Big Green to Take on Dutchwomen and Engineers

GAME 25 – Friday, Feb. 12
Dartmouth (5-16-3, 5-10-3) at Union (0-24-6, 0-15-3)
Schenectady, N.Y. – Messa Rink
7 p.m.
Live Stats
Video

GAME 26 – Saturday, Feb. 13
Dartmouth at Rensselaer (9-14-5, 7-8-3)
Troy, N.Y. – Houston Field House
4 p.m.
Live Stats
Video

THIS WEEKEND
Just four road games remain in the regular season. This weekend, Dartmouth will head to New York to face Union on Friday and Rennsselaer on Saturday.

LAST TIME OUT
In their final home games of the 2015-16 season over the weekend, the Big Green dropped a heartbreaking 4-3 decision to Yale in overtime before defeating Brown the next day by a score of 5-0.

Against Yale
The Bulldogs got things started at 5:52 in the first when Hanna Astrom tripped in front of the net and managed to flick the puck into the left corner. That lead would be short-lived, as Dartmouth countered in dramatic fashion. At 12:06, Ailish Forfar and Kate Landers took a couple of shots, causing goaltender Hanna Mandl to fall over. While the goalie was desperately trying to keep the puck out of the net and the rest of the Big Green was trying to get the puck in the net, Hailey Noronha pocketed her second goal in the past two games, a power-play tally. The Bulldogs got one more at 19:42 to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission, but the Green entered the second period with a 13-8 shot advantage. At 19:42, Yale gave itself a two-goal lead but, again, that would not last long. Kennedy Ottenbreit won the faceoff and sent the puck to Laura Stacey, who had a couple of quick passes with Eleni Tebano before the latter fired from the blueline, ricocheting off the crossbar before falling in for her first marker of the season and Dartmouth's second man-up goal of the night. Trailing, 3-2, Forfar picked up a loose puck on the right side, circled round to the left and fired over Mandl's head at 1:35 in the third, tying the game at three-all. Still tied, the game went to overtime. At 3:17, Yale's one shot paid off, going over Robyn Chemago's right shoulder to end the game.

Versus Brown
The next day against the Bears, Dartmouth ended their winless streak with an impressive 5-0 win on Senior Day. An own goal opened scoring for Dartmouth at 3:24 in the first period. Ottenbreit passed to Lindsey Allen at the top of the paint for an open look at the net. After Brown netminder Julianne Landry made an initial save, the Bears failed to clear the puck from danger, knocking it into their own net, much to the shock of Landry. Even though the Green sported a 16-5 shot advantage in the first period, the start of the second was a little quieter, as it took almost four minutes for either team to take a shot due to the back-and-forth nature of the game. At 12:59, a mere eight seconds after Brown was called for a penalty, Ottenbreit picked up her own rebound after a cross from Tebano and shot to the left. The puck tipped off Landry's glove and fell into the net to give Dartmouth a 2-0 lead. The Big Green got their third of the game at 7:24 of the third when Forfar won the faceoff and sent it to Stacey, who shot from the top of the left circle. Landry caught the puck in midair but lost her grip a split second later and watched as the puck slid in behind her. Stacey added a shorthanded empty netter at 17:37 and, with just three seconds remaining, Forfar snuck one in the right side of the net to end the game, causing the raucous Thompson Arena fans to go wild.

SCOUTING UNION
Although the 2015-16 season has not been kind to the Dutchwomen – who enter Friday's contest winless with an overall record of 0-24-6 – a lot of Union's games have been closer than they may appear. Five of its games have been decided by just one point and another five have ended in a tie. That being said, the Dutchwomen's games over the weekend were not all that close. On Friday, the dropped a 2-0 decision to St. Lawrence and, the following day, fell 4-1 to Clarkson. Kathryn Tomaselli is the only Union player to have reached double digit points this season with 10 from seven goals and three assists.

LAST TIME AGAINST THE DUTCHWOMEN
Dartmouth registered its second shutout of the weekend on Nov. 14, 2015 – following a 4-0 win over RPI the day before – with a 2-0 victory over Union at Thompson Arena. The Green outshot the visitors, 13-1 in the first period, but were not able to find the back of the net. Just 32 seconds into the second, Allen broke the 0-0 draw with her sixth tally of the season. Tebano received the puck from Stacey and fired from the blue line, but her shot was saved by the netminder. Before the goalie could get back to her post, Allen tipped the puck into the left corner. At 18:39, after the Dutchwomen had pulled their goalie in an attempt to get on the board, Forfar intercepted the play heading in the opposite direction and scored an empty netter to end the game. Dartmouth had an impressive 40-9 shot advantage. The penalty box attendants had an incredibly quiet afternoon, as neither team drew a single penalty the entire 60 minutes. Between the pipes, Chemago earned her third shutout of the season by making nine saves, while Melissa Black stopped 38 shots in the loss.

SCOUTING RPI
The Engineers are 4-5-2 in the second half of their season, defeating Brown, Cornell and Union twice. This past weekend, they were downed by Clarkson, 9-1, before tying St. Lawrence, 1-1.

LAST TIME AGAINST THE ENGINEERS
On Nov. 13, 2015, the Big Green took down RPI by a score of 4-0 on home ice. At 5:20 in the first period, Brooke Ahbe had a great chance to put the home team on the board, shooting to the right of netminder Lovisa Selander and pulling her from her post, leaving the puck sitting in the crease. RPI's defense did a good job to clear it before a Big Green player could get their stick on it. The visitors weren't so lucky later on, however, when Tebano's shot from the top of the circle ricocheted off an Engineers' left skate and redirected to Allen, who backhanded it into the net at 17:05 to make it a 1-0 game heading into the second. At 12:59 in the second period, just 13 seconds after one of their own was called for a penalty, Ottenbreit netted Dartmouth's first short-handed tally of the season. Forfar gave the Green a 3-0 edge at 5:19 in the third period, picking up Allen's deflected shot and flicking it to the right of Selander before she had time to cover the right post. Ahbe added one of her own for good measure at 13:53, shooting to Kira Bombay's right, who replaced Selander between the pipes.

LOOKING AT THE NUMBERS
Stacey leads the team in a number of categories:
Goals (tied with Allen): 10
Assists: 13
Assists/Game: 0.57
Goals/Game: 0.43
Points: 23
Shorthanded Goals (tied with Ottenbreit): 1
Shots on Goal: 125
SOG/Game: 5.43

Allen's numbers:
Goals (tied with Stacey): 10
Game-winning Goals: 3
+/-: Even

ECAC STANDINGS
To make it to the upcoming ECAC Hockey Tournament, the Big Green have to finish in the top eight in the conference. Dartmouth is currently 10th with 13 points. Cornell is sitting just one point ahead with 14 and RPI is in eighth with 17. At the top of the list, Quinnipiac holds on to the lead with 29 points and is three points ahead of Clarkson in second.

AND IN NET…
In the overtime game against Yale, Chemago had 15 saves in the loss and, on Saturday, she registered her first shutout since November, stopping 13 shots. So far during the 2015-16 season, she has played 1309 minutes, has 579 saves, 53 GA, a .916 save percentage and 2.43 goals against average. Shannon Ropp has played 59 minutes, has a .828 save percentage and 5.08 goals against average. Christie Honor last saw time in net against Maine on Nov. 10, appearing between the pipes for 77 minutes. She has 17 saves, has a .708 percentage and 5.43 goals against average.

FOLLOW ALONG
Live stats and video are available for Friday's game at Union, but only live stats will be running for the contest against RPI. For more updates, check out the team's official Twitter handle: @dartmouthhockey.

WHAT'S NEXT?
The Green will travel back to New York next weekend to take on Cornell and Colgate in the final regular season games of the year.

Schedules