Dartmouth Begins ECAC Slate at Home vs. Cornell & Colgate

RV Dartmouth Big Green 1-0-0 0-0-0	GAME 2 Friday, Nov. 4, 2016 \| 7:05 PM	GAME 3 Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016 \| 7:05 PM
RV Dartmouth Big Green 1-0-0 0-0-0
Opponent	Cornell 0-1-0, 0-0-0	Colgate 1-3-3, 0-0-0
Location	Hanover, N.H.	Hanover, N.H.
Arena	Thompson Arena	Thompson Arena
All-Time Series	47-80-5	49-48-6
Streak	0-1-0	1-0-0
Last Meeting	2.20.16 \| L, 1-0 \| Hanover	3.6.16 \| W, 4-3 (2OT) \| Hanover (G3)
Video	Ivy League Digital Network / ESPN 3	Ivy League Digital Network
Radio	WTSL 94.5 FM/1400 AM (ESPN Radio)	WTSL 94.5 FM/1400 AM (ESPN Radio)
On the Call	ILDN \| PBP: Rob Kennedy Analyst: Michael Kaiser '18 ESPN3 \| PBP: Dan Parkhurst Analyst: James Mello '12	PBP: Rob Kennedy Analyst: Michael Kaiser '18
In-Game Twitter	@Dartmouth_MIH / @CUBigRedHockey	@Dartmouth_MIH / @Colgate_Hockey
Notes: PDF / Web	Cornell Preview / Notes	Colgate Preview / Notes
Tickets	Dartmouth Ticket Office	Dartmouth Ticket Office
Coach's Corner / Information Center / Dartmouth Stats / Dartmouth Schedule / Live Stats

GAME NOTES

THIS WEEKEND
The Dartmouth men's hockey team opens its 2016-17 ECAC Hockey slate this weekend with a pair of home games against Cornell and Colgate.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green are coming off a thrilling 3-2 win against No. 11 Michigan last Saturday night in front of a standing-room only crowd at Thompson Arena.

SEASON OPENERS
The victory over the Wolverines was the first in an opener since the 2011-12 campaign. Dartmouth had posted an 0-2-2 mark in the last four season-opening contests against Princeton (L), Yale (T) and Harvard (T, L).

FOR THE FANS
- In honor of Kyle Hendricks '12 and the 2016 World Series Champion Chicago Cubs, the first 100 students to Friday's game vs. Cornell will receive a free ice cream in a mini Dartmouth baseball helmet.
- Following Saturday's game with Colgate, there will be a meet and greet with the 2016 Dartmouth men's hockey team on the concourse where fans can get the team posted autographed and pose for pictures with the players.

The 1st 100 students to Friday's game vs. Cornell will receive a free ice cream in a mini Dartmouth baseball helmet in honor of Hendricks. pic.twitter.com/VJPDrTYt1b
— Dartmouth Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) November 3, 2016

SCOUTING CORNELL
- The Big Red come to Hanover early this season following a trip to Thompson for the regular season finale in 2015-16.
- Cornell is 0-1-0 after a loss at Merrimack in its opener last Friday night. The Red were dealt a 3-2 loss, but showed resilience after falling behind 3-0 midway through the second period. A late goal in the middle frame from Matt Buckles and an extra-attacker, power-play goal in the final minutes of the third pulled the visitors to within one. That would be as close as they got with Merrimack holding off the final surge and bid for the equalizer.
- Buckles and Mitch Vaanderlaan represent the lone two players with goals, while six total players registered points.
- Senior Mitch Gillam — brother of former Dartmouth standout Josh Gillam '11 — is back in goal this season. However, Gillam was relieved in the opener for junior Hayden Stewart to come in and play the final 27:41 of the game. In all, Gillam has made 60 starts in his Cornell career and boasts a .925 save percentage to go along with a 2.13 save goals against average. He appeared in goal 95.5 percent of the time for the Big Red last year.

AGAINST THE BIG RED
These two teams traded road shutouts a year ago with Dartmouth taking the game in Ithaca, 3-0, with Cornell returning the favor on Senior Day at Thompson Arena with a 1-0 win. In that win at Lynah Rink, it was believed that Charles Grant became the first visiting conference goaltender to record multiple shutouts in the rink after also posting a 1-0 win there on Feb. 28, 2014.

SCOUTING COLGATE
- The Raiders have played seven games this season, winning their first last Saturday night with a 5-3 triumph against visiting Maine.
- Colgate is 1-3-3 prior to its Friday night tilt in Cambridge at Harvard. It's three ties to this point of the season are tied with UConn for most in the nation and already two more than any other ECAC Hockey team.
- Sophomore Adam Dauda is the Raiders' leader early in the season, posting team highs in goals (3), assists (4) and points (7). All three of his tallies have gone on the power play, while assisting on another for four points on the man advantage.
- Head coach Don Vaughan has used all three of his goalies already this year, but it's been mostly senior Charlie Finn in the crease as he has a 1-2-2 mark to go along with his .876 save percentage and a team-leading 3.42 goals against average.

AGAINST THE RAIDERS
- Dartmouth and Colgate played five times last year, including an epic three-game first-round match-up in Hanover that included a pair of overtime games. The Green won both regular season games (3-2 in Hamilton and 5-2 in Hanover in the regular season's penultimate game), before taking the postseason series in three games.
- Senior captain Brad Schierhorn notched the program's first hat trick in 189 games dating back to a Nick Walsh '12 trick vs. Harvard on Nov. 27, 2010. The third goal came 10:59 into overtime, giving the home team Game 1 with a 3-2 victory.
- In his final game at Thompson Arena, senior Tim O'Brien sent Dartmouth through to the quarterfinals with a double-overtime game-winner at 4:37 of the night's fifth period.

LATE-GAME HEROICS
- Troy Crema's goal with 49 seconds left in regulation marked the first time Dartmouth had scored a non-empty net goal in the final minute of regulation in almost two full years.
- The last time the Big Green notched a goal in the final minute of the third period against the opposition's goalie was Schierhorn's game-tying goal at Union on Nov. 7, 2014 as part of the 4-3 OT win after trailing 3-0 midway through the second period.

FIRST GAME. FIRST POINTS.
- The Big Green got quality production from their freshman class in their collegiate debuts against Michigan. Cam Strong anchored a line of rookies with Will Graber and Ryan Blankemeier. Strong scored halfway through the second period for his first goal in a Dartmouth sweater with Graber and Blankemeier earning assists on the play. Strong appeared to score again late in the third, but the apparent second goal of the night for the Montana native was waived off due to what the refs deemed goaltender interference.
- Daniel Warpecha also got on the board with an assist on Kevin Neiley's second-period score.

HALFWAY THERE
With his second-period goal, Kevin Neiley is already halfway to his total from a season ago. The Pennsylvania product scored the first two goals of his career in a 5-2 home win on Jan. 15 last season against Clarkson. Neiley finished the year with 11 points, but didn't manage to find the back of the net again. He got the goal-scoring monkey off his back with a well-placed wrist shot low to the blocker side against Michigan's Jack LaFontaine two minutes into the middle frame, finishing off a play started by Warpecha digging out a puck along the halfboards and feeding his linemate for the shot.

QUIETLY GOOD
- Devin Buffalo isn't the flashiest goalie, but he has proven to be a really good, reliable netminder for the Big Green in his time. Buffalo made 22 saves in the first game of the year, earning the win.
- For Buffalo, Saturday's game marked his first career home start. The junior goaltender made four road starts last season, including his first career start at Michigan last November (T, 1-1). He would go on to earn his only win prior to Saturday at Rensselaer the following weekend.

WIN THE DRAW, WIN THE GAME
- Dartmouth won 52-of-76 faceoffs against Michigan in the opener (68.4%).
- Sophomore John Ernsting won 18-of-23 (78.3%) draws in the game.
- Last season, the Big Green were 33rd in the nation in faceoffs (49.7%), while Ernsting was third on the team (52.3%).

FROM A BAD START TO A GOOD START
Dartmouth was just 5-9 in games in which the opposition scored first last season, while 2-8 when trailing after the first period. Those figures are already trending the other way as the team overcame a 1-0 deficit through 20 minutes to earn the win against Big Blue.

WINNING CLOSE ONES
The Green and White were 8-3 in games decided by a goal last season and are now 1-0 in that same regard this year. Dartmouth must win close, low-scoring games in order to be successful as the team's 0-12-1 mark when allowing four or more goals a year ago indicates. When holding a team to three or fewer markers, the Big Green were 18-4-1 in 2015-16.

FOLLOW ALONG!
- Both games will be carried live and in HD on the Ivy League Digital Network.
- Friday's game will also be broadcast on ESPN3 for those with it included as part of their cable packages. Dan Parkhurst will handle play-by-play duties with color analysis coming from former Big Green netminder James Mello '12.
- Dartmouth men's hockey games will now be carried on ESPN Radio WTSL 94.5FM/1400AM this season. Rob Kennedy will handle play-by-play duties this weekend with Michael Kaiser '18 adding color commentary.
- Fans are encouraged to follow the team's official Twitter account for in-game updates and insights: @Dartmouth_MIH.

WHAT'S AHEAD?
Dartmouth will head out on the road for the start of a seven-game roadtrip next week against Quinnipiac (Nov. 11) and Princeton (Nov. 12). The Green will then head to Vermont on Tuesday, Nov. 15 for a mid-week tilt against the Catamounts.

FOR FUN

The Dartmouth hockey team the last time the Cubs won the World Series looked… different. pic.twitter.com/SpTDfo9MGI
— Dartmouth Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) November 3, 2016

PROGRAM

Schedules