The Dartmouth men’s hockey team played in two thrilling games this past weekend to conclude nonconference play for the season. The Big Green capitalized on two comebacks to earn a tie on the road against University of Vermont and a huge home win over Boston University.
Up in Burlington on Friday, Dartmouth fell behind early after a Catamount tally just 29 seconds into the game. UVM doubled its lead 13 minutes into the second period. Immediately after the deficit grew to two, however, is when the Big Green began to kick it into high gear.
Three minutes after the Catamounts’ second tally of the game, a holding penalty on UVM’s Owen Grant gave the Big Green its fourth power play of the game, which Mark Gallant ’23 quickly took advantage of with the help of Tanner Palocsik ’23 and Quin Foreman ’21 only six seconds in to bring the score to 2-1.
Power plays continued to play a large role in the progress of the game, with UVM committing seven penalties, one of which was a five-minute major on Carter Long for head contact. The last Catamount penalty, a tripping call on Riley McCutcheon, allowed for a late power-play goal from Jeff Losurdo ’22 that tied the game at two, a score that would hold through the five-minute overtime period.
Goaltender Adrian Clark ’20 played a big role in the team’s success, keeping the Catamounts out of the back of the net for the final 26 minutes and giving his teammates the opportunity to make a comeback.
“I thought we played really well against Vermont; I thought it was one of our better games in terms of puck possession and opportunities,” said head coach Bob Gaudet ’81. “They’re a good rival, their goaltender was just fabulous. I think on another night it might have been a 5-2 win for us, but he was just spectacular. And our guy, Adrian Clark, played incredibly well too.”
Twenty-four hours later, the Big Green returned to Thompson Arena to take on the BU Terriers. BU got to work quickly after having Friday night off, scoring just over two minutes in and twice more at 5:25 and 13:19 in the first period. Dartmouth immediately fought back, however, and a rebound goal from Gallant off a shot by Palocsik kickstarted a three-goal run for the Big Green, all within a span of one minute and 30 seconds.
“They just came out on fire, they really really had a lot of energy, a lot of jump early in the game, they have an incredible amount of speed and skill on their team,” Gaudet said of the Terriers. “I was really proud of our guys, because we found a way to score a great power-play goal.”
The Big Green has especially benefited from an even scoring attack, seeing goals coming from some of its bottom-line players.
“One of the things we’ve been able to have is secondary scoring, we have had a lot of people contributing which has been great,” said forward Matt Baker ’21.
Going into the middle frame, BU quickly regained the lead after completing a play deemed “The Michigan.” But just 10 minutes later, Drew O’Connor ’22 scored twice in the span of one minute, giving the Big Green its first lead of the game. A potential Terriers goal was thought to tie the game late in the second period was waved off due to goalie interference. The Big Green finished out the game keeping the Terriers away from the net and held onto its one-goal lead.
“I like the fact that we were able to be really resilient, bounce back after things went against us with some good play from the opposition both nights, we were able to fight back and really play some good hockey all weekend long,” Gaudet said.
As the Big Green enters the second half of the season, a slate of 13 high-stakes conference games remain. The team hosts conference leader Clarkson University on Friday night before playing Saint Lawrence University, which currently sits in last place in the Eastern College Athletic Conference standings, on Saturday.
