Dartmouth's Exciting Comeback Overshadowed by Second Princeton OT Win

Saturday, March 7

Hanover, N.H.

7 PM

Dartmouth College

13-14-4

Princeton (Game 2)

6-20-5

OT 1

Princeton

Dartmouth

Rookie Tanner Palocsik scored twice in the final 8 minutes to force overtime.

Photo by: Doug Austin

Dartmouth's Exciting Comeback Overshadowed by Second Princeton OT Win

3/7/2020 10:02:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

The Tigers sweep the series and move on to the quarterfinals.

By: Pat Salvas

HANOVER, N.H. - The Dartmouth men's hockey team erased a 4-1 deficit in the final minutes of regulation, but fell in overtime for the second night in a row to Princeton, 5-4.

The Tigers (6-20-5) move on to the quarterfinal round at top-seeded Cornell thanks to the two-game first-round series win, while the Big Green's (13-14-4) season comes to an end.

Rookie defenseman Tanner Palocsik scored the final two goals on point shots, including the tying score with just 2.3 seconds remaining.

Down by three with under 10 minutes to play, Dartmouth got two goals from the blueline from sophomore Harrison Markell and the first from Palocsik in a 65-second span to pull to within one.

Then, incredibly, with an offensive zone faceoff with 7.6 seconds remaining, senior Will Graber was able to win the draw back to Drew O'Connor who passed across the slot to Palocsik for the one-timer. It appeared to be knocked down by Matt Baker in front, but just bounced into the air, folling Princeton netminder Jeremie Forget and he fought though the screen. The puck came down and with his continuing momentum hit off the inside of Forget's pad and trickled over the goal line with 2.3 left on the clock to force overtime.

A back-and-forth overtime period saw the Big Green with the better chances to end it, but a tripping call against the home team put the Tigers on the power play where Mark Paolini scored his fourth goal of the season, punching his team's ticket to the quarterfinals.

Princeton led 3-0 early in the second period on goals from Spencer Kersten, Mike Ufberg and Liam Grande. The last of those came at 1:32 of the middle frame, but was answered back by Dartmouth freshman forward Mark Gallant just 23 seconds later on a long wrist shot to get his team in the board.

A Jackson Cressey goal at 4:04 of the third seemingly ended the Big Green's season as the lead was an insurmountable 4-1.

But it wasn't.

Markell scored his first goal since the first game of the season on a blast through traffic from the point. A penalty to the visitors almost immediately followed and Palocsik took advantage with another point blast that found space in the top of the net for his fourth of the season and brought the Thompson Arena crowd back to life.

The final seconds then brought wild jubilation to the ice as Palocsik's fifth of the season just barely crossed the line for his first-career multi-goal game. Dartmouth had pulled the goalie for the extra attacker, but needed just the three players on the well-designed faceoff play that led to the off-side defenseman's blast to tie the game.

But for the second straight night, it was a Princeton goal in overtime that did in the Green and White, marking the first time Dartmouth lost a home playoff series since 2009 and was just the second time since 2011 that it failed to advance one round in the league's postseason tournament.

Senior Adrian Clark gave all he could in his final game, stopping 29 and giving his team a chance to win. It was Forget's night to remember, though, as he made 46 saves to earn another win.

Dartmouth held a 50-34 edge in shots on goal, but couldn't find that one more to force Game 3.