2019-20 Season Preview: Dartmouth Men's Hockey Begins Season No. 114

Drew O'Connor

Photo by: Mark Washburn

2019-20 Season Preview: Dartmouth Men's Hockey Begins Season No. 114

10/29/2019 10:30:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Dartmouth plays at Harvard Firday night at 7:30 p.m.

By: Pat Salvas

The Brooklyn Dodgers used to tell their fans to "wait until next year" as the promise of their young talent was beginning to make a name on the major league scene. Eventually that time did come, and the patience of the team's fans was rewarded with a World Series title in 1955.

Eventually next year comes for everyone, and the hope for those within the Dartmouth hockey program is that 2019-20 is that year to make history.

The young talent has blossomed and developed. Behind those now veteran players is another group of talented young players, eager to join them and make their mark on the 114-year old program.

Picked sixth by the head coaches of the 12 ECAC Hockey teams, the Big Green are coming off a pair of back-to-back seasons in which they battled for a first-round bye up until the final weekend of the season before ultimately finishing fifth. Both times, the team dispatched of St. Lawrence in three games in the opening round only to be bested on the road at Harvard, the site of this year's opener.

With fervor to put last season's end behind them, a win on the same ice would be the perfect start to a year that has so much promise and enthusiasm surrounding it.

FORWARDS
Dartmouth brings back its top-three point producers from a season ago as the top line remains intact. Junior Quin Foreman (13-15-28), sophomore Drew O'Connor (17-9-26) and senior Will Graber (10-15-25) are all back and looking to build off the tremendous second half they put together when their group coalesced into one of the top lines in the conference.

Foreman scored seven points in the opening-round win against SLU, including a four-point (1-3-4) Game 3, while 16 of his 28 points came after Feb. 21. Graber notched 11 points in the month of March that also featured a hat trick at Rensselaer in the regular-season finale and a pair in the Game 3 win against the visiting Saints.

But the player who perhaps stole the show in the stretch run and made the biggest splash was the rookie O'Connor.

The New Jersey native led all ECAC Hockey rookies in goals with 17, a figure that was three more than the next closest league skater and also ranked second nationally amongst all first-year players in Division I despite playing in seven fewer games than the only player with more tallies. In seven games played in the month of March, O'Connor scored in all but one, amassing seven markers in that stretch.

But one line does not a team make and for Dartmouth to reach the goals set out in front of it, there must be secondary scoring and depth across all four lines. Juniors Matt Baker (4-11-15) and Collin Rutherford (4-7-11) as well as sophomore Jeff Losurdo (5-7-12) should take the next step with more minutes, while senior Shane Sellar (4-7-11) is another player who has shown the propensity for scoring as demonstrated during his sophomore season when he led the team with 11 goals and finished with 22 points.

Seniors Cam Strong, Ryan Blankemeier and Daniel Warpecha all have the capability to find the back of the net in crucial situations, while also playing a grinding style against other team's top forward groups. Additionally, the Green and White will get a full season from Sam Hesler, who missed part of last season with an injury, as well as fellow sophomore Christian LeSueur.

Making the jump to the Division I ranks are Mark Gallant and Tyler Campbell, a pair of forwards who played their junior hockey in western Canada.

DEFENSE
There are only so many defensemen a team can throw out there in a game and Dartmouth will have 10 players vying for time this year.

Newly named team captain Brendan Demler is certainly the face of the back end, creating an identity of strong play in the defensive zone that led to six shutouts a year ago, second best in ECAC Hockey. Demler was a force in his own end with 55 blocks, while also leading the group with 21 PIMs.

Joey Matthews (1-8-9) is the top-returning scorer on the blueline with Harrison Markell, Clay Han, Ben DiMaio and Brendan Less all coming back as well to a group more focused on preventing goals than scoring them.

The bulk of the Class of 2023 is represented in this mix as four of the six newcomers will battle for ice time on the point. Brock Paul, Tanner Palocsik, Jack Cameron and Sean Keohan all come to Hanover seeking one of the six or seven spots on the blueline each night.

GOALTENDERS
If there are question marks around any positions with the 2019-20 Dartmouth Big Green, they are certainly not around the goaltenders. Justin Ferguson has a wealth of promise that will surely be tapped into during his time in the Green and White and Dean Shatzer is one of the best teammates and has been incredibly reliable when called upon.

But senior Adrian Clark firmly took hold of the starting netminder's role last season and would be very reluctant to give it back now. A year removed from one of the most memorable performances in Dartmouth history, Clark posted a program-record six-shutouts as a junior and played in 33 of the team's 34 games, making 32 starts.

When Clark was on his game, few other goalies in ECAC Hockey or the country could be considered anything better than his equal. The only goalie in program history with a pair of 1-0 shutouts in his career, he authored those performances in a month's time with both coming on the road in key league games.

MISCELLANEOUS
• Dartmouth continues to play some of the top teams in the country, both inside the league as well as in its seven non-conference games across the regular season.
• For the second straight year, the team that edged the Big Green in the final of the Ledyard Classic would go on to reach the Frozen Four as Providence went all the way to Buffalo, where it would play eventual national champion Minnesota Duluth, who not only won the Frozen Four the year before, but also the mid-season tournament in Hanover with a shootout victory against the Green.
• This year, Dartmouth, Colorado College, UConn and St. Lawrence all hope the trend continues and the winner can make a run to Detroit and the final week of the college hockey season.
• For the sixth straight year, there is a Hesler on the roster as Sam '22 remains after the departure of his older brother and former captain Carl '18.
• On January 3, 2020, Dartmouth will play at Princeton in the first game after the New Year. It is also expected to be the 1,000th game as a head coach for Koenig Family Head Coach Bob Gaudet '81, making him the first coach in ECAC Hockey history to reach the milestone figure.
• Gaudet spent nine seasons at Brown, coaching in 266 games, while the last 22 seasons have come in Hanover at his alma mater where he has been behind the bench for 721 games entering this year, giving him 987 for his career.