Dartmouth Opens 2019-20 Season at No. 19 Harvard and UNH

Adrian Clark men's hockey action in Harvard Scrimmage

Adrian Clark in net vs. the Crimson in the preseason.

Photo by: Bryan LaFountaine

Dartmouth Opens 2019-20 Season at No. 19 Harvard and UNH

10/31/2019 11:12:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Big Green take to the road for a pair of rivalry games to kick off new season.

GAME 1
Dartmouth | 0-0-0, 0-0-0
at No. 19 Harvard | 0-0-0, 0-0-0
Date: Friday, November 1 – 7:30 p.m.
Location: Bright-Landry Hockey Center | Cambridge, Mass.
Watch: ESPN+ | International Stream
Listen: DartmouthSports.com | Rob Kennedy (PxP)

GAME 2
Dartmouth | 0-0-0*
at New Hampshire | 2-2-1*
Date: Saturday, November 2 – 7 p.m.
Location: Whittemore Center | Durham, N.H.
Watch: CBS All-Access
Listen: DartmouthSports.com | Rob Kennedy (PxP)

We are looking forward to getting this season started this weekend on the road. The preseason has seen our team make great strides and we're excited to see how we stack up against a pair of very good teams in Harvard and UNH.

Koenig Family Head Coach Bob Gaudet ’81

THIS WEEKEND
• The Dartmouth men’s hockey team begins the 2019-20 season Friday night in an ECAC Hockey and Ivy League contest at No. 19 Harvard. The Big Green will head up the road to take on in-state rival New Hampshire Saturday night.

SEASON OPENERS
• Since 1997-98, Dartmouth is 10-10-2 in season-opening games, including a 4-3-2 mark since 2010 following last year’s win 7-6 overtime win at home against Harvard.
• This year’s seniors are 2-1 in their three openers as the Green and White defeated No. 11 Michigan in thrilling fashion in front of a raucous Thompson Arena crowd during homecoming weekend in their freshmen season of 2016-17.
• Those seniors however are 0-1-0 in season openers on the road as they fell 5-3, at Holy Cross in 2017-18.
• Dartmouth has begun its season now against Harvard five times in the last 11 years (2008, 2009, 2014, 2015, 2018).
• Dartmouth’s seven goals in the season-opening game marked the most in the first contest of a campaign since an 8-5 win against Niagara to start 1998-99.
• A 14-5 win against Norwich started the 1964-65 season and a 14-2 victory against Boston College to open the 1942-43 season are the most goals in an opener in program history.
• In total, Dartmouth has scored seven or more goals in 29-of-112 season-opening games.
• Since Bob Gaudet came to Dartmouth as a player in the fall in 1977, Dartmouth has scored seven goals in an opener five times, making the majority of those 29 games from the early years of the century-plus-old program.

OPENERS AGAINST HARVARD
• In the 22 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 nine times with the Crimson winning six.
• A wild back-and-forth game in Hanover kicked off the 2018-19 season for both these teams with the Green earning a 7-6 OT win. Quin Foreman scored the game winner just 18 seconds into the extra frame. Shane Sellar finished the game with two goals and the assist on the GWG as he stole the puck at the blueline and found Foreman for the one-timer on the far side of the crease. Drew O’Connor also had three points with one score and a pair of helpers. Foreman (1-1-2) and Will Graber (0-2-2) also had multi-point games.
• Prior to last year, 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.

POSTSEASON RECAP
• For the second straight season, Harvard and Dartmouth also met in an ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal series played in Cambridge and for the second year, the Crimson advanced.
• Harvard earned the two-game sweep thanks to a 3-1 win in Game 1 and a 4-3 OT win in Game 2, meaning the Big Green’s season began with a home OT win vs. Harvard and ended with a road overtime loss at Harvard.
• Foreman led the team with nine points in the five postseason games, scoring three times and dishing out a team-leading six assists.
• O’Connor’s four goals were the most on the team as he scored in each of the three games against St. Lawrence and in Game 2 of the series in Cambridge.
• Graber posted a scoring line of 2-5-7 to finish just behind Foreman in the scoring lead.

HOW WE FINISHED 2018-19
• For the second straight year, Dartmouth finished fifth in the standings and played No. 12 St. Lawrence. And then, for the second straight year, were rewarded for its first-round win with a trip to Harvard for the quarters.
• The Big Green finished the season 13-17-4 overall and were 10-9-3 in ECAC Hockey contests, good to secure fifth place once again thanks to 23 points.

PLAYOFF SERIES WINS
• It took three games, but the Big Green were able to prevail over a resilient Saints team in the postseason’s opening round last March.
• In surviving the first round and moving on to the quarters, Dartmouth has now advanced with at least one series victory in nine of the last 10 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.
• Dartmouth defeated SLU in Game 3, 8-0, setting several interesting notes and tidbits in the process.
• The eight goals scored and the eight-goal margin of victory also matched program postseason records set in an 8-0 quarterfinals win in 1980, against Rensselaer. The win that night in Hanover punched Dartmouth’s ticket to the Boston Garden and the semifinals. In goal that night for the Green and White is current head coach Bob Gaudet ’81. That 1980 run was also the last time Dartmouth made the league’s title game.
• The most goals the Big Green had ever scored in a Game 3 prior to Sunday night was a 6-3 win against Harvard in the first round of the 2013 postseason.
• It was just the second shutout by Dartmouth in a third game, matching the feat accomplished by the 2004 team in a 1-0 win against Rensselaer in a quarterfinals series played in Hanover. The goalie that night was Dan Yacey, who made 32 saves for his second straight shutout after helping Dartmouth to a 6-0 win in Game 2.

PRESEASON RECAP
• Dartmouth and Harvard played the lone preseason game of the year on Saturday, Oct. 19 in Hanover.
• The Crimson won, 4-2, thanks to three first-period goals and three total power-play goals in the game.
• Drew O’Connor scored twice in the first eight minutes of the second period for both of the home team’s scores with Quin Foreman assisting on both. Brendan Less and Collin Rutherford had the other helpers.
• All three goalies got into the game with Justin Ferguson posting 15 saves in the third period and Dean Shatzer turning aside three in 10:24 of action in the middle frame.

LEADERS ON THE ICE
• The Big Green return its top-three scorers from a season ago as Foreman (13-15-28), O’Connor (17-9-26) and Graber (10-15-25) are all back for 2019-20.
• It’s the first time since the 2014-15 season that the top three point producers from the previous year returned for the following season.
• That ’14-15 season saw Eric Neiley ’15 (16-13-29), Brandon McNally ’15 (7-14-21) and Grant Opperman ’17 (8-11-19) all come back the following season with Neiley once again leading the team in scoring (14-16-30).

LEADERS WITH LETTERS
• Junior defenseman Brendan Demler was named the 120th captain in program history in September.
• A native of Lebanon, Ohio, Demler becomes the first player from the Buckeye State to be named captain of the Dartmouth men’s hockey team since James Osborne ‘23 did so nearly a century ago in the 1922-23 season.
• A defensive-defenseman, Demler is a veteran of 69 games in his first two seasons with the Big Green, playing in every game since coming to Hanover prior to the 2017-18 season. Proof of his defensive prowess was evident in Demler’s team-leading 55 blocks last season, 17 more than his next closest teammate, while also ranking in the top-10 in ECAC Hockey.
• Senior forward Cam Strong was tabbed as an alternate captain.
• Strong enters his senior year having played in 88 career games with 16 goals and 24 points to his credit. His willingness to play up and down the lineup — from scoring 10 goals as a freshman in a top-six capacity to his spot on the Green and White’s grind line last year — has garnered the respect of his teammates and coaches.
• Strong is also the only Montana native on any of the 60 Division I rosters.

SENIOR LEADERSHIP
• Dartmouth will also benefit from a nine-member senior class this season, the fourth largest in the nation.
• Boston College (11), Alaska (10) and Penn State (10) are the only three teams with more seniors this year than the Green.
• Michigan, Michigan State, Western Michigan and Yale all have nine seniors as well.

BETWEEN THE PIPES
• Adrian Clark started the lion’s share of games last season, getting the nod in all but two of the 34 games.
• Dean Shatzer did not appear in net as a junior, but did appear in four games and nearly 100 minutes in his first two seasons.
• Justin Ferguson made a pair of starts in his first season with the Green and White.

SOLID SEASON
• Adrian Clark finished his first season as the team’s starter with some really strong numbers.
• His six shutouts last season ranked fourth nationally amongst all Division I goalies and was the top figure in ECAC Hockey.
• Those six shutouts were the most by a Dartmouth goalie in a single-season in the 113-year history of the program, passing George Gale’s previous mark of five set in the 1919-20 season, 99 years earlier.
• His seven career shutouts rank fifth amongst active goaltenders playing this season, while also tied for the program’s all-time lead with George Bott.
• Clark also became the first Dartmouth netminder ever to post a pair of 1-0 wins in the same season, doing so on the road in both last year at Colgate (Jan. 18) and No. 11 Clarkson (Feb. 15).

BOB GAUDET 1K
• Koenig Family Head Coach of Dartmouth Men’s Hockey Bob Gaudet ’81 is already the all-time leader in games coached amongst all ECAC Hockey programs with 987 entering this season.
• 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 Gaudet, 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.

vs. HARVARD
• Friday will mark the 219th all-time meeting between Dartmouth and Harvard.
• It is also the 119th played on Harvard’s home ice.
• In that time, the Crimson hold a 140-65-13 overall edge and a 79-31-8 mark at home.

vs. NEW HAMPSHIRE
• The 62nd all-time meeting between the Big Green and Wildcats will get underway Saturday in Durham.
• UNH took both games last season in the first ever home-and-home between the Granite State rivals, winning in Hanover, 3-2, before taking a 4-0 game at the Whittemore Center the following night in early December.

SOMETHING SOMETHING SOMETHING… ROOKIE!!
• Drew O’Connor was one of the most prolific rookies in the nation last season, scoring 17 goals in his first season in green.
• O’Connor’s 17 goals were second most amongst rookies across Division I, trailing only Ludwig Stenlund of Niagara (23), who played seven more games than the Dartmouth rookie.
• The 17 goals ranks third all-time for a Dartmouth freshman, trailing only Hugh Jessiman ’06 (23) and Nick Johnson ’08 (18).
• No first-year player in ECAC Hockey scored more goals than O’Connor last season as Clarkson’s Josh Dunne and Quinnipiac’s Wyatt Bongiovanni each scored 14 in 39 and 38 games, respectively.
• O’Connor was the ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week a league-high three times in 2018-19 and was second in the league in points by a rookie with 26.
• His 21 even-strength points as a freshman was the top figure by any rookie in the 12-team conference.
• He was not selected to the league’s all-rookie team, nor did he earn any all-league honors from ECAC Hockey.
• He was named Second Team All-Ivy League, the only rookie to earn either first- or second-team honors last season.
• Despite that, he was not named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year…

PRESEASON PROGNOSTICATIONS
• Dartmouth was picked sixth in the preseason poll by the 12 ECAC Hockey head coaches.
• The league’s media contingent wisely had Dartmouth fifth in its preseason poll with one smart voter picking the Big Green to finish first.
• The Green and White have also been receiving votes in the USCHO Division I National Poll in each of its four releases already this season.

ESPN+
• All of Dartmouth home games will be carried this season on ESPN+ with Tyler Murray providing play-by-play throughout the home schedule in 2019-20.
• 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 26 regular season games total.
• Postseason games will also be carried on ESPN+ in 2019-20 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 video an audio link through DartmouthSports.com.

WHAT’S AHEAD
• Dartmouth will kick off the home portion of the schedule next Friday, playing host to No. 9 Quinnipiac before the highly anticipated Princeton game on Saturday.
• Both games are 7 p.m. puck drops.