Dartmouth Suffers Heartbreaking Loss to Yale

Final	1	2	3	Final
Yale (9-10-2, 6-7-1 ECAC)	1	1	3	5
Dartmouth (9-9-2, 6-6-1 ECAC)	4	0	0	4

Scoring Summary
1st - 03:49	Sikura, Tyler (Dartmouth)
1st - 04:56	Limbert, Kevin (Yale)
1st - 09:26	Mattila, Troy (Dartmouth)
1st - 09:51	Robinson, Eric (Dartmouth)
1st - 16:08	Lee, Paul (Dartmouth)
2nd - 09:59	Agostino,Kenny (Yale)
3rd - 04:49	Fallen, Tommy (Yale)
3rd - 08:42	PP - Root, Jesse (Yale)
3rd - 19:26	Agostino,Kenny (Yale)

Yale	Dartmouth
G: Kenny Agostino - 2 A: Brian O'Neill - 2 Sh: 2 Players (#8, #18 - 4) Sv: Nick Maricic - 29	G: 4 Players (#8, #16, #19, #25 - 1) A: 8 Players (#3, #9, #13, #14, #15, #18, #21, #29 - 1) Sh: 2 Players (#8, #14 - 5) Sv: James Mello - 31

TEAM STATISTICS	Yale	Dartmouth
Power Plays	1 for 2	0 for 3
Shorthanded Goals	0	0
Penalties (min)	3 (6)	2 (4)
Shots on Goal	36	33
Face Offs Won	27	38

full stats

HANOVER, N.H. - With the history of Dartmouth men's hockey present and a sellout crowd of 4,469 inside Thompson Arena providing an boisterous atmosphere, an exciting back-and-forth game between the Big Green and Yale Saturday night came down to the final minute of play before a winner was determined

After trailing 4-1 at the conclusion of the first period, the Bulldogs (9-10-2, 6-7-1 ECAC Hockey) rallied back with a goal in the second and three in the third, including the winner with 34.8 seconds remaining from Kenny Agostino.
The first sellout of the season was the 16th largest crowd to ever attend a game at Thompson Arena in the building's 37-year history and was witness to a celebration of former Dartmouth head coaching great Eddie Jeremiah.

More than 40 of the coach's former players from the 30's through the late 60's were on hand, receiving a massive ovation from the crowd during the second intermission, none larger than for former Big Green great, two-time recipient of the Lester Patrick Award (contributions to the game in the US - 1986 and 2002) and Hockey Hall of Famer Jack Riley '47. Riley was the head coach at Army from 1950-86 and was the head coach of the gold-medal winning 1960 US Olympic team in Squaw Valley, Calif.

Saturday's massive crowd was also witness to a stellar first period of play from the home team before the Bulldogs began chipping away at the deficit that eventually culminated in the come-from-behind win late in regulation.

"We win as a team and we lose as a team," head coach Bob Gaudet said following the heartbreaking loss. "You have to have amnesia in games like this and just forget what happened and move on."

The loss might seem all-too-familiar for the Dartmouth (9-9-2, 6-6-1 ECAC Hockey) bench boss as the Big Green have dropped nine-straight games to the Bulldogs dating back to February of 2008. Included in that streak was a 2-1 loss in Hanover in the season-opening Ivy Shootout on Oct. 29.

Continuing the trend of big first periods this weekend, Dartmouth exploded for a season-high four goals in the opening 20 minutes Saturday night. The team also had three in the first in Friday's 6-2 win over Brown.

Freshman Tyler Sikura (Aurora, Ontario) scored his second in as many nights 3:49 into the game, while sophomore Eric Robinson (Foxboro, Mass.) found the back of the net just 6:01 later. Both now have nine goals apiece this season, good for the team lead.

In between the expected tallies from two of the team's top goal scorers, two unlikely players emerged for the Big Green to build its lead in the early going.

Seniors Troy Mattila (Rockford, Ill.) and Paul Lee (Garden City, N.Y.) both pounded home rebounds from just outside the top of the crease over the glove of Yale's Nick Maricic for their first goals of the year.

Mattila finished a shot from Connor Goggin (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) at the point that ricocheted off the end boards back out to the goal line where the senior winger knocked it in. Lee's first of the season was similar, but instead of a puck off the end boards, the hard-nose winger pulled the puck loose from a scrum and made it a 4-1 game with just under four minutes left in the first.

More than 40 former players under the guidance of Coach Jeremiah
were on hand Saturday night to pay tribute to the program's all-time
wins leader.

Senior Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) picked up an assist on Robinson's goal. But more important than just his 10th helper of the year, it was the 74th of his career, moving him into a tie for 10th place all-time at Dartmouth with David Whitworth '98. Not to be lost, it was also the 99th point of Jones' career, moving him one step closer to becoming the 36th player in program history to reach the century mark.

But those four first-period goals would be it for Dartmouth's offense on this night as they were denied the last two periods of building on their total. Yale's Agostino, Tommy Fallen and Jesse Root all scored in the final period to help the team climb all the way back for the one-goal victory.

Root's tying goal came at 8:42 of the third period on a wild play as it was ruled a goal, then waved off after the back referee called a penalty on the Bulldogs' Chad Ziegler. Upon further video review, it was ruled a good goal, tying the game at 4-4 midway through the third.

Agostino's winner in the final minute was the result of a loose puck at the blueline that he corralled and took to the net. With a wing charging hard to the far post, Agostino was able to shoot into a small open portion of the goal under the crossbar not taken away by Dartmouth goaltender James Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.).

The victory snapped a four-game winless skid for the Bulldogs, while the Big Green's two-game win streak came to an end with the defeat.

Mello finished the night with 31 saves, while Maricic had 29 in all, but just 13 in the final two periods after facing 20 in the first.

Yale scored the only power-play goal of the game, finishing the night 1-for-2, while Dartmouth was 0-for-3 in a relatively penalty-free contest.

The Big Green will have one more chance at the Bulldogs as the two will meet for the third time this season on Friday, Feb. 17 in New Haven, Conn. That game will be broadcast nationally on the NBC Sports Network.

Dartmouth will now turn its attention to Harvard for a Tuesday night game in Cambridge, Mass. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. from the Bright Hockey Center.

NOTES: Missing Friday night's game due to illness, sophomore Matt Lindblad (Winnetka, Ill.) was back in the Big Green lineup vs. Yale, playing wing for just the second time in his career. He picked up an assist on Sikura's opening tally, his 12th of the year....The goals from Mattila and Robinson came just 25 seconds apart in the first period. Dartmouth now has scored two goals in under 30 seconds on three occasions this season... After just one period of three or more goals in their first 17 games, the Big Green have scored three or more in a period in each of the last three contests... Junior Mark Goggin (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) pushed his point streak to four games with an assist in the first.