No. 14/13 Men's Hockey Engineers Win Over RPI

Saturday, January 31

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

16-6-1, 10-4-1

RPI

6-20-0, 3-11-0

Rensselaer

Dartmouth

No. 14/13 Men's Hockey Engineers Win Over RPI

2/1/2026 12:23:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

By: Dan Richeal

HANOVER, N.H.—No.14/13 Dartmouth men's hockey earned its 16^th win of the season on Saturday night with a 3-1 win over ECAC foe RPI at Thompson Arena.

The opening frame was nearly dead even with the Big Green holding a 7-6 shot advantage and a 9-6 lead in the faceoff circle. Neither team found the back of the net in the first period and went to the locker room tied at zero.

Dartmouth broke the ice at the 12:54 mark of the second period while on the power play. The Big Green saw a four on three power play turn into a five on four power play and had sustained puck control. The trio of Cooper Cleaves, Ryan Schelling, and Jack Silverberg played catch with the puck high in the zone until C. Cleaves had a wide-open shot. C. Cleaves was at the top of the left circle and let go of a wrister that beat the goal five-hole for his fourth goal of the season. Schelling notched his third assist while Silverberg picked up his fifth assist of the year.

Just over three minutes later, the Engineers tied the game at one on a deflection in front of the net.

With less than two minutes remaining in the second period, the Big Green broke the tie. Colin Grable fed Hank Cleaves a pass and H. Cleaves skated around the RPI zone and found Hayden Stavroff in the low slot. Stavroff one touched the puck towards the net that beat the goalie for his 21^st goal of the season. H. Cleaves picked up his team leading 18^th assist on the play while Grable notched his ninth assist of the year.

On the next shift, RPI played a puck up the point but it was mishandled by the defensemen. Stavroff picked up the loose puck and went in on a breakaway for three quarters of the ice. He deked to his left and forced the goalie to open the five hole before sliding the puck through the opening and into the net for his 22^nd goal of the season.

Dartmouth took a 3-1 lead to the locker room after outshooting RPI 15-7 in the second period.

The third period saw the Big Green limit the Engineers to just three shots all of which were turned away by Emmett Croteau.

Dartmouth outshot the Engineers 28-16 in the game.

Croteau finished the game with 15 saves on 16 shots while earning his ninth win of the year. His goals against average is now 1.76 while his save percentage is .928.

Stavroff scored his 21^st and 22^nd goals of the season which leads the ECAC and all of Division I. He has 22 goals and 10 assists while having 12 multi-point games this season. Since the 1995-96 season he is tied for the fifth most goals in a season by a Big Green player.

The Big Green edged out the Engineers 33-32 in the faceoff circle with H. Cleaves winning 12 draws, Brock Cummings went 11-7 while Andrew Clarke won seven faceoffs.

Dartmouth blocked 15 shots, with CJ Foley blocking a game high four shots, fellow junior Nikita Nikora blocked three shots.

After the results from Saturday, the Big Green sit in first place in the ECAC standings with 33 points and a 10-4-1 ECAC record.

The Big Green are 13-1-1 this season at home while they have outscored opponents 59-24 in 15 games.

Dartmouth hits the road for five straight games before returning to Thompson Arena on Feb. 27 against Quinnipiac. The Big Green start the road trip on Friday, Feb. 6 against Harvard, puck drop in set for 7 PM in Cambridge.