Preview: Dartmouth Men's Hockey Looks for Big Friday Night Conference Win Over Harvard

Dartmouth men's hockey travels to Harvard Friday night for a conference clash between two teams experiencing rough seasons.

A win over Harvard would cause a 10th place tie in the ECAC, though a Dartmouth win and a St. Lawrence loss would create a three-way traffic jam for ninth. Otherwise, a Harvard win and St. Lawrence win wouldn't have any major effect on the standings, while a Harvard win and St. Lawrence loss would simply break their current tie at ninth.

“We’re looking forward to them,” Eric Neiley ’15 said. “Harvard’s a fun team to play and a fun place to play. They’re a good team that’s playing well right now.”

Last weekend, Dartmouth (4-15-3, 3-11-1 ECAC) rebounded from a manhandling by Quinnipiac on Friday to explode offensively for a 5-3 win over Princeton that propelled the Big Green out of last place in the ECAC. Harvard (6-11-3, 3-9-3 ECAC) had a short week, defeating Princeton 3-2 on Friday before being shut-out 6-0 by No. 11 Northeastern in the opening game of the 62nd Annual Beanpot Tournament.

“These Ivy League games are important in and of themselves just because of what they represent, but I think these ones are really fun for the guys,” head coach Bob Gaudet said. “I know the team is really going to be energized going in Harvard.”

In the win over Princeton, Dartmouth played with a lot of energy and emotion that had been lacking for most of the season. As a result, Dartmouth jumped out to a 4-0 lead early and a plus-20 shot advantage in the second period and never looked back as it held off a Princeton rally with a fifth goal that sealed the game.

In order to win its second consecutive game, Dartmouth needs to maintain the high level of play and avoid an emotional letdown from the big win.

“When our feet are moving and when we’re moving the puck and doing the right things, we’re having a lot of fun,“ Grant Opperman ’17 said. “When you’re having a lot of fun, you’re going to have a lot of emotion.”

Offensively, Harvard is a very middle-of-the-pack team, averaging 2.38 goals and 26.9 shots per game. Harvard also has an average penalty kill (86.2 percent) and power-play success rate (13.5 percent). 21 of the team's 50 goals comes from sophomores Jimmy Vesey and Kyle Criscuolo, which means Dartmouth's key to shutting down the Harvard attack is to stop Vesey and Criscuolo cold. 

Dartmouth was once considered the third best team in the ECAC during the preseason before injuries decimated the line-up. A win over Harvard, according to Opperman, would send a statement to the rest of the ECAC that Dartmouth is still very much alive and dangerous enough to mount a deep run in the playoffs.

All that's needed is some consistency.

“We got to put a string together and be more consistent than we have been but if you look at the standings of the Ivy League, we’re still in the race,” Opperman said. “In the ECAC, all the teams are pretty good and anyone can beat anyone in the playoffs and we hope to do that.”

Puck drop is at 7:00 pm at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center.