Big Green Open ECAC Hockey Play at Home Against Familiar Foes
Dartmouth (1-0-1, 0-0-0 ECAC) vs. Yale (1-0-1, 0-0-0 ECAC)
• Friday, Nov. 2, 2012 • 7 PM • Hanover, N.H.
• Thompson Arena (4,500)
• All-Time Series: Yale, 106-87-14
• Last Meeting: Oct. 26, 2012: T, 2-2 • Streak: 0-0-1
Dartmouth (1-0-1, 0-0-0 ECAC) vs. Brown (1-1-0, 0-0-0 ECAC)
• Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012 • 7 PM• Hanover, N.H.
• Thompson Arena (4,500)
• All-Time Series: Dartmouth, 74-63-8
• Last Meeting: Oct. 27, 2012: W, 4-0 • Streak: 9-0-1
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GAME NOTES
WEEKEND DÉJÀ VU
For the second straight weekend, the Big Green will play the
same two opponents in the same order as Yale and Brown come to Thompson Arena
Friday and Saturday nights. In the first game of the 2012 Ivy Shootout,
Dartmouth battled Yale to a 2-2 tie, before advancing to the championship with
a 2-0 shootout win. Against Brown on Saturday, the Green and White claimed the
title with a 4-0 blanking on the Bears' home ice.
ECAC HOCKEY OPENER
After two non-conference games to start the season against
conference opponents, Friday and Saturday mark the official opening of ECAC
Hockey play. Dartmouth began last season 2-0 in league contests with a
come-from-behind win against Quinnipiac, 5-4, and a 5-3 victory against
Princeton the following evening inside a raucous Thompson Arena.
SPECIAL TEAMS
After a rough 2011-12 campaign with both the power play and
penalty kill, it looks as though this year will be a bit different for the Big
Green. Dartmouth went 3-for-9 (33.3%) with the man-advantage, while not surrendering
a goal down a player, killing off all seven shorthanded situations.
LATE-GAME HEROICS
Junior Eric Robinson was back to his old ways of a year ago and leads the
team in goals through two games. His first of the year came on the power play
late in the contest with Yale. One-timing home a pretty pass from sophomore
Tyler Sikura, Robinson tied the game with just 3:04 remaining. Sikura and
classmate Eric Neiley beat the Bulldogs' Nick Maricic in the shootout to help
their team advance.
GOALIES GALORE
Known for strong goalies the last four years, the Big Green
aren't as battle tested at the position this year. At least that's what people
thought until this past weekend. Junior Cab Morris stopped 18 shots and came up
with a key save in the shootout Friday against Yale. Freshman Charles Grant
followed up with a 24-save shutout Saturday night against the host Bears for
the team's first win of 2012-13.
GREAT START
Grant became the first Dartmouth goalie since Wesley Goding
'39 to record a shutout in his first career appearance. Goding accomplished the
feat on Dec. 12, 1936 against Columbia in a 9-0 win. There is no record of how
many saves Goding had to make to earn the shutout, but like Grant, it also came
in the second game of the season (1936-37).
FRESHMEN JUMP UP
Both Tim O'Brien and Brett Patterson had a productive first
weekend in Dartmouth sweaters while in Providence. O'Brien opened up the season
scoring less than three minutes into the game with Yale as he beat Maricic with
a laser shot coming down the right side of the ice. Not as pretty, but equally
as impressive in his determination to score, Patterson poke-checked a loose
puck off a Brown defender's stick and into an open netmouth through a scrum in
front.
START ME UP
O'Brien became the first Dartmouth
freshman to score the team's first goal of a season since Evan Stephens did it
on Oct. 28, 2007 at Vermont 3:19 into the second period to open 2007-08.
Stephens had some freshman help with assists from classmates Adam Estoclet and
Matt Reber.
LEADERS AGAIN
Last season, Robinson led the team with 12 goals. This year
he already has a team-best two through one weekend. Junior Matt Linblad had a
team-leading 18 helpers in a sophomore season that was cut short by injury.
Through his first two games this season, the Winnetka, Ill., native has three
assists as he has set up all of the team's power-play tallies.
SIKURA SCREENS
Originally credited to junior defenseman Taylor Boldt,
Dartmouth's third goal against Brown was eventually awarded to sophomore center
Tyler Sikura with a redirect in the low slot. The goal was his first of the
year, but was nearly the exact same play that he scored on McGill during the
preseason.
OPENING-WEEKEND
SHUTOUT
The 4-0 win at Brown marked just the second time in head coach
Bob Gaudet's tenure that the Big Green have blanked an opponent during the
team's season-opening weekend. The last time it happened was Gaudet's first
season on the job, beating Union on the road, 4-0, on Nov. 8, 1997.
MOVE HIM TO MEEHAN
Robinson has proven himself over the last two seasons to be
a formidable scoring threat for the Big Green. But if he were to don the colors
of Brown, the Foxborough, Mass., native might be the top player in the league.
That second part might not be true, but Robinson certainly does enjoy playing
at Meehan Auditorium. Including last weekend, the junior wing now has four
goals in his last three games at Brown's home rink. He scored in each of the
season's first two contests and had a two-goal game in the Bears' home finale
on Feb. 18, 2011.
LAST TIME WE BLANKED 'EM
Dartmouth's 4-0 win Saturday night snapped a stretch of 46
games without a shutout. The last time the Big Green held an opponent without a
goal was Feb. 4, 2011 and came at Brown. James Mello stopped all 39 shots he
faced that night in Providence.
RECENTLY AGAINST
THESE TWO
• Dartmouth's tie and subsequent shootout win over
Yale also marked the end to another streak. The Bulldogs had beaten the Big
Green 10 straight games dating back to Jan. 9, 2009 when the Elis edged out the
Green and White, 2-1. The last time Dartmouth came away with anything but a
loss to Yale before the 2-2 draw was a 7-2 thrashing of the Bulldogs on Feb.
23, 2008.
• It's been a different story against the Bears as the Big Green have not lost in their last 10 in the series. Posting a 9-0-1 mark against Brown in that time, Dartmouth has won the last five meetings with a 5-5 tie on Feb. 6, 2010 the last time it failed to win. The Bears' most recent victory against the Green and White came against Feb. 22, 2008 (5-4).
FAMILIAR FOES ARE
NOTHING NEW
After this weekend, the last nine meaningful games dating
back to the end of last season have come against just four opponents. St.
Lawrence came to Hanover for the regular season finale in 2011-12 before
Dartmouth went to Canton the following weekend to pick up the two-game sweep. A
two-game swing to Cornell for the next round was the last of the year for
Dartmouth. However, the team picked right back up where it left off with games
against Yale and Brown in consecutive weekends to open 2012-13.
COMING BACK
Fans of the Big Green know senior forward Dustin Walsh and
the superb talents he posses. But, fans around the league will hopefully get a
glimpse of the Montreal Canadiens draft pick this weekend in a return to the
lineup. Walsh has been out since last January, recovering from a lower-body
injury. Having missed the team's last 21 games dating back to Jan. 7 of last
year through last weekend in Providence, Walsh's scoring touch would be a
welcome addition back into an already skilled forward group. In just eight
games in 2011-12, Walsh had 10 points, good for an impressive 1.25 points per
game.
BAY STATE LINE
Despite not scoring a goal together at Meehan, the line of
Massachusetts natives Robinson, sophomore Brandon McNally and Nick Bligh was
buzzing. Robinson scored twice on the power-play unit, while McNally and Bligh
combined for several scoring chances through the first four periods of the
weekend.
FOURTH LINE FINESSE
Rather than the traditional grinding fourth line, Coach
Gaudet and his staff opted for a skilled group of freshman forwards to make up
the fourth combination against the Bulldogs and Bears. O'Brien joined Jack
Barre and center Connor Dempsey as a group that showed several times their ability
to get pucks on goal and create offensive opportunities.
BOLDT'S HELPER
Playing without former partner Jim Gaudet for the first time
in two years, Boldt registered an assist on Dartmouth's third power-play goal
of the year when his shot from the point was redirected by Sikura in the slot.
As a sophomore last winter, Boldt had four points (all assists) in a
defensive-oriented role with the team. He now has one goal and seven helpers
for eight career points.
TURN IT AROUND
It took the Big Green until Nov. 18
last season before they scored their second power-play goal. This season, the
man-advantage has found the back of the net three times in its first two games
