No. 20 Dartmouth Begins Road Trip at No. 1 Cornell and Colgate

Friday, January 24

Ithaca, N.Y.

7 PM

Dartmouth College

Cornell

Two ranked teams meet Friday in Ithaca.

Photo by: Doug Austin

No. 20 Dartmouth Begins Road Trip at No. 1 Cornell and Colgate

1/23/2020 10:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Two weekends in NY start with No. 1 Big Red Friday night.

By: Pat Salvas

GAME 19
Dartmouth | 10-5-3, 7-3-1 ECAC
No. 1 Cornell | 13-1-3, 8-1-1 ECAC
Date: Friday, 1.24.20 — 7 p.m.
Location: Lynah Rink | Ithaca, N.Y.
Watch: ESPN+ | International Stream
Listen: DartmouthSports.com | Rob Kennedy (PxP)
Follow Along: Live Stats

GAME 20
Dartmouth | 10-5-3, 7-3-1 ECAC
Colgate | 8-10-4, 6-3-1 ECAC
Date: Saturday, 1.25.20 — 7:30 p.m.
Location: Class of 1965 Arena | Hamilton, N.Y.
Watch: ESPN+ | International Stream
Listen: DartmouthSports.com | Rob Kennedy (PxP)
Follow Along: Live Stats

Game Notes

THIS WEEKEND
• The Dartmouth men’s hockey team heads out on the road for the first of two straight weekends away from Thompson Arena and in the Empire State.
• The four-game trip starts Friday in Ithaca against No. 1 Cornell before heading to Hamilton to square off with Colgate.

LAST TIME OUT
• The Big Green are coming off a home weekend sweep of ECAC Hockey opponents for the first time in nearly two years as they took down No. 7 Clarkson, 3-2, on Friday before taking care of St. Lawrence, 3-1, on Saturday night.
• The upset of the seventh-ranked and league-leading Clarkson came via a late-game goal from rookie Tyler Campbell, who found the back of the net with 2:42 remaining in regulation to give the home team a 3-2 victory.
• The following night saw the Big Green push the win streak to three games with a 3-1 triumph against St. Lawrence.

RANKED
• For the first time in four years, Dartmouth entered the nation’s top-20 rankings this week, earning a spot at No. 20 in the USCHO release.
• The last time the Big Green cracked the polls was Feb. 1, 2016 when they also reached No. 20.
• Prior to 2016, the last time Dartmouth was in the polls was Feb. 25, 2013 when it climbed up one spot from the previous week to No. 18.
• Dartmouth also is receiving votes (4) in the USA Hockey weekly poll, a first for the program in recent memory.
• Dartmouth is one of five ECAC Hockey teams in this week’s rankings, tied with Hockey East for the most for any conference.
• In terms of the most important poll, the Green and White are 19th in the PairWise.
• The PairWise Ranking is a system which attempts to mimic the method used by the NCAA Selection Committee to determine participants for the NCAA Division I men’s hockey tournament. The PWR compares all teams by these criteria: record against common opponents, head-to-head competition, and the RPI.

OF COURSE…
• The Big Green finally make waves on a national level enough to garner top-20 recognition and who do they have to play next? The team ranked No. 1 in the polls.
• The last time Dartmouth played a team ranked No. 1 overall in that week’s polls was Jan. 29, 2016 when top-ranked Quinnipiac used a third-period outburst to beat the home team, 7-5, at Thompson Arena.
• Cornell remains No. 1 in the polls thanks to a tie and a win last weekend against No. 17 Northern Michigan, garnering 21 first-place votes in the process.

THESE TEAMS THIS WEEK…
• The Big Red retained their top ranking after another weekend in which they did not lose, pushing their current unbeaten streak to six games (3-0-3).
• Cornell’s lone loss this season remains the 2-1 defeat in Hanover on Dec. 7 when they came to town sporting the No. 2 ranking that week.
• That loss came in the final game of the first half of the season. Since returning from break, the team has been without a blemish in six second-half games with a trio of wins and ties, but without consecutive victories.
• Colgate is the lone visiting team to come away from Thompson Arena this season with a win, doing so on Dec. 6 in convincing fashion with a 5-1 triumph.
• The Raiders have lost three-of-four games since returning from break and had last weekend off following a road split at Union and RPI.
• Despite being two games under .500 overall (8-10-4), the team is in the mix in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 6-3-1 conference mark and 13 points.
• Cornell Leaders:
o Points | Morgan Barron (20)
o Goals | Morgan Barron (9)
o Assists | Cam Donaldson (12)
o Goaltending | Matthew Galajda: 13-1-2, 1.46, .940
• Colgate Leaders:
o Points | Bobby McMann (14)
o Goals | Bobby McMann and Colton Young (7)
o Assists | Nick Austin (10)
o Goaltending | Andrew Farrier: 5-3-0, 2.02, .927

AT HOME
• Save for the Colgate game, Dartmouth has been unbeatable at home this season.
• At 7-1-2, the .800 home winning percentage is tied for seventh best in the nation.
• The Big Green were able to earn their second home sweep of the second half of the season with the results against Clarkson and St. Lawrence after also sweeping CC and UConn to win the Ledyard Classic.
• This weekend was, however, the first sweep of ECAC Hockey foes at home since Feb. 16-17, 2018 when the team swept… No. 7 Clarkson and St. Lawrence.
• Both of those games nearly two years ago had the exact same scores of 3-2 and 3-1 with the Golden Knights also owning the ranking of seventh in that week’s polls… weird.

FASTEST TO 10
• With Saturday’s win vs. the Saints, Dartmouth reached the 10-win plateau in just 18 games played this season.
• It marked the fewest games into the season to reach double-digit wins for the Green and White since the 2012-13 season when they did so in 17 games, but on the same date of Jan. 18.
Season | Games | Date
o ’19-20 | 18 | 1.18
o ’18-19 | 26 | 2.22
o ’17-18 | 24 | 2.9
o ’16-17 | 27 | 2.17
o ’15-16 | 19 | 1.23
o ’14-15 | 22 | 2.6
o ’13-14 | 32 | 3.9
o ’12-13 | 17 | 1.18

DOWN, BUT NOT OUT
• The Big Green have won or tied 13 games this season. In those contests, the team has trailed at one point or another and come back to win seven times.
• Dartmouth is also 3-5-1 this year when the opposition scores first a year after only winning four times in 17 occurrences (4-11-2) in which it fell behind 1-0.
• The Saints took a 1-0 lead just 84 seconds into Saturday night’s game.

SECOND-HALF SURGE
• Dartmouth is 6-1-1 since returning from winter break.
• That win total is tied for the ECAC lead with Quinnipiac (6-1-0) in that time and includes three non-conference victories (Colorado College, UConn, BU) and three league wins (Princeton, Clarkson, SLU).
• As previously mentioned, the team is playing well at Thompson this season, but that has been especially true as of late with a 5-0-0 mark on home ice since the start of the Ledyard Classic.
• The 27 goals scored in that time is also tied with the Bobcats for the most in ECAC.
• Drew O’Connor is second in the league in scoring since coming back, posting 10 points (7-3-10). His seven goals are the most of any league player in that time frame, while third of any player in Division I.
• Rookie defender Tanner Palocsik’s seven helpers in the second half are also second in the league and seventh in the nation.

#OCforHobery
• Dartmouth’s nomination for the fan voting portion of the Hobey Baker Award is sophomore forward Drew O’Connor.
• Coming into the weekend, O’Connor is second in the league in goals with 11 and tied for eighth in scoring with 20 points.
• His 1.11 points per game ranks seventh amongst his conference peers.

SINCE THE START OF LAST SEASON
• O’Connor has scored 28 goals: 17 as a rookie and now 11 in his sophomore campaign.
• Only Clarkson’s Haralds Egle (30) has more than the Dartmouth power forward amongst ECAC players.

TWO-FER GRABER
• Senior Will Graber has moved from his usual spot at center on the top line to a roaming defenseman in the extra skater position.
• All he has done in the four games since making the move is register a team-leading five points (2-3-5).
• He scored goals in both games against the Golden Knights and Saints and was credited with the winner Saturday against SLU, the 30th marker of his career.
• His four-game point streak is the longest active run on the team and tied for the longest by any Dartmouth player this season.

TOP-LINE TALENT
• Graber and O’Connor always seem to get a lion’s share of the attention, but junior Quin Foreman is putting up impressive numbers this year.
• Second on the team in both scoring (16) and assists (10), Foreman has been the team’s most consistent skater this season with points in 11-of-18 games. O’Connor has amassed more points, but in one fewer game.
• His 27 career goals rank third amongst active players behind only Graber (30) and O’Connor (28).

THE KID LOVES THE 3rd PERIOD
• Tyler Campbell scored the game-winner against Clarkson, the first of his career.
• It was the first against a team other than Quinnipiac as his first two came in each of the contests against the Bobcats.
• All three of his tallies this season have come in the final period with two coming in the final five minutes.
• His first goal was also a big one as he netted the tying marker in the Nov. 8 draw with QU (2-2).

CLARKY vs. CLARKSON
• Adrian Clark has been good in his career against the Golden Knights.
• In four games, the senior netminder has a 3-1-0 record, including his first career win on Jan. 20, 2018 when the Big Green defeated No. 2 Clarkson in Potsdam, snapping the team’s 15-game unbeaten streak (14-0-1).
• In those four games played, he boasts a .943 save percentage to go along with a 1.51 goals against average, both of which are bolstered by a 29-save shutout last season.

RUTTS
• After a slow start, Collin Rutherford is starting to appear on the scoresheet with greater frequency.
• After an unassisted goal against Clarkson and an assist on Cam Strong’s goal against SLU, Rutherford now has a point in six of the last eight games.

NO HELP!
• Rutherford’s second-period goal against the Golden Knights and Graber’s first-period goal against the Saints both were unassisted scores.
• Dartmouth has notched 56 goals this season with six coming without a single assist, tied for the eighth most in the country.
• Harvard is the only other ECAC team with at least six unassisted goals this season.

ROADIE
• Dartmouth is embarking on a two-week road trip against four ECAC Hockey rivals.
• The team also had a four-game trip last January in conference games that started at Quinnipiac (1-5) and Princeton (5-0) and concluded the following weekend at Colgate (1-0) and Cornell (1-5).

WHERE WE SIT… NOW
• Not that standings are terribly important given the current stretch of schedule, but the Big Green are in good position right now to compete for home ice and a first-round bye as they are nearly three-quarters of the way to last year’s conference win total (10-9-3).
• At 7-3-1 and with 15 points in league games, the team is tied for third place in ECAC Hockey standings along with Harvard, Quinnipiac and Rensselaer.
• Of those four teams, Dartmouth (11) has played the fewest, while RPI (15) has played the most. The Crimson and Bobcats have each played 12.
• In the Ivy League standings, Dartmouth is first with 10 points (5-1-0). Harvard has nine points (4-1-1), while Cornell has eight (4-1-0) with a game in-hand on the New England schools.

ROOKIE PRODUCTION
• Through the first 10 games of the season that led to the break, the Big Green had just eight total points (1-7-8) from its first-year class. That figure ranked 11th in the ECAC, ahead of only Yale (1-4-5).
• Since then, the Dartmouth rookies have 17 points (5-12-17), good for second in the league behind only Harvard (8-15-23).
• The 17 points by rookies since Dec. 27 is fifth nationally.

SPECIAL TEAMS
• Dartmouth was 1-for-9 on the power play in the home sweep of Golden Knights and Saints. The penalty kill was a perfect 5-for-5.
• At 21.2% (14-66), the Big Green power play is 15th in the nation and fourth in ECAC Hockey.
• The penalty kill has been great lately, operating at 84.0% since the start of the second half after a 75.6% in the first that sat near the bottom of the national rankings.

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, heading to Rensselaer and Union after this week’s trip to Ithaca and Hamilton.
• The next home game is Friday, Feb. 7 against Harvard with puck drop set for 8 p.m.

Take a ?? at the Top 5?? #NCAAHockey Plays from the past week!
5?? @OhioStateWHKY
4?? @UConnMHOC
3?? @GriffsHockey
2?? @RiverHawkHockey
1?? @Dartmouth_MIH pic.twitter.com/D0smo4VZVA
— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) January 21, 2020

Oh sure, you COULD vote for someone because they have fancy graphics OR you could use your heart and do the right thing...

Vote every day for Drew O'Connor for Hobey Baker. #OCforHobey

Vote??https://t.co/zlhhlBEezq pic.twitter.com/gseIlGyaX4
— Dartmouth Men's Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) January 22, 2020