Big Green's Run Ends in ECAC Hockey Semis Against Quinnipiac

Friday, March 18

Lake Placid, N.Y.

4:00 PM

Dartmouth College

18-16-1

Quinnipiac

28-3-7

Team	1	2	3	F
Dartmouth	0	0	1	1
Quinnipiac	1	2	0	3

Big Green's Run Ends in ECAC Hockey Semis Against Quinnipiac

3/18/2016 7:23:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – The Dartmouth men's hockey team saw its 2015-16 season end on the same ice where the dreams of so many hockey players began.

The Big Green (18-16-1) fell to No. 2 and top-seeded Quinnipiac (28-3-7) at the 1980 Rink – Herb Brooks Arena Friday night, 3-1, in the ECAC Hockey Semifinals in Lake Placid.

Given Dartmouth's placement in the Pairwise Rankings, a berth in the NCAA Tournament was only likely had the Green and White run the table and won the conference postseason. Unfortunately, that failed to come to fruition despite a valiant effort against arguably the top team in the nation.

“It's tough to walk into that locker room and see those seniors pulling off their Dartmouth sweater for the last time,” head coach Bob Gaudet '81 said. “I love the guys in that locker room. They're a great group and one of the best and closest I've ever been around.”

Quinnipiac scored the lone goal of the first period and tacked on the only two tallies of the next frame to take a 3-0 edge into the third. Connor Clifton opened the scoring with his seventh of the season 16:53 into the game. Sam Anas notched a power-play tally just 53 seconds into the second to be followed by Craig Martin's first-career score just over five minutes into the stanza.

It felt like Dartmouth had lost a step from last week's stunning sweep at Yale in the first two periods on Friday, trying to find its footing on the wider, Olympic-sized sheet of ice.

However, the third period is when the Big Green awoke and turned up the pressure. Freshman Connor Yau finally solved Bobcats' netminder Michael Garteig with 5:03 left on the clock with a beautiful goal scored in the slot from his knees with assists going to Alex Jasiek and Kevin Neiley.

It was too little and too late as Dartmouth couldn't find another goal despite incredible pressure with Charles Grant pulled in favor of the extra attacker for the final 3:22 of action.

Grant — the hero of the Yale series — finished the night with 26 saves in his final game wearing a Dartmouth uniform.

Dartmouth's bid for a comeback was greatly hindered by its inability to stay out of the penalty box for a myriad of reasons. The Green and White were whistled for six penalties to QU's two, forcing them to play a man down for stretches when they would rather have been trying to push the play the other way.

“I'm happy with the way our guys battled tonight and I told the seniors after the game that they left the jersey in great shape,” Gaudet said. “We had some chances but there weren't a lot of them. We had a couple good looks late with our goalie out.

“It wasn't enough, but I'm proud of our team.”