Dartmouth and Vermont Meet Tuesday Night in Burlington

Dartmouth Big Green 2-1-2	GAME 6 Nov. 15, 2016 \| 7:00 PM
Dartmouth Big Green 2-1-2
Opponent	RV Vermont 5-3-1
Location	Burlington, Vt.
Arena	Gutterson Fieldhouse
All-Time Series	29-46-6
Streak	0-2-1
Last Meeting	Jan. 8, 2016 \| L, 1-0 \| Burlington
Video	UVMAthletics.com
Radio	WTSL 94.5 FM/1400 AM (ESPN Radio)
On the Call	PBP: Adam Giardino
In-Game Twitter	@Dartmouth_MIH / @UVMhockey
Notes: PDF / Web	Vermont Preview / Notes
Tickets	Vermont Ticket Office
Information Center / Dartmouth Stats / Dartmouth Schedule / Live Stats

GAME NOTES

TUESDAY'S GAME
The Dartmouth men's hockey team takes on regional rival and former ECAC Hockey travel partner Vermont Tuesday night at Gutterson Fieldhouse in a non-conference match-up.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green are coming off an 0-1-1 weekend in which they were dropped, 6-3, Friday night at No. 7 Quinnipiac, before playing to a 1-1 draw the following evening at Princeton.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Tuesday's game marks the third of seven straight road games for Dartmouth. The seven-game swing covers five states (Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, Pennsylvania, New York) and roughly 2,256 miles of travel between bus and plane.

SCOUTING VERMONT
- The Catamounts are just outside of the nation's top-20 following a 2-1 win at UMass in their last outing on Saturday. The win pushed their record to 5-3-1 overall this season, while 2-2-0 in Hockey East play.
- Sophomore forward Craig Puffer is the team leader in both goals (4) and points (9), while junior Kevin Irwin and freshman Max Daigle are tied for the lead in assists with four apiece.
- Freshman Stefanos Lekkas has started in five of the team's nine games thus far and boasts an impressive 1.68 goals against average and a .930 save percentage.

AGAINST THE CATAMOUNTS
- These two teams played their annual game in Burlington last season as well with Vermont coming away 1-0 winners.
- A pre-game ceremony honored former Catamount All-American and National Hockey League legend Martin St. Louis with the retiring of No. 8 to the rafters.
- An injury to senior Nick Bligh — the team's hottest player at the time — on the first shift of the game proved costly as Dartmouth was unable to find the scoring touch with UVM's Brendan Bradley scoring the game's lone goal at 18:52 of the second period.

CAM STANDS STRONG
- Freshman Cam Strong has played in four games this season and now has a point in each of them.
- Strong scored a goal against both Quinnipiac and Princeton in the most recent contests and is averaging a point per game early in his career.
- The first Montana native ever to play for the Big Green, Strong currently leads the team in both goals (3) and points (4).

BUFF STANDS ON HIS HEAD
- Yes, he allowed six goals, but Devin Buffalo was the lone reason Quinnipiac didn't reach double digits in tallies on Friday night. Dartmouth's netminder stopped 48 shots in the game, eclipsing his previous personal high set against Michigan in Ann Arbor last November in his first career start by 11.
- Buffalo's previous best for saves in a game this season was 23 in a tie with Cornell. He nearly reached that figure in the second period alone against the Bobcats, turning away 20 shots in the frame.

Devin Buffalo got some help from Tim Shoup on this remarkable play as part of a career-high 48-save performance Friday night at Quinnipiac. pic.twitter.com/quBp70oNZw
— Dartmouth Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) November 14, 2016

GOALS AND ERNIE
- Coming into the weekend, sophomore John Ernsting had just one career goal. He doubled that in the first two road contests of the year, scoring once against both the Bobcats and Tigers.
- Ernsting now has netted two of his three career markers against Quinnipiac as his first and only goal of his rookie campaign came in the home loss to the Bobcats in late January.

FIRST MULTI-POINT GAME
- Sophomore Alex Jasiek picked up two assists in the first period of Friday's loss at Quinnipiac, earning his first multi-point effort in a Dartmouth sweater. The second-year forward helped set up both Kevan Killistoff and John Ernsting for their first goals of the season.
- Jasiek was unable to add to that total as he was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct just 1:22 into the second period, ending his night after just 21 minutes of play.

FIRST MULTI-POINT GAME… FOR A ROOKIE
- Freshman Will Graber became the first freshman to amass more than a single point in any game this year as he also assisted on a pair against Quinnipiac.
- Graber trails only Strong in rookie scoring as he has three assists this season, with two helping to set up Strong scores.

100 FOR OPPS
- After sitting out Friday's game with a suspension, senior and alternate captain Grant Opperman will be playing in his 100th career game Tuesday night at Vermont.
- Opperman becomes just the 97th player in program history to reach 100 career games played.
- Tuesday is also special for the Wayzata, Minnesota, native as it is also his 23rd birthday.

NEW HAVEN AREA AND SHOTS AGAINST
- Dartmouth allowed Quinnipiac to get 50 shots on goal in Friday's game. The last time the Big Green allowed an opponent to fire 50 or more shots on goal in a game was back on March 11 of this year when Yale had 51 shots on goal in a 4-3 overtime loss in Game 1 of the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals that Dartmouth would sweep en route to the league semifinals in Lake Placid.
- Outside of QU's 54-shot performance, the Big Green have held its other four opponents to just 23.25 shots on goal per game.

WHAT IN THE BLUE HECK IS A TIE??
Dartmouth was one of only two teams in the nation without a conference tie last season (Minnesota). Through four ECAC Hockey games this year, the Big Green have played to draws twice with both coming against Ivy League foes in Cornell and Princeton.

GAMERS
Dartmouth was assessed a pair of majors and game misconducts over the weekend with Alex Jasiek getting called against Quinnipiac and Josh Hartley against Princeton. Despite those two players earning 15 PIMs on one play, the Big Green still rank 15th in the nation in penalty minutes per game with 16.80.

KILLER INSTINCT RIGHT OFF THE HOP
Kevan Kilistoff scored his first of the season at 1:01 of the opening period against QU. The last time Dartmouth scored that early in a game was Jack Barre netting his third of the season against Yale at home on Nov. 7, 2015, finding the back of the net just 55 seconds into the game.

POINTS FROM OUR POINTS!
Prior to the weekend, the Green and White were the only team in the nation with a point from their defense. That changed on Kilistoff's goal as he redirected a Cameron Roth point shot. Tim Shoup would add another in the third period, assisting on Strong's first of the weekend. Connor yau would then get a helper at Princeton on Ernsting's second of the trip as the point shot was altered in the slot.

AGAINST HOCKEY EAST
Tuesday marks the first of a possible three regular season games against Hockey East teams. After the Catamounts, Dartmouth will play host to New Hampshire on Dec. 11, while it could possibly play UMass Lowell as part of the Ledyard Classic that also features Army and Colgate.

STILL NOT HOT
The Big Green may have gotten over its lack of point production from its defense, but it still remains mired in an 0-for-31 slump on the power play to open the season. The team went 0-for-8 against the Bobcats and then failed to score on another four chances against the Tigers. They remain the lone DI team without a PPG this season.

FOLLOW ALONG
- Tuesday's game will be streamed on UVMathletics.com.
- Dartmouth men's hockey games will now be carried on ESPN Radio WTSL 94.5FM/1400AM this season. Adam Giardino will handle play-by-play duties at Gutterson and for the rest of the season.
- Fans are encouraged to follow the team's official Twitter account for in-game updates and insights: @Dartmouth_MIH.

WHAT'S AHEAD?
Dartmouth will have this upcoming weekend off as part of the college's exam schedule, but will return for two games at Robert Morris on Nov. 26-27. The Saturday game will be held at Bobby Mo's home rink, while Sunday's matinee is set to take place at PPG Paints Arena, home to the 2016 Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

Schedules