Dartmouth Hosts Rensselaer and No. 6 Union This Weekend

Dartmouth Big Green 8-12-3 5-9-3 ECAC	GAME 24 Friday, Feb. 10, 2017 \| 7:05 PM	GAME 25 Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017 \| 7:05 PM
Dartmouth Big Green 8-12-3 5-9-3 ECAC
Opponent	Rensselaer \| 6-23-1, 4-13-0 ECAC	No. 6 Union \| 19-7-2, 12-3-1 ECAC
Location	Hanover, N.H.
Arena	Thompson Arena
All-Time Series	38-46-5	26-26-7
Streak	4-0-0	0-3-0
Last Meeting	1.14.17 \| W, 4-2 \| Troy	1.13.17 \| L, 4-1 \| Schenectady
Video	ILDN	ILDN
Radio	WTSL 94.5 FM/1400 AM (ESPN Radio)
On the Call	PBP: Adam Giardino
In-Game Twitter	@Dartmouth_MIH / @RPI_Hockey	@Dartmouth_MIH / @UnionHockey
Notes: Dartmouth	RPI Preview / Notes	Union Preview / Notes
Tickets	Dartmouth Ticket Office
Information Center / Dartmouth Stats / Dartmouth Schedule / Live Stats

GAME NOTES

THIS WEEKEND
The Dartmouth men's hockey team is back in Hanover this weekend for a pair of games against Rensselaer and No. 6 Union.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green played just one game last weekend at Harvard thanks to the Crimson's participation in the Beanpot. The home team built a 3-0 lead, but a pair of third-period goals from the visitors chipped away at the deficit, but was not enough in the comeback bid as Harvard earned the season split with Dartmouth with the 5-2 win.

SCOUTING RPI
-       The Engineers have struggled in 2016-17 with a 6-23-1 overall record and a 4-13-0 ECAC Hockey mark. However, RPI had won two in a row against Clarkson and Colgate before a one-goal loss to Cornell in its last outing.
-       Riley Bourbonnais leads the team in goals (13) and is tied for the lead in total scoring with Evan Tironese (24). Tironese's 18 points are the most on the roster, but the offense goes through Bourbonnais, who has half (3) of the Engineers' six game-winning goals.
-       Chase Perry has been the goaltender du jour more often than not this season, starting 20 of the 30 games. Perry — a Red Wings draft pick — has a 4-15-1 record to go along with a 3.31 goals against average and a .910 save percentage.
-       RPI has struggled as a team on defense this season, having allowed 11 goals in 30 games. The 3.70 goals against per game ranks 11th amongst ECAC Hockey teams, though, as Brown allows an average of four goals each night.

SCOUTING UNION
-       The highest-scoring team in the league, the Dutchmen head to Harvard and Hanover this weekend as the No. 1 team in the standings with St. Lawrence. Union and the Saints both have 25 points as the Dutch carry a 12-3-1 ECAC record in addition to its 19-7-2 overall mark.
-       In the most recent announcement of both national polls, the Dutchmen were ranked sixth.
-       Senior Mike Vecchione leads the entire nation in scoring (48) and goals (22) and recently became Union's all-time leading scorer in Division I. He has 161 career points on 64 goals and 97 points entering the weekend. His linemate Spencer Foo is fourth nationally in scoring with 46 points on 17 goals and 29 helpers (most to Vecchione).
-       Alex Sakellaropoulos has been an outstanding goalie as a senior, posting a 17-4-1 record this season, leading the ECAC in wins and ranking second amongst all netminders in DI. He also has a 2.44 goals against average and a .921 save percentage.
-       In contrast to RPI, which has allowed the third-most goals against this season, Union is tied for the most goals scored with Ohio State as each have 106.

AGAINST THESE TEAMS
The Big Green is 1-1 against this weekend's two opponents after having played in the New York Capital Region in mid-January.
- Dartmouth opened the weekend with a 4-1 loss to then-11th-ranked Union. Carl Hesler scored the lone goal of the game for the visitors, redirecting a shot from the point on the power play more than halfway through the opening frame.
- Grant Opperman and Troy Crema both scored a pair of goals the following night in a 4-2 win at Rensselaer's Houston Field House. Opperman scored the first two, while Crema got the winner of a deflection in the slot late and then sealed the deal with an empty netter in the final minutes.

AWARDS
Since Dartmouth's last home game, sophomore Alex Jasiek and senior Troy Crema were honored with ECAC Hockey honors from the league office. Jasiek was tabbed as the conference's Player of the Week following a three-point effort — including the tying and winning goal — in a comeback victory at No. 14 Cornell. Crema, who been named the league's player of the week the prior Tuesday, was then honored as the ECAC Hockey Player of the Month for January as he led all conference players in goals (8) and points (13).

WITH THE MAN-ADVANTAGE
Since the Nov. 27 win in Pittsburgh against Robert Morris, Dartmouth's power play has been operating at a 23.9 percent success rate. That figure ranks 11th in the nation in that span, a far cry from the last-in-the-nation efforts that plagued the Big Green through the first eight games of the season and 0-for-43 mark on the man-advantage. Josh Hartley's third-period power-play strike at Harvard gave Dartmouth at least one PPG in 11 of the last 13 games, with a three-goal effort on the power play at Cornell on Jan. 17 serving as the team's gold standard in 2016-17.

A THIRD-PERIOD TEAM
The Big Green have been a much better team in the third period since the beginning of 2017. The team's 16 goals scored in the third period of games from Jan. 1 on are tied for the third most in the nation, trailing only Harvard and Providence (17).
- In all, 53.3 percent of all of Dartmouth's goals in that time have come in the final period of regulation, the highest such figure of any team in Division I. In fact, the Green and White have scored just 14 goals in the first two periods combined, a figure that is still two shy of their final-frame total.
- Taking into account the entire season, Dartmouth has scored 62 goals total, with 27 coming in the third period, accounting for 43.5 percent, the second-best mark in the country.

TWO MAKES FOUR
Freshman Will Graber moved back from forward to defense midway through the Harvard game to fill in for an injured Dartmouth blueliner. Graber responded to the move by scoring his fourth goal of the season and then dishing out his team-leading 10th assist of the year minutes later on the Hartley goal. The two-point third period gave the rookie from Colorado his fourth multi-point effort of the year.

THE TOP LINE?
Some might be surprised to learn that the line combination that has been together the most and has produced the most points this season has been freshmen Charley Michalowski and Daniel Warpecha with sophomore Kevan Kilistoff centering the group. The trio has played 14 of the team's 23 games together and has 23 points on eight goals and 15 assists on that time. Warpecha and Kilistoff picked up assists on the Graber goal at Harvard, adding to their team-leading total.

BACKSTOPPED BY BUFFALO
Junior netminder Devin Buffalo stopped 34 shots for the second straight game with his play at Harvard. The total is tied for the third best of the season after a 48-save showing against Quinnipiac and then 36 against UMass Lowell in the Ledyard Classic championship.

FRIDAY? MORE LIKE… BE BETTER DAY!
Dartmouth is 1-7-2 this season in Friday night games. That lone win came on Jan. 6 against Princeton, snapping an 0-2-2 stretch in Fridays to open the season. The Green are, in contrast, 5-5-1 on Saturdays and 1-0-0 on Sundays.

SIMPLE RULE: DON'T ALLOW 4 GOALS
The Green and White are 1-10-0 this season when the opposing team scores four or more goals. The only instance in which the other team has found the back of the net four times and Dartmouth has still won was the wild 8-4 home win against the Crimson on Jan. 17.

THE BRONCO'S BACK!
Junior and team captain Carl Hesler returned to the lineup in Cambridge after a five-game hiatus due to injury. Hesler had played in the first 85 games of his career before missing those contests due to an injury sustained at Rensselaer (Friday's opponent) on Jan. 17.

TOP-10 AGAIN
Saturday's game with sixth-ranked Union will mark the fifth time this season the Green have met up with a team ranked in the top 10 in that week's national rankings. The team is 1-3-0 in the previous four.

SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS
The New England Patriots won Super Bowl LI in an incredible comeback Sunday night in Houston. That has nothing to do with Dartmouth hockey, but it is pretty awesome.

CHAMPS.
CHAMPS.
CHAMPS.
CHAMPS.
CHAMPS. pic.twitter.com/TvLFbnUGb2
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) February 6, 2017

FOLLOW ALONG
-       This weekend's games will be carried live on the Ivy League Digital Network for subscribers to the league's video streaming services.
-       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 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?
The Big Green will be looking for a level of revenge next weekend when it heads out to take on Brown in Providence on Friday and Yale in New Haven the following evening. Those two teams handed Dartmouth a rare home weekend in which the Big Green were swept inside Thompson Arena on Jan. 20-21.

Schedules