Princeton Takes Game 1 in Overtime, 4-3

Friday, March 6

Hanover, N.H.

7 PM

Dartmouth College

13-13-4

Princeton (Game 1)

5-20-5

OT 1

Princeton

Dartmouth

Daniel Warpecha scored his career-high 7th goal of the season.

Photo by: John and Matt Risley

3/6/2020 9:43:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

Dartmouth looks to rebound Saturday night in Game 2 at 7 PM

By: Pat Salvas

HANOVER, N.H. - Dartmouth dropped Game 1 of its best-of-three first-round ECAC Hockey series against Princeton, 4-3, in overtime Friday night at Thompson Arena.

Reid Yochim netted the game winner 3:36 into the extra frame to give the 11th-seeded Tigers (5-20-5) a 1-0 series lead against the sixth-seeded Big Green (13-13-4).

Dartmouth had three one-goal leads in the game, but it was the first of the night for the visitors that proved to be most important.

Junior Quin Foreman gave the home team a 1-0 lead just 3:53 into the contest, scoring his 11th of the season on a great shot from the top of the circles as the Green and White came out flying to start the game. However, Christian O'Neill tied the game with just under six minutes to play in the opening frame.

Daniel Warpecha scored his career-best seventh goal of the season on a backhand rebound 6:25 into the second to push the lead back to one, only to see Princeton's O'Neill pull off a nifty little move down low on the power play just over two minutes later to once again pull even.

Fellow senior Will Graber's 11th of the season on a partial breakaway four and a half minutes into the third looked like it might be the winner until Finn Evans tied the game with 2:45 showing on the clock to force overtime.

The Tigers' winning goal was the result of a good zone entry and quality passing before Yochim's wrist shot from the slot just inside the left post gave the team in orange and black the 4-3 victory.

The result marked the first time since 2013 that Dartmouth dropped Game 1 at home in a postseason series. That year, 12th-seeded Harvard won the opener, 2-1, only to see the fifth-seeded Big Green win the next two games, 4-1 and 6-3, to take the series in three.

Senior netminder Adrian Clark made 28 saves in the game, while the Tigers' Jeremie Forget stopped 25 as his team held a 32-28 edge in shots.

Both senior Brendan Demler and freshman Brock Paul had a pair of assists in the game. Demler's two primary helpers were on beautiful long stretch passes to spring Foreman and Graber for their scoring rushes. For Paul, it was his first multi-point game.

Game 2 is Saturday night at Thompson with puck drop set for 7 p.m.