Team Notes: Big Green Open 2012 with Road Tests at RPI and Union
There is always a fresh-start feeling when the calendar flips to January and a new year. The fresh start in 2012 for the Dartmouth men's hockey team will come in the form of a weekend trip to take on Rensselaer and Union on the road this weekend.
After 10 of their first 13 games came at Thompson Arena in Hanover, the first month of 2012 has six games in foreign venues, including the first five.
Getting off on the right foot is crucial to a team hovering above the .500 mark at the midpoint of the season, but coming off an impressive home weekend against Holy Cross and St. Lawrence in the Ledyard Classic.
Friday will be the first test as Dartmouth squares off with a hungry Rensselaer team in a nationally-televised game. Despite being at the bottom of the ECAC Hockey standings, the Engineers are a gritty group that will also be looking for a fresh start themselves in the New Year as well in the hopes of climbing out of the league basement.
The newly incarnated NBC Sports Network will cover the game, the first college hockey game televised on the network since switching over from its former namesake: Versus.
From Troy, the Big Green will make the short trip to Schenectady and Messa Rink to take on the No. 14 Union Dutchmen. Always a tough game in recent years, the Saturday night tilt will be a real test for Dartmouth as it looks to make a jump in the league standings from ninth headed into the weekend.
Having not lost since late November and with time to rest players and get others back from injury, the first month of 2012 will be key in the success of the Big Green leading up to the ECAC Hockey Tournament.
GAME NOTES
THE FIRST 1,000 ARE ALWAYS THE
HARDEST
It took 106 seasons, but Dartmouth finally reached the
1,000-victory mark with a 3-2 win over Holy Cross in Friday night's
game of the Ledyard Classic. Following the weekend, the all-time
program record now stands at 1,000-1,065-108. The team entered the
season just six wins shy of the mark, taking until the 13th game to
finally reach it.
LEDYARD CLASSIC
Despite a 1-0-1 mark at the 2011 Ledyard Classic last weekend at
Thompson, Dartmouth finished as the runner-up with St. Lawrence
claiming the title after a 3-2 shootout win in the championship.
The game will go down as a 2-2 tie, but one miss in the shootout by
the home team was enough to give the Saints their first title since
defeating the home team in 1996. Merrimack beat Holy Cross in the
consolation game, 3-0, after falling to the Saints in a nine-round
shootout that accompanied a high-scoring 6-6 affair the first
night.
UP THE RANKINGS
- Dartmouth may still be on the outside of the national rankings looking in, but that doesn't mean players can't be moving up any rankings... Senior Doug Jones (Marietta, Ga.) has moved into a tie for 14th-place all-time at Dartmouth with 69 career assists. He is now tied with Peter Summerfelt '03 in the program's ranks and is ahead of current NHL players Tanner Glass '07 (51) and Nick Johnson '08 (68). Bill Riley '49 is the program leader with 110 career helpers.
- His three points on the weekend earned Jones all-tournament team honors, along with Morris.
CAB COMES ON STRONG
- Sophomore goaltender Cab Morris (Wilmette, Ill.) came into the month of December with only one start to his credit during his career with the Big Green. A stellar month (1.62 GAA, .938 S%, 75 S) and a great weekend at the Ledyard Classic (1.92 GAA, .932 S%, 55 S) helped Morris earn ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week and Month honors. In three starts in December, Morris posted a 2-0-1 mark and was named to the Ledyard Classic All-Tournament Team.
- Morris' only start prior to this season came against Rensselaer on Nov. 5, 2010. He stopped 17 shots, but earned the loss.
WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER
Freshman Tyler
Sikura (Aurora, Ontario) continues to score big goals
for the Big Green in his first season in Hanover. His team-leading
seventh goal of 2011-12 gave Dartmouth a 3-1 advantage over Holy
Cross and proved to be the game winner, his third of the year. His
three winners make up half of the team's total (6) to this point in
the season and ranks ninth nationally and fourth in the
league.
DUSTIN'S RETURN
After missing six games recovering from injury, junior Dustin
Walsh (Shannonville, Ontario) returned to the Dartmouth
lineup this weekend in the Ledyard Classic. He came back in a big
way, recording an assist against the Crusaders and notching a
power-play goal against the Saints. He nearly ended the
championship game in overtime with a shot that beat the goalie, but
trickled wide of the goalmouth after deflecting off the inside of
the leg pads. Despite having played just seven games this season,
Walsh is fourth on the team with nine points (3g/6a).
POWER-PLAY DOUBLES UP
Coming into the weekend, The Big Green had just two power-play
goals all year. Markers from Jones and Dustin
Walsh with the man-advantage helped Dartmouth boost it's
power-play figure three-and-a-half percentage points to 9.3
percent; still the third-lowest in the nation (Alabama Hunstville -
5.2% and Sacred Heart - 5.5%).
GAME-TYING GOAL
Sophomore Eric
Robinson (Foxboro, Mass.) scored the first-game-tying
goal of the season for the Big Green with 4:55 left in regulation
against SLU. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound forward one-timed home a pass
in the slot from sophomore Matt Lindblad (Winnetka, Ill.) to tie
the game and force overtime. Robinson has six goals this season in
13 games played, one more than all of last season.
STREAKY SCORING
With his assist against St. Lawrence, Lindblad pushed his point
streak to five games. In that time, the sophomore center has seven
assists, including three against Vermont (Nov. 27). Jones also has
a five-game scoring streak, which featured four straight contests
with a goal. That goal streak came to an end against the Saints,
but the point streak continued with assists on both Dartmouth
markers in the game. Dustin
Walsh is the only other Big Green player with points in
consecutive games as he picked up points in the last
two.
100 AGAIN
Friday's game will mark the third time this season that a
Dartmouth player will appear in his 100th-career game. Senior
defender Jim
Gaudet (Etna, N.H.) has played in 99 career games in a
Big Green uniform under the coaching of his father Bob
Gaudet to date. Jim's older brother, Joe Gaudet, played
107 career games in a Dartmouth sweater from 2005-09. Bob played 76
games in goal for the Big Green from 1977-81, but has been behind
the bench for 464 in 15 seasons. Jones and senior defender Connor
Goggin (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) also reached the milestone
earlier this season.
A 1-2 PUNCH
Dartmouth set a new season-best mark for fastest two goals this
season with Jones and Sikura lighting the lamp just 22 seconds
apart against Holy Cross. Jones found the back of the net at 13:30
of the second period Friday night. At the 13:52 mark of the middle
period, Sikura finished off a rebound for the eventual winner. The
previous record for fastest two goals came as Connor
Goggin and Nick
Walsh (Shannonville, Ontario) scored 28 seconds apart in
the final two minutes to beat Quinnipiac, 5-4, after trailing by
one (Nov. 5) in the ECAC Hockey opener.
LOCKER ROOM LEADS USUALLY MEAN WINS
The Big Green are 4-0 this season when leading after one period of
play. The trend holds true for the second period as well with a 4-0
mark when leading after 40 minutes.
GO AHEAD, OUTSHOOT US
Dartmouth is 4-0-1 this season when being outshot by an opponent.
The Big Green were outshot in three of their first four games in
2011-12, all wins (Brown, Quinnipiac, Princeton). Holy Cross
recently fired 32 shots on net to Dartmouth's 21, but fell to the
home team as it was only able to get two of those shots behind
Morris.
EXPECT SHOTS
In the last three seasons, Dartmouth and Union have squared off
six times. In those six meetings, the Dutchmen have averaged 43.16
shots on goal. Senior goalie Jody
O'Neill (Napean, Ontario) has games of 47 and 48 saves
against Union, going 1-0-1 in those starts. Fellow senior James
Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.) has performances of 39 (twice),
38 and 37 saves against the Dutchmen in posting a record of 2-1-1,
including a 0-0 shutout.
BACK TO THE ECAC HOCKEY GRIND
Since the start of the 1997-98 season (Gaudet's first with the
team), Dartmouth is 142-132-40 against ECAC Hockey opponents. Twice
the team has posted 14-win seasons in league play as the Big Green
did so in the 2004- 05 (14-8-0) and 2005-06 (14-6-2) campaigns.
Dartmouth is 3-3-1 this season against league opponents, but are
just 1-3-1 in its last five ECAC Hockey opponents. Only one
non-conference game remains for the Big Green, taking on UNH next
Saturday in Manchester.
BETTER WITH BOB
All-time, the Big Green are just 30-40-4 against RPI. However, in
14-plus seasons with Bob
Gaudet behind the bench, the team is 19-16-3 against the
Engineers.
HOME COOKING
Dartmouth is 27th in the nation in home attendance this
season, averaging 3,028 fans in 10 home games this season. The Big
Green should expect good crowds on the road this weekend as RPI is
24th (3,236) and a national broadcast should lead to even better
figures at Houston Field House.
