Dartmouth Beats Brown, 5-2, in Defensive Battle at Thompson

Friday, February 14

Hanover, N.H.

7 PM

Dartmouth College

11-9-4, 8-7-2

Brown

6-17-1, 6-10-1

Brown

Dartmouth

Collin Rutherford led the way with 2 points (1-1-2)

Photo by: Doug Austin

Dartmouth Beats Brown, 5-2, in Defensive Battle at Thompson

2/14/2020 9:17:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

Big Green got goals from 5 players and held the Bears to 13 shots.

By: Pat Salvas

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men's hockey team played a defensively sound game and scored goals when they needed to in a 5-2 home win against visiting Brown Friday night at Thompson Arena.

Five different players found the back of the net for the Big Green (11-9-4, 8-7-2 ECAC), while holding the Bears (6-17-1, 6-10-1 ECAC) to just 13 shots on goal in 60 minutes.

"That was a good game from start to finish for us," Koenig Family Head Coach Bob Gaudet '81 said. "I was pleased with our offensive zone time and our top line made it really hard on them (Brown) all night.

"That being said, we were really good in our own end in limiting their opportunities," Gaudet added. "We played a sound defensive game and were on the right side of the puck most of the night."

Dartmouth carried a 2-0 lead into the intermission on gritty goals just outside the paint from seniors Cam Strong and Daniel Warpecha.

After Cole Quisenberry made it a one-goal game just past the midway point of the middle frame, freshman defenseman Tanner Palocsik notched his second of the season on a great play down low in the zone from Will Graber and Quin Foreman.

Brown made it 3-2 with a Bradley Cocca goal on just their eighth shot of the night coming at 9:32 of the third.

But the home team added a pair of late goals in the final three minutes on backdoor passes to Drew O'Connor and Collin Rutherford for easy tap-in tallies and the three-goal win. Both plays were made by the great passes of Graber and Baker for the insurance markers as Palocsik's second-period one-timer proved to be the winner; the first of his career.

Foreman and Graber each finished with two assists, while Rutherford's two points came on a goal and a helper. For O'Connor, his third-period score gives him 14 goals this season, tied for second in the league with Yale's Curtis Hall — a player who will be in Hanover Saturday night for a 7 p.m. game against the Green and White — and just two back of Harvard's Jack Drury.

Dartmouth blocked an impressive 19 shots in the game and with a 14.54 average this season, ranks ninth in the nation in the category. In total, six players blocked at least two shots with Graber and Clay Han leading the way with three apiece.

Adrian Clark needed to make just 11 saves to earn the win. Brown's Gavin Nieto took the loss while making 30 stops.

Baker's assist was the 50th point of his career.

The win snapped a five-game winless streak (0-4-1) and gives Dartmouth a little more breathing room with 18 ECAC Hockey points in the standings, moving them into sixth for the time being with five regular season games remaining.

The Big Green are now 8-2-2 at Thompson Arena this season.