Home Again: Dartmouth Hosts Rensselaer and No. 20 Union This Weekend

Friday, February 8

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Rensselaer

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Adrian Clark men's hockey action versus Army

Photo by: Doug Austin

Home Again: Dartmouth Hosts Rensselaer and No. 20 Union This Weekend

2/7/2019 9:53:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Big ECAC weekend ahead with valuable points on the line.

Game 22	Dartmouth \| 8-11-2, 7-6-1 vs. Rensselaer \| 8-17-2, 5-9-1
When	Friday \| Feb. 8, 2019 \| 7 PM
Where	Hanover, N.H. \| Thompson Arena (4,500)
All-Time Series	41-46-5 (93rd Meeting)
Last Meeting	W, 7-3 \| 2.9.18

Game 23	Dartmouth \| 8-11-2, 7-6-1 vs. No. 20 Union \| 13-8-5, 6-7-1
When	Saturday \| Feb. 9, 2019 \| 7 PM
Where	Hanover, N.H. \| Thompson Arena (4,500)
All-Time Series	26-29-7 (63rd Meeting)
Last Meeting	L, 2-1 \| 2.10.18
Media
Radio	94 ESPN Radio
Television	None
Stream	ESPN+: RPI \| Union International Stream: Both Games
Live Stats	CollegeHockeyStats.net \| DartmouthSports.com
Social	Twitter: @Dartmouth_MIH Instagram: @Dartmouth_MIH Facebook: /DartmouthMIH
Game Notes	Dartmouth (PDF) \| RPI \| Union
Tickets	Dartmouth Ticket Office
Program	John Ernsting

THIS WEEKEND
•   The Dartmouth men's hockey team is home this weekend for a pair of ECAC Hockey games against Rensselaer and Union.
•   Puck drop for both games is set for 7 p.m.

LAST TIME OUT
•   The Big Green dropped their only game of last weekend on Friday night in Cambridge to Harvard, 4-1.
•   Senior defenseman Connor Yau scored the lone goal of the game for Dartmouth, an unassisted marker midway through the first period.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
•   Rensselaer comes to Hanover first for its lone game of the weekend as it made the trip to play Harvard on Jan. 4.
•   The Engineers are 8-17-2 overall and 5-9-1 in league games. The 11 ECAC Hockey points have them ninth in the league standings, one spot out of hosting a home playoff series if the season were to end now.
•   The team is unbeaten in its last three games thanks to a pair of ties with Union and Cornell and a 3-1 win over visiting Colgate.
•   Leading the way for RPI is Jacob Hayhurst and his 23 points. The junior only has three goals, but his 20 assists are tied for third most by any player in the conference.
•   Despite playing more games than any other team in ECAC, RPI's 51 goals scored are tied for 10th most in the league and are two fewer than Dartmouth's season total with the Big Green playing six fewer contests so far.
•   Union is 20th in this week's national polls, but are seventh in the standings. Overall, the Dutchmen are 13-8-5, but sport a sub-.500 league mark coming into the weekend at 6-7-1 in ECAC games.
•   The team is coming off an odd week in which they played to a scoreless tie with RPI in the Mayor's Cup (Union won the shootout, 3-2) and were then blanked again Friday night at home by Cornell, 4-0. Union bounced back with an impressive 6-0 shutout of Colgate the following night; the eighth time the Raiders have been shutout this season.
•   Cole Maier leads the team in scoring and assists (6-15-21), while five players have eight goals.
•   Goaltending duties have been split between senior Jake Kupsky (6-4-1) and sophomore Darion Hanson (7-4-4).

AGAINST THESE TEAMS
•   Union and RPI represent the last two yet-to-be-played ECAC Hockey teams on the Big Green's schedule in 2018-19.
•   Dartmouth swept RPI in 2017-18, while being swept by Union.

A TALE OF TWO TEAMS
•   Dartmouth's longest current winning and losing streaks are both against this weekend's opponents.
•   The Big Green own a seven-game win streak against the Engineers that dates back to the 2014-15 season. In the two meetings last year, Dartmouth won a 6-5 overtime game at home before a memorable 7-3 road win on Feb. 9 (more on that below).
•   RPI's last win against Dartmouth was Nov. 8, 2014: a 2-1 victory in Troy in which the home team scored two third-period goals, including the winner with just 19 seconds remaining.
•   The seven straight victories is the second-longest win streak against RPI: 8, Mar. 13, 2004 to Feb. 2, 2007 (8-0-0, started in Game 2 of a playoff series).
•   On the other side of things… Union has taken both regular-season games from the Green and White in each of the last three seasons and has matched it longest consecutive streak of wins against Dartmouth in program history.
•   In the 22 regular-season and postseason games since the start of the 2009-10 season between the two, the Dutchmen hold a 15-5-2 mark against their Hanover counterparts that includes a pair of six-game win streaks.
•   Interestingly enough, the only two wins against Union in the last six years came in the form of a Dartmouth season sweep in 2014-15 when the Dutchmen were the defending national champions. The Green staged a 4-3 OT comeback win after trailing 3-0 in the first period on Nov. 7 in Schenectady before earning a 3-2 triumph on Jan. 31 of that season.

UNASSISTED
•   Connor Yau's first-period goal at Harvard was Dartmouth's sixth unassisted marker of the season, tied with Brown and Yale for the most of any team in ECAC Hockey this season.
•   That figure ranks as the 14th-most of any team in Division I with Minnesota State leading the way with 11 in 2018-19.
•   Alex Jasiek is actually tied for the league lead with two this season, while ranking sixth in the nation.
•   Friday also marked the second time this year that Dartmouth scored just once in a game with that tally coming unassisted. The other time was at Colgate on Jan. 18 when Jasiek potted the winner on an individual effort following an offensive zone faceoff.

BIG NIGHT!
•   In the last game against RPI, Shane Sellar and Will Graber had career nights.
•   The top line of Shane Sellar, Will Graber and Quin Foreman combined for 13 points in the RPI game.
•   Sellar finished with six points (2-4-6), becoming the first Dartmouth player with six points in a game since Dennis Murphy (4-2-6) on Jan. 22, 1978 against Penn. It was the 77th time in program history a Dartmouth skater reached the mark.
•   Sellar tied his career high in goals, while setting new marks in assists and points. Graber also set new career highs in goals and points as he posted a line of 3-2-5.
•   Sellar's six-point night remains the highest single-game output by any player in college hockey in the last three years.
•   Graber's five-point night became the first Dartmouth player since Hugh Jessiman to record a natural hat trick. Jessiman accomplished the feat on Nov. 21, 2003 in a 9-4 win at Yale en route to a 4-1-5 game.
•   Prior to Jessiman, the program's last natural hat trick came on Feb. 23, 1980 when Ross Brownridge (3-2-5) scored the first three goals in a 7-0 home win against Brown. Koenig Family Head Coach Bob Gaudet '81 was in net that night for the Green, making 27 saves in a shutout.
•   Brownridge (3-1-4) would record another four days later against Harvard for shortest gap between hat tricks by the same player in program history. The hat trick against the Crimson was capped by the OT winner, one of only two instances since 1970 in which a Dartmouth player's third goal of the night came in overtime. It was not done again until Brad Schierhorn capped his only career hat trick by scoring the winner to beat Colgate in Game 1 of a 2016 first round series.

FUNKY STAT
•   ECAC Hockey is the only league in Division I without a penalty shot goal this season.
•   In fact, only one has been awarded this season across all 12 teams.
•   In contrast: Hockey East, Atlantic Hockey and the WCHA all have had six attempts, while NCHC has had five and the Big Ten with four. Independent Arizona State is 1-for-1 on penalty shots this year.
•   Teams across the board are 10-for-29 this season with only Ohio State recording multiple penalty-shot markers.
•   Dartmouth last attempted a penalty shot on Jan. 30, 2015 with Jack Barre '16 being denied by Jason Kasdorf of Rensselaer at 6:26 of the third period.
•   Eric Neiley '15 scored the most recent PS goal for the Green, finding the back of the net at Cornell just 1:19 into the opening period in the game before the Barre attempt back on Jan. 24, 2015.

RANKED
•   Saturday night will mark the third time in four games that Dartmouth will play a ranked opponent as Union is 20th in the national polls.
•   The contest is the ninth this season against a team ranked in the nation's top-20 the week of the game.

CLARKY GETS THE NOD
•   Junior Adrian Clark has made 11 straight starts in goal for the Big Green, the longest stretch by a Big Green netminder in several seasons.
•   Even with Devin Buffalo '18 getting the nod 28 times in 35 games last season, his longest run between the pipes to start a game was nine.
•   The Ontario native has played in 1,190:24 in net this season, accounting for 93.7% of the time for Dartmouth goalies.
•   That number ranks second in ECAC Hockey goaltenders behind only Clarkson's Jake Kielly (97.5%), while ranking ninth in all of college hockey amongst qualifying netminders (must have played in at least one-third of team's total minutes).
•   Clark's eight wins this season are fifth in the ECAC.

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).

WHAT'S AHEAD?
•   With just eight games over four weekends remaining in the regular season, the Big Green will alternate between home and road over the final month.
•   Dartmouth heads to the North Country next weekend to take on Clarkson and St. Lawrence before returning home for the final time in 2018-19 to play host to Yale (Feb. 22) and Brown (Feb. 23).
•   The Green and White will close out the road at this weekend's opponents, traveling to Union and RPI for the first two days of March.

PLAYOFF PICTURE

	ECAC Record				Regular Season Finish
TEAM	W	L	T	Pts	1*	2*	3*	4*	5**	6**	7**	8**	9	10	11	12
Cornell	9	3	2	20	40%	31%	17%	8%	3%	1%	<>	<>	<>	<>	<>	<>
Quinnipiac	9	4	1	19	41%	33%	14%	7%	3%	1%	<>	<>	<>	<>	<>	<>
Yale	9	4	1	19	7%	12%	20%	22%	20%	13%	4%	1%	<>	<>	<>	<>
Clarkson	9	5	0	18	10%	16%	21%	22%	18%	9%	3%	1%	<>	<>	<>	<>
Harvard	8	5	2	18	2%	7%	21%	25%	24%	14%	5%	2%	<>	<>	<>	<>
Dartmouth	7	6	1	15	<>	1%	4%	9%	15%	24%	22%	15%	7%	3%	1%	<>
Brown	5	6	3	13	<>	<>	<>	1%	3%	12%	23%	24%	18%	13%	6%	<>
Union	6	7	1	13	<>	<>	2%	5%	11%	20%	22%	18%	12%	6%	3%	<>
Rensselaer	5	9	1	11	<>	<>	<>	<>	<>	2%	5%	11%	20%	26%	35%	1%
Colgate	4	8	2	10	<>	<>	<>	<>	1%	3%	9%	15%	23%	26%	21%	3%
Princeton	4	9	1	9	<>	<>	<>	<>	1%	2%	7%	14%	19%	25%	28%	5%
St. Lawrence	2	11	1	5	X	X	<>	<>	<>	<>	<>	<>	<>	1%	6%	92%

Notes
^ means the team will finish better than this playoff spot
X means the team cannot win this playoff spot
* denotes first round bye in the post season conference tournament
** denotes first round home field advantage in the post season conference tournament

GAME PROGRAM