No. 1 Quinnipiac and Princeton Come to Hanover This Weekend

Dartmouth Men's Hockey 10-8-1 7-5-0 ECAC Hockey	Game 20 Friday, Jan. 29, 2016 8 PM	Game 21 Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016 7:30 PM
Dartmouth Men's Hockey 10-8-1 7-5-0 ECAC Hockey
Opponent	No. 1 Quinnipiac 19-1-5, 10-0-3	Princeton 5-12-2, 3-7-2
Location	Hanover, N.H.
Arena	Thompson Arena
All-Time Series	8-15-1	100-85-16
Streak	0-1-0	5-0-0
Last Meeting	Nov. 14, 2015 // L, 6-2 (Hamden)	Nov. 13, 2015 // W, 3-2 (Princeton)
Video	ILDN	ILDN
Radio	99Rock WFRD
On the Call	Chris Garrett (PBP) / Michael Kaiser (Color)
In-Game Twitter	@Dartmouth_MIH @QU_MIH	@Dartmouth_MIH @PUhockey
Notes: Dartmouth	Quinnipiac Preview / Notes	Princeton Preview / Notes
Tickets	Dartmouth Ticket Office
Information Center / Digital Press Box / Dartmouth Stats / Dartmouth Schedule / Live Stats

TALE OF THE TAPE
	Dartmouth	Quinnipiac	Princeton
Emoji	🌲	🐱	🐯
Record	10-8-1	19-1-5	5-12-2
Goals For	50	92	44
Goals Against	55	40	60
Assists	86	155	60
Points	136	247	104
Streak	5-0-0	4-0-3	1-0-2
Home	6-2-0	10-1-3	2-4-2
Road	4-6-1	8-0-2	2-7-0
Neutral	0-0-0	1-0-0	1-1-0
Goals Leader	Barre/Patterson (7)	Anas (15)	Véronneau (7)
Assists Leader	Barre (9)	St. Denis (16)	Kuffner (9)
Points Leader	Barre (16)	Anas (29)	Kuffner (13)
PIMs Leader	Rymsha (26)	St. Denis (34)	Grabowski (18)
GWG	Barre/Patterson (2)	T.Clifton/C.Clifton (3)	Five (1)
Wins	Grant (7)	Garteig (19)	Phinney (5)
Goals Against Average	Grant (2.14)	Garteig (1.49)	Phinney (2.80)
Save%	Grant (.919)	Garteig (.938)	Phinney (.927)

THIS WEEKEND
The Dartmouth men's hockey team plays host to a pair of ECAC Hockey teams this weekend at Thompson Arena as Quinnipiac and Princeton make their way to Hanover.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green pushed their win streak to five games with a road sweep of No. 10 Cornell and Colgate in Central New York last weekend. The pair of victories gave Dartmouth seven wins in its last eight games since the start of January.

TOP GOALIE
For the second time this month, senior netminder Charles Grant was named the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week. The Nova Scotia native was recognized following a 3-0 shutout of Cornell — the second of his career at Lynah Rink in Ithaca — and a 28-save comeback win at Colgate the following night.

Charles Grant named the #ECACHockey Goaltender of the Week for the 2nd time this month. https://t.co/SdDJ0st5fl pic.twitter.com/okuMdJiNBC
— Dartmouth Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) January 26, 2016

SCOUTING QUINNIPIAC
The Bobcats come to the Upper Valley the consensus No. 1 team in the nation, holding the top spot in the USCHO and USA Hockey polls as well as the top spot in the Pairwise Rankings (the system that best reflects the NCAA's tournament selection process). Quinnipiac is 19-1-5 overall this season with its only loss coming to Boston University, meaning they are unbeaten in conference games at 10-0-3. Sam Anas leads the team with 15 goals and 29 points, while Travis St. Denis is not far back with 16 assists and 28 points. Senior Michael Gartieg anchors the backend with 19 wins, a .938 save percentage and a 1.49 goals against average to rank as one of the top netminders in the nation.

SCOUTING PRINCETON
The Tigers returned from a three-week hiatus thanks to an exam schedule with a 1-0 win at home Tuesday night against American International. The victory snapped a six-game winless stretch (0-4-2) that featured a pair of ties against RPI and Union on Jan. 7-8. Freshman Ryan Kuffner is the team's leading scorer with 13 points on four goals and nine assists. Colton Phinney has been the goalie of record in all 19 games, boasting a 2.80 goals against average and a .927 save percentage.

AGAINST THESE TEAMS
This weekend starts the second go-around of the league for the Green and White.
● Dartmouth defeated Princeton, 3-2, in New Jersey on Nov. 13, after opening up a three-goal lead in the first period. Princeton fought back with one in each of the next two periods, but couldn't get the equalizer at Hobey Baker Rink.
● The following night saw the Big Green battle then-No. 4 QU in Hamden. A one-goal game midway through the second period ballooned to a misleading 6-2 final thanks in large part to costly penalties that allowed the Bobcats to go 2-for-7 with the power play.

GREAT TIMING
The game winners in both games last weekend were from the sticks of first-time goal scorers this season. Freshman Kevan Kilistoff netted his first career goal early in the second period at Cornell that proved to be all the offense the Green would need in the shutout. The following night, Tim O'Brien scored his first of the year on a redirect in front of the net, helping Dartmouth to a 3-2 win after trailing by a pair of goals early in the game.

HOME SWEET HOME
The Big Green are 5-0-0 this month at home. Following its seven-game road swing to end 2015, Dartmouth has returned to Thompson in a big way. No other team has won more home games this month than the Green's five, while its 22 goals scored ranks as the fourth-best figure in the nation during that time. The team has only allowed seven markers against in that period.

CREMA OF THE CROP
Junior Troy Crema has bounced back from a mid-season slump in a big way. Crema scored once in each game last weekend and now has goals in his last three games. That figure would be four had his last-second goal at the end of the first period against Clarkson not been waved off. He also added an assist on O'Brien's winner at Colgate and is tied for fourth on the team in scoring with 11 points (4-7-11).

SECOND-HALF STATS
Dartmouth played 11 games in the first half of the season between the end of October and December. It has played eight games since in which they've drastically improved every facet of their game.

	1st Half	2nd Half
Record	3-7-1	7-1-0
Goals	22	28
Scoring Avg.	2.0	3.50
GAA	4.09	1.25
PP%	9.4	20.0
PK%	68.9	90.5

DRAMATIC TURNAROUNDS!
Dartmouth's .875 winning percentage since Christmas is the third best in the nation. Only Northeastern's .929 (6-0-1) and Michigan's .917 (5-0-1) are better.

CENTRAL SWEEP
Winning a pair of weekend games in Ithaca and Hamilton is not easy. The Green had not swept the Raiders and Big Red in a weekend trip since Nov. 10-11, 2006, defeating Colgate, 6-3, and Cornell, 3-2.

POINT STREAK
Dartmouth's longest point streak of the season now belongs to… a defenseman? Josh Hartley's assist on Brett Patterson's empty netter gave him points in four straight games. He had a chance to make it five, but saw Colgate's Tyson Spink lay out and make a diving stop on Hartley's empty-net bid the following night. In that four-game stretch, Hartley had two goals and three assists for five points.

AGAINST No. 1 TEAMS
● With the Bobcats currently ranked No. 1 in the nation, the Big Green will have played host to the top team in the country in consecutive seasons. Then-No. 1 BU and eventual Hobey Baker winner Jack Eichel came to Thompson on Nov. 30, only to fall, 2-0, on a pair of goals from Brad Schierhorn.
● The win was the first against the top-ranked team in the nation since a 5-4 overtime win against Boston College at home on Nov. 26, 2002.
● Dartmouth was knocked out of the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals in 2014 by Union, the No. 1 team at the time as the Dutchmen would go on to win the national championship in Philadelphia in the following weeks.

OUTSHOOTING
Dartmouth has been outshooting opponents by an average of 2.88 per game this month (+23 total), fourth best in ECAC Hockey. Quinnipiac leads the league with a 9.60 per game edge in shots on target (+48 total), while Princeton is ninth in the conference as their opponents have a 1.25 average edge in shots (-5 total) in just its four games so far.

NOT SO QUIET BARRE
After assisting on Carl Hesler's third goal of the month at Colgate, senior Jack Barre is putting himself in good company. Barre's 10 points tin January rank second amongst all ECAC Hockey players, behind only Harvard's Jimmy Vesey. His plus-10 rating is also the best in the league and the fifth best in the country.

SPEAKING OF PLUS/MINUS
Six of the top seven ECAC Hockey players in terms of plus/minus this month are members of the Big Green. After Barre (+10), Hesler (+9), Josh Hartley (+8), Geoff Ferguson (+8), Tim Shoup (+7) and Connor Yau (+7) all make up the top echelon of the league. Only Derek Smith (+7) of Quinnipiac joins them at the top. Tim O'Brien is tied for eighth in the league at +5.

FOLLOW ALONG
Those looking to follow all the action at Thompson this weekend have several options.
● Video: Both games will be streamed live and in HD on the Ivy League Digital Network.
● Audio: Chris Garrett will handle play-by-play duties with Michael Kaiser on color commentary in a game broadcast on 99Rock WFRD (99.3FM).
● Live Stats: DartmouthSports.com will provide live stats for those looking to track the game's play-by-play.
● Twitter: Fans are encouraged to follow the team's official Twitter account for in-game updates and insights: @Dartmouth_MIH.

WHAT'S AHEAD?
Dartmouth hits the road next weekend to take on Yale and Brown, but returns home to Thompson Arena to play four straight against Union, Rensselaer, Colgate and Cornell in mid-February.

Schedules