Dartmouth Opens 2018-19 Season Saturday Night at Home vs. Harvard

Saturday, October 27

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Harvard

Buy Tickets

Photo by: Gil Talbot

Dartmouth Opens 2018-19 Season Saturday Night at Home vs. Harvard

10/25/2018 1:09:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Dartmouth and Harvard renew their rivalry after playing five times last season.

1810 VS. 28200

Game 1	Dartmouth \| 0-0-0, 0-0-0 vs. Harvard \| 0-0-0, 0-0-0
When	Saturday \| Oct. 27, 2018 \| 7 PM
Where	Hanover, N.H. \| Thompson Arena \| 4,500
All-Time Series	64-137-13
Last Meeting	3.11.18 \| L, 4-2 (G3) \| Cambridge, Mass

Radio	ESPN Radio 94.5 FM/1230 and 1400 AM \| PBP: Rob Kennedy
Stream	ESPN+ \| PBP: Tyler Murray COLOR: Matt Corsetti (Color) International Stream
Live Stats	CollegeHockeyStats.net \| DartmouthSports.com
Social	Twitter: @Dartmouth_MIH Instagram: @Dartmouth_MIH Facebook: /DartmouthMIH
Game Notes	Dartmouth (PDF) \| Harvard
Tickets	vs. Harvard
Program	Kevan Kilistoff Cover

SATURDAY'S GAME
•   The Dartmouth men's hockey team opens the 2018-19 season Saturday night against Harvard, the team that knocked them out of the ECAC Hockey postseason tournament last season.

HOW WE FINISHED 2017-18
•   The Big Green put together a solid second-half run that earned them the No. 5 seed in the ECAC Hockey Championship.
•   Dartmouth's surge helped the team finish 13-14-2 overall, but 11-10-1 in league play to earn the fifth seed.
•   A win at No. 2 Denver in December, a tie with eventual national champion Minnesota Duluth at the Ledyard Classic and another road win against a team ranked No. 2 at Clarkson in January were the regular season highlights.
•   Dartmouth would need three games to dispatch a pesky St. Lawrence team in the first round, before succumbing in three games to No. 4 Harvard and Hobey Baker Hat Trick Finalist Ryan Donato in the quarters.

USNTDP RECAP
•   The Big Green dropped their only preseason contest Monday night to the U.S. National Team Development Program (NTDP) U-18s, 6-4.
•   The team was led by a solid line of center Carl Hesler (1-2-3) and wings Alex Jasiek (1-1-2) and Jeff Losurdo (1-1-2), while the Americans had a big night from top prospect Jack Hughes (0-3-3) and Trevor Zegras (2-0-2).
•   Dartmouth held a 36-25 edge in shots on goal despite no power-play opportunities in the entire game.
•   Connor Yau – who led the team's defense in points last season despite not scoring a goal — picked up the other tally for the home team, doing so late in the second period.

SEASON OPENERS
•   Since 1997-98, Dartmouth is 9-10-2 in season-opening games, including a 3-3-2 mark since 2010 following last year's 5-3 loss at Holy Cross.
•   The year before, the Green and White opened with a thrilling 3-2 win over No. 11 Michigan in front of a raucous Thompson Arena crowd during homecoming weekend.
•   Prior to Michigan, the Big Green had opened against Harvard in the previous two seasons (2014 & 2015) with contests against Princeton (2010 & 2013), Yale (2012) or Brown (2011) during the Ivy/Liberty Shootout years. Dartmouth and Harvard also opened the season against one another in both 2008 and 2009.
•   Dartmouth has opened against a non-ECAC Hockey team in each of the last two seasons, but had not done so since beating Vermont, 4-2, in Burlington to begin the 2007-08 season.

OPENERS AGAINST HARVARD
•   In the 21 years with Koenig Family Head Coach of Men's Hockey Bob Gaudet '81 behind the bench, Dartmouth and Harvard have played one another in the season opener eight times with the Crimson winning six.
•   The two played to a 3-3 tie to start the 2014-15 season, while the visitors bested the home team, 7-0, in the last opener between the two played in Hanover (2015-16).
•   The seniors on this year's team have played Harvard in the ECAC Hockey opener twice during their careers (freshmen and juniors) and are 0-2 in those games. Overall, the seniors are still seeking a 1-0-0 record in league play after playing Cornell to a 1-1 tie at home to start their sophomore season.

SECOND-HALF TEAM
•   A 1-0 loss to Denver on Dec. 15 dropped Dartmouth to 2-8-1 overall. From that point until the end of the regular season, the team went 11-6-1, which was the second best mark in ECAC Hockey behind only top-seeded Cornell (13-2-2).
•   The Big Green were 0-6-1 on the road after that loss at Denver. But down the stretch posted a 5-2-0 road mark for the fifth-best winning percentage in the nation (.714). Their 3.57 goals per road game ranked fifth among all DI teams through the conclusion of the regular season.
•   Only five teams in the country had more regular season wins in that time than the Big Green's 11: Minnesota State (14), Cornell (13), Northern Michigan (12), Mercyhurst (12) and Bowling Green (12).

PLAYOFF SERIES WINS
•   It took three games, but the Big Green were able to hold off a scrappy and resilient 12th-seeded St. Lawrence team in the first round last March.
•   In winning that weekend, Dartmouth has now advanced with at least one series victory in eight of the last nine seasons.
•   A 2017 first-round loss at Yale is the only time Dartmouth has failed to survive and advance since falling to Quinnipiac in the 2010 ECAC Hockey First Round in three games.

BOB GAUDET '81… BY THE NUMBERS
•   Gaudet is just a few wins shy of several career milestones.
•   With 305 wins at Dartmouth, Gaudet is three shy of tying and four shy of passing Eddie Jeremiah's program record for wins of 308.
•   Jeremiah '30 put together a 308-247-12 mark over parts of 26 seasons starting in1937-38 before retiring in 1967. Jeremiah's coaching stints were interrupted by WWII and a brief one-season hiatus in 1963-64 in which Abner Oakes '56 took over for the first of his four seasons as the bench boss.
•   In his career between Brown and Dartmouth, Gaudet has accumulated 398 wins, one behind former Maine head coach Shawn Walsh (399). As it stands now, Gaudet ranks 24th all-time in wins, but two more will make him the 23rd coach in the history of Division I to reach 400 and will join current ECAC Hockey bench bosses Mike Schafer (Cornell), Rand Pecknold (Quinnipiac) and Don Vaughan (Colgate) to reach the milestone.
•   His 953 games coached coming into the season rank as the most by any coach in Ivy League history between his 22 years at Dartmouth and nine seasons at Brown. The figure is also second all-time amongst ECAC Hockey coaches for career games on either the men's or women's side, trailing only Joe Marsh (975), who served as the interim head coach of the Dartmouth women's team in 2017-18. Already the all-time leader for men's coaches, Gaudet trails his good friend Marsh who has 939 games at St. Lawrence and 27 with the Big Green women's program for a combined 966 over 27 seasons.
•   If all things go as planned, Gaudet will pass Marsh as the league's all-time leader in games coached on the men's side on Jan. 5 at Bentley after tying him in the Providence game on Dec. 30 during the Ledyard Classic.
•   At 953 games coming into the season, Gaudet ranks 14th all-time in games coached at the Division I level. Former Denver and Miami coach George Gwozdecky is the next coach ahead of Gaudet with 970 games.
•   Gaudet is also the leader in ECAC Hockey games coached with 637 to his credit coming into the season. His 650th league game will be Jan. 25 at home against St. Lawrence, Marsh's former team. Colgate's Don Vaug
•   This past weekend, Gaudet was inducted into the Legends of New Hampshire Hockey, the Granite State's Hockey Hall of Fame. A member of the Class of 2018, Gaudet went in with former teammate Rich Ryerson '80, the President of the Friends of Dartmouth Men's Hockey for more than a decade
•   Gaudet is one-of-21 Division I head coaches currently working behind the bench of his alma mater.
•   "Dartmouth coach Gaudet, fresh off induction into New Hampshire Legends of Hockey Hall of Fame, still has more to give" USCHO Profile (10.25.18) by Nate Owen

THE TIMBER LINE
•   For the first time in a long time, a Dartmouth line had an identity as 'The Timber Line' emerged in 2017-18.
•   The group was comprised of then-sophomores Will Graber and Shane Sellar as well as rookie Quin Foreman.
•   The trio finished the season with 25 games played together, the most of any line during the season. In those contests, they posted a scoring line of 27-36-63, a figure that was 27 more than the next-best line (Jasiek-Baker-Kalk: 14-22-36).
•   A 13-point night at RPI on Feb. 9 was the highlight as Graber had a natural hat trick and five points (3-2-5), while Sellar became the first DI player in two years to post a six-point game (2-4-6). Foreman posted a pair of assists as well.
•   If the RPI game was the top-spot, the road game at Yale was a close second as the line combined for 10 points with Foreman leading the way with a hat trick of his own and four points on this night. Sellar had a goal and two assists, while Graber dished out three helpers in the win.

YOUNG BUT GOOD
•   This year's junior class was the driving force behind the offense last season as sophomores.
•   Aided by Sellar and Graber at the top of the leaderboard, the sophomores led Dartmouth in goals (36), assists (52) and points (88) a year ago.
•   Additionally, the now-juniors also had team-leading figures in shorthanded goals (2), game-winning goals (6), shots on goals (361), faceoffs won (382) and penalty minutes (88).
•   The Class of 2021 also made a mark in their first season in Hanover as last season's freshmen ranked second in goals (23), assists (37) and points (60). Defensively, the rookies also posted 152 blocks, 13 more than the second-place sophomores.

THE ROOKIES
•   Dartmouth adds seven new names this season to the roster with five playing forward, one on defense and a goalie.
•   Harrison Markell is the lone blueliner and was the NCDC's Defenseman of the Year a season ago.
•   Like Markell, Justin Ferguson was an award winner in the NCDC last season, earning Goaltender of the Year honors after being a stalwart and anchor for the Islander Hockey Club.
•   Jeff Losurdo was the leading scorer and MVP of the NCDC last season, giving the Dartmouth rookie trio a clean sweep of the major awards. In addition to Losurdo, the Big Green will be adding forwards Erik Urbank (Chicago Steel), Drew O'Connor (New Jersey Hitmen), Christian LeSueur (Brunswick) and Sam Hesler (Wenatchee Wild).

PRESEASON PROGNOSTICATIONS
•   Dartmouth was picked eighth in the preseason poll by the 12 ECAC Hockey head coaches.
•   The league's media contingent had Dartmouth sixth in its preseason poll.

ONE-GOAL GAMES
•   Of the 35 games played in 2017-18, the Big Green played 14 one-goal games, accounting for 40% of the team's total.
•   The team posted a 10-4 mark in those contests separated by just a single goal.
•   In the 2016-17 campaign, Dartmouth was just 3-4 in one-goal games.

WHEN SCORING FIRST
•   It was crucial for the Big Green to score the game's first goal last season.
•   The Green and White were 10-5-1 when they opened the game's scoring, while 6-12-0 when the opposition netted the first of the game.

WHEN SCORING FIRST… IN THE THIRD
•   If scoring the first goal was important, scoring the first of the third period was even bigger for Dartmouth last winter.
•   In games in which they scored the first goal of the final regulation stanza, the Big Green were 10-1-0.

TIED THROUGH TWO
•   Why was the first goal of the third period important? Because Dartmouth played 11 games in which it was tied after 40 minutes of play.
•   When tied through two periods of play, the Green were 7-2-2, a big improvement on the 2-2-1 mark from 2016-17.

OUR HOUSE
•   Did you know that Dartmouth's Game 3 win against St. Lawrence was the program's 300th victory at Thompson Arena since it opened in 1975 (regular season and postseason games only, no exhibitions)?
•   The Big Green are 300-285-46 in 631 games played since moving into the arena in the mid-1970s.
•   Between the men's and women's teams (510), Thompson Arena has been host to 1,141 Big Green games. Additionally, the now 43-year old rink has hosted 58 non-Dartmouth Ledyard Classic match-ups, making Saturday's opener the 1,200th non-exhibition college hockey game since opening its doors.
•   Last season, the team posted a 10-7-1 record in Hanover, including a pair of postseason wins against the Saints in the first round.

ROOKIES IN GAME 3's
•   Collin Rutherford's final game as a freshman was a strong showing, but that shouldn't surprise anyone who saw him score countless big goals in his rookie season.
•   His goal and assist against Harvard in Game 3 was just his second multi-point game after scoring a pair of goals on Senior Night to help Dartmouth beat St. Lawrence, 3-1.
•   His multi-point performance also marked the first by a Dartmouth first-year player in a decisive game since Brad Schierhorn '16 posted a 2-1-3 game against Harvard in the first round of the 2013 postseason series in Hanover. Dartmouth won the game, 6-3, to move on to the quarters, holding future Hobey Baker Winner (2016) Jimmy Vesey scoreless and a minus-2 rating that night.

WEARERS OF THE GREEN: JAMES MELLO '12
•   During halftime of Saturday's football game between Dartmouth and Harvard, James Mello '12 became one of 29 individuals inducted into the Dartmouth Athletics Hall of Fame, known as the Wearers of the Green.
•   Mello earned his place thanks to winning the 2011 Alfred E. Watson trophy winner as Dartmouth's Male Athlete of the Year.
•   That season, Mello amassed career highs in wins (17) shutouts (2), saves (799), save percentage (.926) and goals against (2.21), leading his Big Green team to the 2011 ECAC Hockey Semifinals in Atlantic City.

ESPN+
•   All of Dartmouth home games will be carried this season on ESPN+ with Tyler Murray providing play-by-play at each home game in 2018-19.
•   In addition to games played in Hanover, ECAC Hockey road games at each school besides Rensselaer will also be carried on the network, making ESPN+ your home for 21-of-22 conference games and 25 regular season games total.
•   Postseason games will also be carried on ESPN+ in 2018-19 and will not need subscribers to pay any additional fees to watch the league's postseason.

ON THE AIR
•   Once again, Rob Kennedy will be the Voice of the Big Green on the radio.
•   Kennedy begins his second season with the team and will broadcast all 29 regular season games on 94 ESPN Radio (WTSL).

GAME PROGRAM