Dartmouth and Princeton Set to Battle in ECAC Hockey First-Round Series

Friday, March 6

Hanover, N.H.

7 PM

Dartmouth College

Princeton (Game 1)

Tickets

Cam Strong men's hockey action at Princeton

The Big Green and Tigers last met in the postseason in 2015.

Photo by: Rhea Nall

Dartmouth and Princeton Set to Battle in ECAC Hockey First-Round Series

3/5/2020 11:07:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

No. 6 Big Green host best-of-three series at Thompson Arena this weekend.

By: Pat Salvas

THE SERIES

SCHEDULE

Game 1: Friday, 3.6.20 | 7 PM
Game 2: Saturday, 3.7.20 | 7 PM
Game 3: Sunday, 3.8.20 | 5 PM (if necessary)

Game Notes

THIS WEEKEND
• The Dartmouth men’s hockey team hosts Princeton in the ECAC Hockey Championship First Round this weekend.
• The best-of-three series will be played at Thompson Arena with Games 1 and 2 set for 7 p.m. puck drops on Friday and Saturday. If the teams are tied, a Game 3 would be at 5 p.m. on Sunday.

LAST TIME OUT
• Dartmouth split the final weekend of the regular season at home with a 5-3 win against Union and a 4-1 loss to Rensselear on Senior Night.
• The results saw the Big Green finish the season as the No. 6 seed in the ECAC Hockey standings as Dartmouth owned the tiebreaker with Yale, pushing the Bulldogs to the No. 7 seed.
• Drew O’Connor had himself a weekend, scoring four times in two games, including his first career hat trick on Friday night against Union.

ALL-IVY LEAGUE PLAYERS
• Drew O’Connor: The Dartmouth sophomore was named the Ivy League Co-Player of the Year and unanimously selected to the all-league first team. He became the fourth Big Green player to win the award, joining David Jones (2007), Mike Ouellette (2006) and Ross Brownridge (1980). His unanimous selection to the first team was only the seventh time a Dartmouth player had earned that distinction.
• Quin Foreman: The junior led all Ivy players in assists in league games, dishing out 12 in 10 games, earning second-team honors. Foreman closed out the regular season with 24 points, good for second on the team, behind only O’Connor (32).
• Tanner Palocsik: The rookie defenseman was recognized for his strong first season with a spot on the second team. He finished the regular season as the team leader with 18 assists and was second in ECAC Hockey amongst all rookies with 21 points.
• Adrian Clark: For the second time in as many years, Clark found his name amongst the best in the Ancient Eight. A season removed from first-team honors, the senior netminder was named to the second team in 2019-20 after his six wins were second most by a league goalie.

AWARD SEASON
• In addition to All-Ivy League honors, O’Connor was named the ECAC Hockey Player of the Week on Monday.
• For the New Jersey native, it marked the league-leading third time he received the award this season.
• No other ECAC player claimed the conference’s top weekly honor more than one time in 2019-20 other than Dartmouth’s leading scorer.

AGAINST PRINCETON THIS SEASON
• Dartmouth swept the season series from Princeton this year.
• The Big Green won the game in Hanover, 3-1, on Nov. 9, just the second home game of the season and the first win at Thompson for Dartmouth.
• The first game of 2020 was in New Jersey and saw Dartmouth come away with a 4-3 win thanks to an O’Connor overtime goal just 61 seconds into the extra period. It also marked the 1,000th game behind the bench for Koenig Family Head Coach Bob Gaudet ’81 between stints at Brown and Dartmouth.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS
• Princeton finished the regular season 4-20-5 overall.
• The Tigers’ 2-16-4 mark in ECAC Hockey games slotted them 11th in the standings and earned a date in Hanover.
• Both of the team’s league wins this season came against 12th-place St. Lawrence, earning a last-second 1-0 OT win on the road in January and then a 6-3 home win against the Saints on Valentine’s Day.
• The season had a promising start with a 1-0-1 weekend out at No. 16 St. Cloud State in which they won 5-3 and tied 5-5. However, the Tigers would only score more than three goals in a game once more this year in the aforementioned St. Lawrence home win.
• The Tigers finished the season winless in Ivy play, posting an 0-9-1 record with the lone tie coming at home against Harvard the night after taking the Big Green to overtime.
• Senior Jackson Cressey earned All-Ivy League Honorable Mention honors after leading the team with 19 points.
• Princeton Leaders:
o Points | Jackson Cressey (19)
o Goals | Luke Keenan and Liam Grande (7)
o Assists | Jackson Cressey (14)
o Goaltending | Jeremie Forget: 3-10-2, 2.74, .912

PLAYOFF PICTURE
• No. 1 Cornell – Bye
• No. 2 Clarkson – Bye
• No. 3 Quinnipiac – Bye
• No. 4 Rensselaer – Bye
• No. 5 Harvard vs. No. 12 St. Lawrence | Cambridge
• No. 6 Dartmouth vs. No. 11 Princeton | Hanover
• No. 7 Yale vs. No. 10 Union | New Haven
• No. 8 Colgate vs. No. 9 Brown | Hamilton

HAT TRICKS
• O’Connor’s first career hat trick was also the first of the season for any Dartmouth player.
• Will Graber’s hat trick in last year’s season finale at RPI was the last three-goal game by a Big Green player.
• Since 1970 (when hat tricks records start), O’Connor’s career game was the 85th hat trick by a Dartmouth player and the 60th on home ice. It was also the first against Union since Bruce Cullen on Nov. 20, 1982 and the fourth overall against the Dutchmen.
• No ECAC player had more than one hat trick during the regular season.

WHAT A SOPHOMORE SEASON!
Drew O’Connor had a great year… here are the facts that prove it:
• Leads the league with 21 goals.
• That total is third in the nation, while his 0.72 goals per game ranks second.
• Led all players in conference goals (16), four more than any other player in ECAC Hockey.
• In doing so, he became the first Dartmouth player to lead the league in conference goals since Ross Brownridge in 1979-80 (40 years).
• He has already surpassed all his totals (17-9-26) from a season ago in five fewer games.
• Leads the league in shots on goal (131) and shots per game (4.52) despite being an Ivy player with fewer games played than half the league.
• Led all ECAC players in goals at even strength (13), while third in conference in power-play goals (7).
• His goals directly led to wins as 16 were scored in victories. Dartmouth was 10-4-1 in games in which the sophomore found the back of the net.
• O’Connor also scored more goals (7) than any other player in the league when trailing this season.
• His 14 goals at home were the most in the league, while his seven on the road were one short of the top mark in ECAC Hockey.
• His five multi-goal games are tied for the most in the league, as was his one hat trick.
• He led ECAC with nine goals in the final month of the season to push his regular-season total to 21, making him the first Dartmouth player since 2009-10 to hit the 20-goal mark (Scott Fleming, 22).
• Most regular season goals by a Dartmouth player since 2000:
o Drew O’Connor: 21 in 2019-20
o Scott Fleming: 20 in 2008-09
o Hugh Jessiman: 19 in 2002-03
o Lee Stempniak: 17 in 2002-03
• Also led Ivy League in goals (7) and tied for the lead in points (14) in league games, doing nearly all his damage at even strength as he only had two goals and three points on the power play in Ancient Eight games.
• Tied for the league lead with two game-winning goals in Ivy play.
• He posted 10 multi-point games, good for fourth best in ECAC.
• Only one player in ECAC Hockey had more three-point games than O’Connor’s four.
• Scored Dartmouth’s only OT goal (at Princeton) and shorthanded tally (vs. RPI).

WHAT A ROOKIE SEASON!
Being named to the All-Ivy League Second Team was icing on top of a great regular season, but Tanner Palocsik’s impressive first year deserves a closer look:
• Second amongst all ECAC rookies in points (21).
• Leading scorer amongst rookie defensemen and fifth amongst all defenders in the league.
• Fifth in the nation in points by a first-year blueliner, just a point back of the four in front of him (22).
• His 18 assists this season are the most by a rookie D in ECAC Hockey and third in the nation, again just one helper back of the leaders.
• His 18 assists are the fourth most by a freshman defenseman in Dartmouth history and the most since Grant Lewis had 22 (the record) in 2003-04.
• First defenseman with 20 points since Evan Stephens (20) as a senior in 2010-11.
• Most assists by any player since Tyler Sikura (20) in 2012-13. Matt Lindblad (18) that same season is the next best figure until Palocsik this year.
• He has 13 more points than any other Dartmouth defenseman this season.
• Leads the Dartmouth blueliners in goals (3).
• Second on the team with two game-winners, both of which came in league games.
• Third on the team with seven multi-point games, tied for the most by a defenseman in the league and 10th in the nation.
• Five of those games were with a pair of assists.

A POSTSEASON PLAYER
• Quin Foreman enters the postseason without a point in the last four games, but that should do little to slow the junior winger.
• Last season, Foreman scored seven points (2-5-7) in the three-game series win against St. Lawrence in the first round. For that strong showing — especially his Game 3 scoring line of 1-3-4 — he was named the ECAC Hockey Player of the Week.
• In the next round, Foreman scored once and assisted on another in Game 2 of the quarterfinals at Harvard, giving him three goals and nine points in five postseason games.
• As a rookie, Foreman also scored in a quarterfinal game at Harvard, giving him 10 career points in 11 ECAC Hockey postseason games coming into this weekend.

GRABER’S A GAMER
• Will Graber was tied for second in scoring with Foreman this season with 24 points (10-14-24).
• He reached that mark thanks to his third-career three-assist game on Friday night against Union.
• Graber could use a strong postseason to reach a career milestone as he has 94 career points coming into the weekend, looking to become the first Dartmouth player since Doug Jones in 2011-12 to reach the century mark.
• His 60 assists are the most by a Dartmouth player since… Doug Jones had 78.
• His 34 goals are the fifth-best total by a Big Green player in the last decade.
o Eric Neiley ’15 – 45
o Drew O’Connor ’22 – 38
o Tyler Sikura ’15 – 36
o Eric Robinson ’14 – 35
o Will Graber ’20 – 34

A CHANGE OF PACE
• After two straight years playing the same two opponents in the first two rounds of the postseason, the Big Green will have a different feel this spring.
• Dartmouth finished fifth in each of the last two seasons and was matched up against No. 12 St. Lawrence both times.
• And after beating the Saints in three games in both 2018 and 2019, the Green and White were rewarded with quarterfinal appearances in Cambridge against No. 4 Harvard with the Crimson winning both times.
• In addition to Harvard and St. Lawrence in each of the last two years, Dartmouth has played several teams in consecutive postseasons:
o Yale | 2016 (QFs: W, 2-0) and 2017 (1st: L, 2-0)
o Union | 2013 (QFs: L, 2-0) and 2014 (QFs: L, 2-0)
o Cornell | 2011 (Semifinal loss) and 2012 (QFs: L, 2-0)

SURVIVE AND ADVANCE
• The Big Green have won at least one postseason round every year but one dating back to 2011, a first-round loss at Yale.
• Since the start of that 2011 postseason, Dartmouth has nine series victories.
• They have reached the ECAC Hockey semifinals twice (2011 and 2016), falling one game short of a championship appearance for the first time since 1980.

ESPN+
• 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.
• That includes this weekend’s game as well as the entire league tournament though the semifinals and championship game played in Lake Placid.

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?
• A series win this weekend would more likely than not mean that the Green and White would head to either No. 4 Rensselaer or No. 3 Quinnipiac for the quarterfinal round depending upon the outcome of the Harvard/St. Lawrence series.

Playoff season in Hanover. pic.twitter.com/YYNBN5zdrv
— Dartmouth Men's Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) March 4, 2020

O'Connor named @IvyLeague Co-Player of the Year and unanimously selected to all-league first team.

Clark, Foreman, Palocsik all earn second-team recognition!https://t.co/unOfY6sjnL pic.twitter.com/5ToSu4V2jK
— Dartmouth Men's Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) March 4, 2020