March 7, 2009

Dartmouth Swept by Engineers

Boxscore

 

HANOVER, N.H. -- Coming into the first round of the ECAC playoffs against the Dartmouth men's hockey team, Rensselaer had one of the worse team defenses in the league. But thanks to a 3-1 victory over the Big Green on Saturday in Thompson Arena, the Engineers are moving onto the quarterfinal round as Dartmouth's season comes to a close.

RPI used three even-strength goals and points by three defenseman to hold Dartmouth to just one goal iin front of its home crowd in Thompson Arena.

The Big Green had to kill off an early 5-on-3 Engineer power play to begin the game as the two teams played fairly even in the early going.

At 7:37 however, RPI struck first as Chase Polacek fired on netminder Jody O'Neill (Nepean, Ont.) between the circles giving the visitors the early lead. The Big Green tied things up when Even Stephens (Bessemer, Mich.) took a shot that was blocked out to Joe Gaudet (Etna, N.H.) as the junior put it past Allen York for his seventh of the year. Adam Estoclet (Orono, Minn.) also picked up an assist on the goal.

Rensselaer potted two goals in the second period to take the lead and never look back. Alex Angers-Goulet struck first at 14:18 by firing over O'Neill's shoulder on a shot the Big Green goalie never saw. Then at 3:59 Josh Rabbani put a shot on net that just squeaked over the line, hugging the right goal post.

Despite pressure by Dartmouth in both the early and late parts of the third period, RPI's defense stood tall and prevented any scores by the Big Green. The Engineers ended the game with 30 blocked shots as Dartmouth outshot Rensselaer 28-21.

O'Neill finished the contest with 18 saves for the Big Green while York had 27 for the Engineers.

With the victory the Engineers move onto the ECAC's Quarterfinal series at Cornell. The win gives RPI a 9-25-2 overall record as Dartmouth ends the season with a 14-14-3 record.