February 4, 2011

Big Green Blanks Brown

PROVIDENCE, R.I. ­ A historic night for the Dartmouth men's hockey team on Friday as red-hot goalie James Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.) earned his second career shutout and head coach Bob Gaudet picked up his 200th Dartmouth victory as the Big Green defeated Brown, 3-0.

The win moves Gaudet to 200-190-50 at his alma mater as he is the second winningest coach in Dartmouth history. Gaudet's career record stands at 293-332-81 in 23 years of coaching.

The win moves the Big Green to 13-6-3 overall, 10-4-2 in the ECAC and 5-1-1 in the Ivy League. Brown falls to 7-11-4 overall and 5-9-1 in the ECAC.

The first score of the contest by Dartmouth came quickly in the first minute of the opening period. Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) won the faceoff in the Brown end and passed quickly to Nick Walsh (Shannonville, Ont.) out front. Waslh put one shot on goalie Mike Clemente, as Clemente came up with the save but Walsh's quick stick gathered the rebound and scored on the put-back, his eighth of the season.

The teams then went scoreless through the rest of the period but those in attendance were hardly starved for entertainment - as each side went end-to-end, and both goalies came up with big saves. Each team had waves of shots, but neither could capitalize.

The Big Green added another tally midway through the second. During a power play, Mike Keenan (Weymouth, Mass.) was out on the blue line and passed across to Connor Goggin (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) who put a huge shot on Clemente. Matt Lindblad (Winnetka, Ill.) was there to deflect the shot past Clemente on his glove side to give the visitors a 2-0 lead.

Mello was huge for Dartmouth, making 25 saves through the first two periods as he was moving constantly in the cage, making each save look effortless.

The final period looked a lot like the first 40 minutes of play as each side had some great chances but the two netminders were able to stave off the numerous shots they each faced.

With the period winding down Jones added his second of the game with a sliding shot that gave the Big Green a 3-0 lead. Rookie Taylor Boldt (Niwot, Colo.) picked up his second assist of the year.

Mello made 39 saves in the shutout while Clemente finished with 21 saves for the Bears.

Dartmouth will be back in action tomorrow with a 7 p.m. tilt at Yale. That game will be televised on the YES Network.