Dartmouth Plays Host to No. 7 Clarkson and St. Lawrence

Friday, January 17

Hanover, N.H.

7 PM

Dartmouth College

Clarkson

Tickets

Dartmouth plays at Thompson for the final time this month.

Photo by: Doug Austin

Dartmouth Plays Host to No. 7 Clarkson and St. Lawrence

1/16/2020 10:16:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Big Green play in key ECAC Hockey games, welcome back former NHL players Saturday night.

By: Pat Salvas

GAME 17
Dartmouth | 8-5-3, 5-3-1 ECAC
No. 7 Clarkson | 15-4-2, 9-2-0 ECAC
Date: Friday, 1.17.20 — 7 p.m.
Location: Thompson Arena | Hanover, N.H.
Watch: ESPN+ and NESNplus
Listen: DartmouthSports.com | Rob Kennedy (PxP)
Follow Along: Live Stats

GAME 18
Dartmouth | 8-5-3, 5-3-1 ECAC
St. Lawrence | 3-17-3, 1-10-0 ECAC
Date: Saturday, 1.18.20 — 7 p.m.
Location: Thompson Arena | Hanover, N.H.
Watch: ESPN+
Listen: DartmouthSports.com | Rob Kennedy (PxP)
Follow Along: Live Stats

Game Notes

THIS WEEKEND
• The Dartmouth men’s hockey team plays host to No. 7 Clarkson and St. Lawrence this weekend for a pair of ECAC Hockey games.
• Friday’s game against the Golden Knights will be carried on NESN+ in addition to the usual ESPN+ stream.
• Saturday’s game will feature the return of former All-American Lee Stempniak ’05, team captain Tanner Glass ’07 and 2016 Stanley Cup Champion Ben Lovejoy ’06 to Thompson Arena for a night celebrating their recent conclusions of their NHL careers (more below).
• When the final buzzer sounded against BU last Saturday night, the non-conference portion of the schedule concluded for the 2019-20 season as it is only ECAC opponents the rest of way.

WELCOME HOME!
• Stempniak, Glass and Lovejoy all announced they would be stepping away from professional hockey prior to the start of the 2019-20 NHL season.
• The trio of former teammates — who represent Dartmouth alumni ranked first, third and fourth, respectively, in NHL games played — will be honored with an on-ice presentation during the game and will sign autographs on the Thompson Arena concourse following the conclusion of the contest with the Saints.
• Fans will be given a commemorative poster to have signed that night in addition to t-shirts marking the occasion for the first 500 fans through the doors.

LAST TIME OUT
• The Big Green opened last weekend with a come-from-behind 2-2 tie at Vermont’s Gutterson Fieldhouse. Sophomore Jeff Losurdo’s power-play goal with under five minutes to play pulled the visitors even against the hometown Catamounts.
• The following night, Dartmouth stunned Boston University with a 5-4 come-from-behind victory. It wasn’t a stunning result because the Green defeated the Terriers, but rather because of how they managed to do it.
• BU jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first 13 minutes and change of the opening frame, only to see the home team answer back with three goals in one minute and 40 seconds of action to send the teams to the dressing room tied, 3-3, after one.
• After the Terriers regained the lead with an impressive and skilled goal from Wilmer Skoog (…he did “The Michigan” …), Dartmouth’s Drew O’Connor tied and then put the home team on top with two goals in a 47-second span that eventually would result in the 5-4 win.

AWARD SZN
• For the fifth time this season, a Big Green player was the recipient of one of the three weekly awards as freshman Mark Gallant was tabbed as the ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week.
• It marks the first time a Dartmouth player has been named a top weekly rookie in 2019-20 as the team has earned player (O’Connor twice, Sam Hesler) and goaltender (Adrian Clark) previously.
• Named the Rookie of the Week three times last season, Drew O’Connor was tabbed as the DartmouthSports.com Male Athlete of the Week for the second time in as many weeks on Tuesday. It marked the third time this season he has earned the distinction after also claiming the honor back in mid-November.

WHY GALLANT, THOUGH?
• Gallant was named the league’s top rookie after tying for the league lead in points with four on two goals and two assists against the Catamounts and Terriers.
• At UVM, Gallant started the scoring with a power-play goal just six seconds into a second-period man-advantage, scoring quickly off an offensive zone faceoff.
• He again started the scoring the following night for Dartmouth with another power-play goal, redirecting a point shot in the slot to start the comeback. He played a role in capping said comeback with the primary assist on O’Connor’s second goal that proved to be the winner, his second assist of the night.
• The first multi-point game of his career, the three-point night is tied for the best individual single-game output this season by any player on the roster.

THESE TEAMS THIS WEEK…
• Clarkson comes to Hanover ranked seventh (7th) in both the USCHO and USA Hockey national polls this week and 10th in the Pairwise.
• The Golden Knights are 15-4-2 overall and are 9-2-0 in ECAC Hockey, sitting atop the league standings with 18 points, one more than No. 1 Cornell.
• Leading the way are a pair of seniors as Haralds Egle (10-14-24) and Devin Brosseau (7-16-23) are not only the team’s leading scorers, but also the top-two point-producers in the league.
• A good deal of their scoring has come on the power play as the unit operates at 23.8 percent, the third-best figure in ECAC Hockey.
• On the flip side, St. Lawrence is 12th in the conference standings coming into the weekend. But don’t let that fool you into thinking the Saints aren’t a formidable opponent.
• St. Lawrence is more familiar with Thompson Arena than every team in the nation except the Dartmouth men and women, having played 10 games in Hanover in the last two-plus seasons between regular-season games, a pair of three-game playoff battles and the Ledyard Classic just two weeks ago.
• That being said, the Saints are struggling this season with a 3-17-3 overall mark and a 1-10-0 mark in league games, putting them at the bottom of the standings.
• Sophomore Zach Risteau has been a bright spot for the team, though, as he is tied for fourth in the league in scoring with 21 points (7-14-21) with 17 coming on the road, the best mark of any player in the country.
• Clarkson Leaders:
o Points | Haralds Egle (24)
o Goals | Haralds Egle (10)
o Assists | Devin Brosseau (16)
o Goaltending | Frank Marotte: 15-4-2, 1.66, .941
• St. Lawrence Leaders:
o Points | Zach Risteau (21)
o Goals | Zach Risteau (7)
o Assists | Zach Risteau (14)
o Goaltending | Daniel Mannella: 2-7-1, 2.75, .916 Devin Brosseau

AGAINST THESE TEAMS
• Dartmouth has yet to play either team this season, but has seen SLU in person twice as the Saints played UConn (T, 2-2 | SOL) and Colorado College (L, 7-3) in the Ledyard Classic.
• Against Clarkson last year, the home teams lost both games via the shutout as the Golden Knights won in Hanover, 2-0, while the Big Green got a goal from O’Connor with 32.9 seconds to give the visitors a 1-0 win in Potsdam three weeks later.
• The Big Green and Saints played five times from late January on last season. Dartmouth won the home game, 4-1, and played to a 2-2 tie in Canton in the regular-season games. The first two games of the first-round series were close, one-goal affairs as the Green won the opener, 3-2, but dropped Game 2 in overtime, 3-2. Game 3 was not close.
• In the third and deciding contest, Dartmouth exploded for an 8-0 win with a five-goal second period proving to be the difference. The eight goals matched the program’s most ever in a playoff game set in 1980 against Rensselaer in an 8-0 victory in the league quarterfinals in a single-elimination format.
• Quin Foreman had a four-point period (1-3-4) in the second, while Will Graber scored twice and had three points (2-1-3) along with Matt Baker (0-3-3). Alex Jasiek (1-3-4) also had four points in the game, while Losurdo (1-2-3) chipped in with three.
• The eight goals were what catches the eye, but the zero allowed by netminder Adrian Clark was his sixth shutout of 2018-19, setting a new Dartmouth single-season record in 113 years of program history.

THAT WAS FAST!
• Staring down the barrel of a three-nothing deficit, the Big Green scored three goals in less than two minutes to pull even with the Terriers before the end of the first period.
• In the second period, the team benefited again from a pair of quick goals as it took just 47 seconds for O’Connor to turn a 4-3 deficit into a 5-4 lead.
• It was 44 seconds between the Gallant goal that started the scoring and the Matt Baker goal to pull within one. Just 24 seconds later, it was a puck off the stick of Quin Foreman that tied the game.
• In total, the Big Green have scored goals within a minute of one another seven times this season:
o at Harvard: Warpecha and Markell | 21 seconds
o vs. Princeton: Graber and Warpecha | 50 seconds
o at Northeastern: Warpecha and Hesler | 13 seconds
o vs. Colorado College: O’Connor and Baker | 53 seconds
o vs. BU: Gallant and Baker | 44 seconds
o vs. BU: Baker and Foreman | 24 seconds
o vs. BU: O’Connor (both) | 47 seconds

DOWN 3-0 IS SO CLICHÉ…
• The Big Green were the second Division I team this season and first of two this weekend to overcome a 3-0 deficit and win.
o Dec. 6: Bowling Green beat Alabama Huntsville, 9-3.
o Jan. 11: Dartmouth defeated Boston University, 5-4.
o Jan. 12: Arizona State beat Brown, 4-3 in OT.
• Dartmouth was the fastest to pull even, doing so in 1:40. The Falcons needed 6:43, while the Sun Devils chipped away over the course of the end of the first and start of the second period, pulling even in 14:43 of action.
• The Green and White trailed Northeastern, 3-0, after one period last month, but managed to pull even with three straight goals to start the second, including the second and third scores just 13 seconds apart. However, a faceoff violation was called at center ice after that tying goal and allowed the Huskies to go on the power play, where they regained the lead and never gave it back.
• This is the third time since the start of the 2014-15 season that Dartmouth has fallen behind 3-0 only to come back and win the game:
o at Denver (Defending National Champs) Dec. 16, 2017: Down 3-0 after 1st, won 5-4.
o at Union (Defending National Champs) Nov. 7, 2014: Down 3-0 midway through the 2nd, won 4-3 in OT (Tim O’Brien).

DOWN… BUT NOT OUT!
• Dartmouth has won or tied 11 times this season. Of those contests, the Green and White have trailed at some point six times:
o Nov. 8 vs. Quinnipiac: Down 2-1, tied 2-2
o Nov. 15 at Yale: Down 1-0, won 4-3
o Dec. 29 vs. UConn: Down 3-1, won 4-3 (all in the 3rd)
o Jan. 3 at Princeton: Down 2-1, won 4-3 in OT
o Jan. 10 at Vermont: Down 2-0, tied 2-2
o Jan. 11 vs. BU: Down 3-0, won 5-4

IN CONFERENCE GAMES
• Dartmouth is 5-3-1 in ECAC play this season with nine conference games to their credit, the fewest of any team in the nation to this point.
• The 2.67 goals in league games is below their overall season average of 3.12. But the 3.11 goals allowed per game in ECAC contests is also below the 3.25 GAA across the entire season.
• Clark has also been better in league games, boasting a .914 save percentage and 2.59 goals against average against conference foes. In the entire regular season, his numbers jump a bit as he has .906 S% and a 2.94 GAA.

SCORING A LOT
• The Big Green are third in ECAC Hockey in scoring, averaging 3.12 goals per game. That ranks behind only Harvard (4.0) and Cornell (3.67). Friday’s opponent Clarkson is fourth with 2.95 goals per game.
• The 3.12 scoring offense is 18th in Division I.
• That scoring comes from getting a ton of shots on goal as Dartmouth leads the league with 32.69 SOG per game, a figure that is also ninth in the country coming into the weekend.

LUCKY NUMBER 13
• With three more assists last weekend, Tanner Palocsik moved up to fifth in the nation by a rookie with 13 this season.
• His 0.81 assists per game are the most by any rookie in the nation at this point.
• His 13 assists this season are the most by an ECAC Hockey rookie regardless of position and five more than the next closest rookie defenseman (Cornell’s Sam Malinski, 8). He trails only Jake Willets (15) of Ferris State for assists by a first-year D-man by only two despite playing in seven fewer games.

50 AND 60
• With his first assist against BU, Will Graber hit 50 for his career. He now has 51 assists and 79 points in 108 career games.
• With his assist at Vermont, Quin Foreman reached 60 career points. He would add another two the following night against the Terriers for 62 (27-35-62) in 83 career games.

AT HOME
• Dartmouth is 5-1-2 at home this season. The .750 winning percentage in those games is the third-best mark amongst ECAC teams (Cornell, 1.000 and Quinnipiac, .800) and 13th in the nation.
• The Green and White are averaging 3.00 goals per home game.
• Despite the sub-.500 record on the road, the team averages 3.25 goals per road game.
• Drew O’Connor is fifth among ECAC players with 10 points (6-4-10) at home in 2019-20.

AGAINST THE TERRIERS
• The five goals scored against BU were the most by a Dartmouth team since Jan. 19, 1983 when the Green dropped a 6-5 OT contest.
• The five goals were the most in a win against the Terriers since a 6-2 victory in Boston on Nov. 26, 1980 when Koenig Family Head Coach Bob Gaudet ’81 was between the pipes for the visiting team, rather than behind the bench.

MULTI-POINT NIGHTS
• In total, six players for Dartmouth recorded multiple points in the game, another season high: Gallant (1-2-3), O’Connor (2-0-2), Palocsik (0-2-2), Graber (0-2-2), Foreman (1-1-2) and Baker (1-1-2).
• The team’s previous season high for players with multiple points was four at Northeastern: Warpecha (1-1-2), Losurdo (1-1-2), Hesler (1-1-2) and Palocsik (0-2-2).

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 is in his third season with the team and will broadcast all 29 regular season games via an audio link through DartmouthSports.com.

WHAT’S AHEAD?
• The Big Green are out on the road and in the Empire State for two straight weeks, playing at Cornell and Colgate next weekend and then heading to Rensselaer and Union the following Friday and Saturday.
• The next home game is Friday, Feb. 7 against Harvard with puck drop set for 8 p.m.