Dartmouth Falls Short in High-Scoring Affair

Photo by DSPics.com

Final	1	2	3	Final
New Hampshire (11-6-4)	3	2	1	6
Dartmouth (10-7-0)	1	2	1	4

Scoring Summary
1st - 04:50	LeBlanc, Peter (New Hampshire)
1st - 13:55	Matt Reber (Dartmouth)
1st - 15:39	Butler, Bobby (New Hampshire)
1st - 18:13	Pollastrone, Jerry (New Hampshire)
2nd - 01:12	Doug Jones (Dartmouth)
2nd - 14:40	Dries, Danny (New Hampshire)
2nd - 16:43	PP - Kessel, Blake (New Hampshire)
2nd - 18:50	PP - Evan Stephens (Dartmouth)
3rd - 11:57	PP - Doug Jones (Dartmouth)
3rd - 15:58	DeSimone, Phil (New Hampshire)

New Hampshire	Dartmouth
G: 6 Players (#9, #11, #12, #15, #28, #39 - 1) A: 2 Players (#8, #22 - 2) Sh: Butler, Bobby - 7 Sv: Foster, Brian - 20	G: 4 Players (#10, #11, #14, #23 - 1) A: Adam Estoclet - 2 Sh: 4 Players (#11, #12, #14, #18 - 3) Sv: Jody O'Neill - 32

TEAM STATISTICS	New Hampshire	Dartmouth
Power Plays	1 for 3	2 for 4
Shorthanded Goals	0	0
Penalties (min)	6 (12)	5 (10)
Shots on Goal	38	24
Face Offs Won	33	34

full stats

Boxscore

MANCHESTER, N.H. - ­ In a game that has proven to be exciting year in and year out, the Saturday night contest between the University of New Hampshire and the Dartmouth men's hockey team was no different.

The Big Green spotted the "visitors" a two-goal lead before coming back to within a goal. But it was not enough as the Wildcats pulled out the 6-4 victory in front of 8,001 at the Verizon Wireless Arena.

In the last five matchups between the two in-state rivals, Dartmouth and UNH have combined for 52 goals.

UNH struck first at 15:10 in the first period when Peter LeBlanc received a beautiful feed from Greg Collins to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.

Connor Shields (Edmonton, Alta.) had a chance to get Dartmouth on the board but the senior was unable to control the puck enough to get in into the empty side of the goal. Scott Fleming (Plainfield, Ont.) had a breakaway, skating in on netminder Brian Foster but a hooking penalty on Collins prevented the shot.

Matt Reber (Edina, Minn.) tied the game at 6:05 in the first with a shorthanded goal, the first of his career. Reber picked the puck up on the blueline skating in alone on Foster, rooking the puck over the goalie's head.

Bobby Butler again gave the Wildcats the lead at 4:11 with a two-on-one opportunity, firing the shot over netminder Jody O'Neill (Nepean, Ont.).

UNH took a two-goal lead with less than two minutes to play with a questionable strike. O'Neill was brought down by a Wildcat defender as the puck squeaked out to Pollastrone who fired into the empty right side of the net.

Andrew Owsiak (Moose Jaw, Sask.) along with linemates Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) and Adam Estoclet (Orono, Minn.) cut the Wildcats lead to one when Owsiak's shot trickled across the line at 00:00 in the second.

New Hampshire took another two-goal lead when Steve Moses passed to Kevin Kapstad who was waiting on the wing, shooting stick side on O'Neill. A power play goal by Blake Kessel at 3:17 gave UNH its largest lead.

With its first power play goal since Dec. 29, Stephens helped cut the Wildcats lead. Working the puck back and forth, Owsiak passed to Evan Stephens (Bessemer, Mich.) on the point as the sophomore fired down with the puck bouncing off Estoclet's stick for the score.

With 8:03 remaining in the game, Jones recorded the Big Green's second power play goal of the season when he came around behind the net, sneaking the puck past Foster's skate on the right side of the net.

But just 4:00 later UNH struck again when a turnover in the Dartmouth end allowed Phil DeSimone fired over O'Neill's shoulder for the 6-4 score.

The loss drops the Big Green to 10-7 while the Wildcats improve to 11-6-4. Dartmouth had little time off, traveling to Holy Cross on Wednesday, Jan. 21 before a nationally televised game on ESPNU against Harvard on Sunday, Jan. 25.