Team Notes: Dartmouth Hosts Harvard; Plays at Vermont

Photo by David Silverman (DSPics.com)

HANOVER, N.H. - The first road trip of the season for the Dartmouth men's hockey team had its ups and its downs. A 3-1 win over St. Lawrence to start the trip on Friday night could be characterized as a total-team effort. Too bad that momentum didn't carry over as it was followed by a 4-0 loss at Clarkson the next night.

Senior Jody O'Neill (Nepean, Ontario), a former ECAC Hockey and Ivy League Rookie of the Year, looked sharp in goal both nights. O'Neill made consecutive starts in the Dartmouth net for the first time since the opening weekend of play in the 2010-11 season.

One of two senior goaltenders on the team this season, O'Neill turned aside 20 shots in the win over the Saints, making big stops and playing with a tremendous amount of poise. The next night, he allowed three goals that would have also befuddled almost any other goalie in the nation, while still turning aside 27 shots.

The weekend got off to a great start as the power play (a unit that had not been able to really get going in the early part of the season) found the back of the net with a goal just 1:07 into the game. Senior Nick Walsh (Shannonville, Ontario) stretched out at the top of the crease and knocked home a rebound for just the second goal with the man-advantage all season for the Big Green.

In contrast to the workman-like opening tally from the elder Walsh brother, Dartmouth's final two goals of the trip were things of beauty.

Sophomore Matt Lindblad (Winnetka, Ill.) was the recipient of a pretty feed from freshman winger Eric Neiley (Warminster, Pa.) in the slot for a one-timer to the high glove side of the Saints' goaltender. It was Lindblad's first of the season and broke him out of an early-season funk that had seen the second-year forward notch just one point (an assist) in his first four games.

Already leading the team in goals, freshman Tyler Sikura (Aurora, Ontario) added the insurance marker against the Saints as he buried a backhander just under the crossbar on an odd-man rush 8:27 into the third period. His fourth of the year closed out the scoring and capped the team's best all-around effort of the young season.

Two more of the Big Green's talented freshman class notched their first collegiate points as Rick Pinkston (Trenton, Mich.) andCharlie Mosey (Prior Lake, Minn.) had helpers Friday night in Appleton Arena.

After being shutout at Clarkson, Dartmouth will regroup and change its focus to ECAC Hockey travel partner Harvard for a home game Friday night. In an odd scheduling quirk, Dartmouth will then head up I-89 to take on Hockey East foe and former ECAC Hockey travel partner Vermont for a Sunday afternoon tilt at Gutterson Field House.

SCOUTING HARVARD

• Led by former NHL and Harvard player, head coach Ted Donato has his team at 2-3-1 after three weekends of league play. A wild, come-from-behind nonconference 7-6 win over UNH Tuesday night helped Harvard even its record at 3-3-1 overall
• A team that features eight NHL Draft selections, the Crimson are capable of scoring on a consistent basis. In the seven games played this season, Harvard has scored no fewer than two goals in each and had a season-high seven Tuesday night.
• A Tampa Bay selection, senior forward Alex Killorn leads the team with five goals and nine points. Second on the team in scoring is Hurricanes pick and junior defenseman Danny Biega with seven points. Killorn scored twice against the Wildcats, while Biega added an assist.
• Freshman goaltender Steve Michalek has played more than three-quarters of the time in goal for the team this season and boasts a .900 save percentage and 3.07 goals-against mark six games into his collegiate career. He came in in relief of Raphael Girard after just 5:20 of play as UNH scored twice to open the game.
• These two teams met five times last season with Dartmouth winning four. After taking Game 1 of the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals, 3-2, Harvard was on the losing end of back-to-back one-goal games at Thompson Arena the next two nights to end its season.
• This past weekend, the Crimson beat Clarkson Friday night (3-2), but lost the next evening at St. Lawrence (4-3). Harvard fell behind 4-0 after the first period against UNH, but scored four times in the second and three more in the third for the 7-6 victory.

SCOUTING VERMONT

• Freshman Kyle Reynolds scored twice and senior goaltender Rob Madore stopped 18 UMass shots as the Catamounts picked up a Hockey East victory Tuesday night at Gutterson Fieldhouse. The game marked the tradition of the two teams playing the Tuesday before Thanksgiving every year since 1996.
• The win over the Minutemen was the first against a Hockey East opponent this season (1-6-1) and improved UVM's overall mark to 2-7-2.
• Sebastian Stalberg leads the team with eight points and has a share of the lead in both goals (4) and assists (4). He has a point in seven of his last nine games, including the contest against UMass.
• Madore is 2-5-1 this season with a 4.12 goals-against average and a save percentage of .864. Sophomore Alex Vazzano has played and started in two games, posting a 3.61 goals-against average and a .886 save percentage.
• Through 10 games, the Catamounts have only skated on their home ice four times and boast a 1-2-1 record with the lone win coming Tuesday night. Away from Gutterson, Vermont is 1-5 this season.
• UVM will host ECAC Hockey foe Colgate on Friday night prior to Sunday's contest with the Big Green.

FAST START
Dartmouth scored just 1:07 into Friday night's game at St. Lawrence. A Saints' penalty 14 seconds into the game allowed the Big Green to play with the man-advantage early and senior Nick Walsh (Shannonville, Ontario) capitalized with his second of the season. The last time Dartmouth scored a goal in the first two minutes of a game was also against St. Lawrence last Feb. 25 when then-freshman Eric Robinson (Foxboro, Mass.) found the back of the net 1:25 into the first period at Thompson.

O'NEILL'S SOLID WEEKEND
Senior goaltender Jody O'Neill (Nepean, Ontario) played well in his first two appearances of the season over the course of the weekend. Starting for the first time since Dec. 31, 2010, (ending a streak of 27-straight starts by fellow senior James Mello[Rehoboth, Mass.]), O'Neill stopped 20 shots to earn the win against St. Lawrence. He started the next night against Clarkson, marking consecutive starts for the first time since the 2010 Ivy Shootout to open last season. He stopped 27 Knights' shots in a loss.

ALL EVEN
Dartmouth is 3-3 against ECAC Hockey opponents, 4-4 overall and 3-3 in games played at Thompson Arena. After the first road trip of the season, the team is also 1-1 in road contests. Last season, the Big Green were 6-6 in games played away from Hanover.

POWER-PLAY CHANCES
Look for the Dartmouth power play to get going this weekend. After starting the season 0-for-17 with the man-advantage, the Big Green scored power-play goals against Cornell and St. Lawrence. Coming into the weekend, Vermont (30-for-44, 68.2%) and Harvard (21-for-31, 67.7%) rank as the two worst penalty-killing teams in the nation. Dartmouth ranks 57th (2-for-28, 7.1%) on the power play headed into Friday night's game.

PEANLTY KILL
The Big Green's two opponents this past weekend were a combined 1-for-7 on the power play. The Saints were 1-for-2 in a game that featured just five total calls. Saturday night saw Dartmouth's PK unit come up big as it killed all five Clarkson power plays in the game.

LINDBLAD LIGHTS THE LAMP
Sophomore Matt Lindblad (Winnetka, Ill.) scored his first of the season Friday night at Appleton Arena. It took five games played this season for the second-year forward to find the back of the net after scoring 13 as a freshman. From the corner freshman Eric Neiley(Warminster, Pa.) fed a pass out through the slot to Lindblad crashing the net for the one-timer high over the St. Lawrence goalie's glove.

100 GAMES
Friday's game with Harvard will mark the 100th game in the career of senior defender Connor Goggin (Glen Ellyn, Ill.). This season, the senior defender has started all eight contests for the Big Green and has been paired with junior Mike Keenan (South Weymouth, Mass.) for the last 42 games dating back to the beginning of 2010-11.

FRESH FACES
With a team that features ten seniors, Dartmouth is getting a good deal of scoring from its younger players. This season, eight members of the team have registered their first-career points. Against St. Lawrence, both Charlie Mosey (Prior Lake, Minn.) and Rick Pinkston (Trenton, Mich.) joined that club with assists in the 3-1 win. Freshman Tyler Sikura (Aurora, Ontario) scored his team-leading fourth goal of the season in the game and ranks second on the team in scoring with six points. Fellow freshman Jesse Beamish (Mississauga, Ontario) also collected an assist against the Saints, his third.

FAMILIAR FOE
Dartmouth and Vermont have a long history dating back to the 1930-31 season. Former ECAC Hockey travel partners, the two programs have played 76 times prior to Sunday's tilt. The six times (3-3) the two played during the 2004-05 season is the most against any opponent in one season in the 106-year history of the Big Green men's hockey team. That year, the two played two regular season games, once in the Ledyard National Bank Classic and three times in the ECAC Hockey postseason.

HANDLES HARVARD
Senior Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) has played nine-career games against Harvard in three seasons and has amassed 12 points (1g/11a). His best game against the Crimson came in Cambridge last season as he scored and added three assists in an 8-2 Big Green win on Nov. 26. In just one season and five-career games against Harvard, Lindblad has four goals and two assists. His two goals (including the game winner) in the decisive Game 3 of last year's ECAC Hockey tournament eliminated the Crimson and ended their season.

COMING HOME
It will be a sort of homecoming for Dartmouth junior winger Jason Bourgea (South Burlington, Vt.) on Sunday. Growing up just outside of Burlington, Bourgea will have a strong family showing in the Gutterson Fieldhouse stands. In each of the previous two seasons, Bourgea has not suited up against his hometown team, but appearances in six of the team's first eight games this year, along with the solid play of his line of Alex Goodship (Blackfalds, Alberta) and Paul Lee (Garden City, N.Y.), lend to the idea that he will finally get that chance on Sunday.

SUNDAY FUNDAY
The match-up with the Catamounts is just one of two scheduled Sunday games this season. The Big Green will take on Sacred Heart Sunday, Dec. 11 in their next game, but will not play again on a Sunday until postseason play if needed. In 2010-11, Dartmouth was 1-1 in games played on Sunday, including a 6-5 loss to Vermont at home on Dec. 12 and a 4-3 win over Harvard in the final game of the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals on Mar. 13.