better from the start of the season.”

Neiley was playing in just his 12th game in two years when he finally broke through on the scoresheet with the second and third respective points of his career.

“It felt good,” the sophomore from Warminster, Pennsylvania, said after the game. “I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, getting in front, looking for rebounds and being strong on my stick.”

“He's different from his brother Eric (a Dartmouth Class of 2015),” Gaudet said of Neiley. “Kevin is a big, strong kid who we want to see get to those rebounds in tough places and we saw that translate to a couple of goals tonight.”

Clarkson got its goals on this night from James de Haas and Troy Josephs, both coming in the second period with the former on the power play.

Dartmouth is now 4-1-0 in the five games since the start of 2016. Barre has four points in his last two games, while Hesler has five in that stretch. For Rymsha, the goal 10:09 into the second was also the first point of his career, while freshman Kevan Kilistoff notched the first point of his career on Hartley's amazing redirect goal early in the second period.

In those time period of those five starts, Grant leads all ECAC Hockey goalies in wins (4) and saves (122), while ranking third, respectively, in both save percentage (.953) and goals against average (1.21).

The Big Green are back at home Saturday night to take on St. Lawrence. Puck drop is set for 7:05 p.m. The Saints dropped a 3-2 contest at Harvard Friday night.