This weekend, men’s hockey hosted Eastern College Athletic Conference opponents Clarkson University and St. Lawrence University at Thompson Arena. The Big Green shut out the Golden Knights 3-0 and tied the Saints 4-4. The Big Green then won the six-round shoot-out against St. Lawrence to gain a point in the Ivy League standings.
Against the Golden Knights, the Big Green opened the scoring at 3:28 in the first period when Cam MacDonald ’26 recorded a goal on the power play. Luke Haymes ’26 and Nikita Nikora ’27 both earned assists on the goal.
MacDonald’s goal, his third of the year, also marked his second consecutive game with a tally on the power play.
“I think this group has shown time and time again that we’re willing to fight through anything,” MacDonald said.
The score remained 1-0 until 3:33 in the second period when Trym Løkkeberg ’25 scored his first goal of the season to help the Big Green extend its lead over the Golden Knights.
Løkkeberg’s goal came after a shot from Tucker McRae ’26 was saved. Josh Waters ’24 and Løkkeberg both stormed the net looking for a rebound, with Waters getting the assist.
“I think we had a good response, much like last weekend’s game against Harvard [University],” MacDonald said. “We kind of came out in the first period, even though we were up … we weren’t playing our best hockey, and Clarkson was kind of taking it to us.”
The Big Green held the Golden Knights to just five shots during the second period and took 11 shots of their own in the frame.
“We got a talking to from coach in between periods, [which] got us reset,” MacDonald said. “I think we did a really good job just responding, getting back to our game [and] playing the fundamentals really well.”
At 18:08 in the third period, Haymes scored an empty net goal to seal the Big Green’s victory. The goal was his 13th of the year.
“I just think they’re resilient; I think there’s a strong belief in our [locker] room,” head coach Reid Cashman said. “We’re committed to playing a full 60 minutes, sometimes 65. I think it just speaks to their character and how resilient they are as a group.”
Cooper Black ’26 picked up his second shutout of the season and the fifth of his career with his performance on Friday night.
Cashman called Black’s performance “excellent.”
“Coming off a game I know [Black] didn’t love, and a game that we ended up pulling him, he had a really good week of practice,” Cashman said. “[He] put his head down and got back.”
The next night, the Big Green hosted the Saints of Saint Lawrence University, who scored the first goal of the night. However, Haymes responded with under a minute left in the first period with his 14th goal of the season on a power play.
Down 2-1 in the second period, the Big Green had a five-minute power play when St. Lawrence received a major penalty for boarding. This allowed Sean Chisholm ’25 and John Fusco ’25 to both score, with Chisolm tying the game 2-2 and Fusco giving the Big Green its first lead of the night. This was also Fusco’s third power-play goal of the season.
However, this would not last long. Within the first minute of the third period, the Saints scored again to tie the game up at 3-3 on a power play. The Saints did not take it easy on the Big Green, scoring again halfway through the third period on a power play to make it 4-3 St. Lawrence.
At the 15:42 mark in the third period, Eric Charpentier ’27 scored his second goal of the season to tie the game and send it into overtime.
“[Charpentier] is a top-four defenseman for us, even though he’s a first-year,” Cashman said. “He continues to get better … so, it was fun to see him get rewarded.”
For the 11th time this season, the Big Green went into overtime, and both teams came out unsuccessful with neither scoring.
During the team’s ninth shoot-out of the season, it was evident that this was not Black’s first rodeo.
“Going in, you just have to be patient,” Black said. “But I knew that if I took care of business, that eventually, one of our guys was going to slip one through. We’ve been there so many times.”
After both goals were blocked in the first round, Braiden Dorfman ’25 scored, but St. Lawrence scored right after. However, the goal Cooper Flinton ’26 scored would make Dartmouth victorious in the end.
Black saved five of six shots in the shoot-out.
“[Black] took a big step from last year to this year,” Cashman said. “He looks like an experienced goalie. He prepares every day like a pro. That was a really impressive shoot-out in particular tonight for him.”
Dartmouth picked up five out of six possible points for the weekend and now ranks sixth behind Union College in the ECAC Men’s Ice Hockey standings. The Big Green improved their record to 7-9-9, 5-6-7.
The Big Green will play their final road games of the regular season next weekend. They will face off against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Houston Field House at 7 p.m. on Friday and take on Union College at Messa Rink at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
