After upsetting No. 6 Cornell University 4-3 on Friday night, men’s hockey tied with unranked Colgate University 4-4 on Saturday to end its five-game winning streak. The Big Green forced a shootout against the Colgate Raiders but failed to pick up the extra point.
After becoming nationally-ranked on Nov. 11 — for the first time since the 2019-2020 season — the Big Green set out to face Cornell for the first time since the Big Red sent them packing in the ECAC semifinals last season.
More than 2,800 fans packed Thompson Arena on Nov. 15, but the crowd remained tame throughout the first period as neither team scored. It was not until the 2:56 mark of the second period that the crowd would erupt for the first time.
“Thompson is as good as anywhere in the northeast when the building’s full,” head coach Reid Cashman said. “When those fans got into it, our guys fed off it, and we really used that to propel.”
With 10 seconds left on a Dartmouth powerplay, CJ Foley ’27 made a shot near the Cornell blue line that was blocked. Amid the traffic, Cooper Flinton ’26 and Hayden Stavroff ’28 managed to slide the puck to co-captain Sean Chisholm ’25, who fired it in for his fifth goal in his fifth game of the season.
Past the halfway point in the second period, Dartmouth went on another power play. While the Big Green was setting up a breakout in its defensive zone, Cornell’s Kyle Penney intercepted a slow pass from Ian Pierce ’25 meant for Braiden Dorfman ’25. Shorthanded, Penney roofed his shot past two defenders and goalie Roan Clarke ’27 to tie the game.
“If anything, that’ll be a great teaching moment,” Cashman said. “We can’t give up that shorthand goal, but there’s plenty of things we’ll learn from that.”
Still on the man advantage, Nikita Nikora ’27 passed the puck to Stavroff, who slapped it to give the Big Green the lead again 26 seconds later and with one second of power play time remaining. Stavroff has scored in every game he has played thus far.
“Our first-year guys have had a massive impact on our program, I think because our leadership is so strong,” Cashman said. “[the first-years] fit in seamlessly.”
Nearly two minutes after his go-ahead goal, Stavroff received a five-minute major penalty for goaltender interference after knocking down Cornell goalie Ian Shane in open ice.
Cornell received a power play that continued into the third period, but the Big Red came out empty-handed with Clarke stopping three shots. Dartmouth kept Cornell 0-3 on the penalty kill and 2/2 on power plays.
Though Dartmouth killed off Cornell’s five-minute power play, Cornell tied the game again not even a minute after it ended.
Another goal would not be scored in the game until the 11:02 mark, when a slapshot from John Fusco ’25 near the Cornell blue line gave the Big Green its third lead of the game.
“I just try to compete, play hard, do the little things right and try to help my teammates,” Fusco said. “A lot of guys made great plays and were able to put me in a good opportunity. [I] can’t thank my teammates enough for giving me that opportunity.”
However, for the third time, Cornell came right back as a rebound off Clarke found its way into the net at the 14:50 mark.
With Dartmouth’s win streak on the line and 3:30 minutes remaining in the game, the pressure was on. However, Foley intercepted a pass in Cornell’s defensive zone and put in front of co-captain Steven Townley ’25, who took a shot from the faceoff circle. The puck ricocheted off the left post and into the net for Townley’s second goal of the year.
“I just shot it,” Townley said. “I didn’t really look at the net, to be honest, and it went in.”
As Townley jumped into the glass and his team swarmed him on the ice, Thompson Arena erupted into cheers. Townley’s goal would later stand as the game winner.
“I think we just have a lot of great character on this team,” Townley said of his teammates almost tackling him.
Cornell pulled its goalie with 1:47 left in the game but ultimately came out unsuccessful.
“We answered Cornell three times in a row,” Cashman said. “Cornell scored, we were able to answer and that speaks a lot to the character in our room.”
Dartmouth ended up getting revenge on the team that ended their season last year, winning 4-3.
“It stunk that they ended our season [last year],” Fusco said. “You just got to take it one shift at a time, do it for the guy next to you, get all the little things and you should be fine. That’s what we did tonight.”
Townley said he is already looking forward to a potential playoff matchup against Cornell.
“I think it’s different if we see them in the playoffs,” Townley said. “That would be an extra great feeling to knock them out.”
With a zero still in the loss column, Dartmouth hosted the Colgate Raiders the next night with hopes of remaining undefeated.
Dorfman set the tone right away, scoring at the 1:57 mark to make it 1-0. However, just like the Cornell game, Colgate came back right away in the first period to tie it.
Nikora responded four minutes later to put the Big Green back in front for his second goal of the season. Just three minutes later, Colgate was able to tie the game at two.
The tie would trickle into the second period, and it was not until the 15:24 mark that Eric Charpentier ’27 broke it with his first goal of the season. Charpentier skated the puck down from Dartmouth’s defensive end to the Colgate goal. He passed it to Nikora first before backhanding it in on the rebound.
The third period started with the Big Green in the lead, but Colgate tied the game for the third time at the 3:39 mark.
However, Cooper Flinton ’26 scored his first goal of the season two minutes later to put the Big Green up 4-3.
Dartmouth racked up three different penalties in the rest of the period, and Colgate scored on one of their three power plays to tie the game at four, forcing overtime.
During the five-minute overtime period, Colgate outshot Dartmouth 2-1, but neither team could get the job done. Dartmouth entered its first shootout of the season.
With a best of three format, Chisholm took to the ice first. He came out unsuccessful, while the Raiders scored. Dorfman also missed on his attempt, but with Colgate also failing to score, Joshua Schenk ’28 would be Dartmouth’s last hope.
Unfortunately, Schenk missed his goal, resulting in a shootout loss for Dartmouth.
Since the game went into a shootout, the game is recorded as a tie, meaning Dartmouth earned one point instead of two and remains technically undefeated.
The Big Green still leads the ECAC with 13 points.
Emmett Croteau ’27 will be available after a two-game suspension following a kicking penalty at Princeton University on Nov. 9.
The Big Green have a bye this weekend but will be back on the ice on Nov. 29 to face Boston College in Conte Forum in Massachusetts.
