The postseason fates of Dartmouth and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute depend on the performances of Charles Grant ’16 and junior Ryan Haggerty, making the showdown between both players the key match-up of the series.
“The team’s been playing really well over the last few weeks so we’re confident that we can pull out a couple wins,” Grant said.
After earning the 10th seed entering the ECAC Hockey First Round, Dartmouth (8-17-4, 7-13-2 ECAC) will be on the road squaring off against RPI (14-14-6, 8-9-5 ECAC). The winner of the best-of-three series will advance to the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals.
Dartmouth heads to RPI who swept the season series against the Big Green, winning both matches 7-1 and 4-2. Dartmouth, however, has gone unbeaten in six of its past eight games and is a completely different team than it was when playing RPI earlier in the year.
By comparison, RPI has gone an improbable 4-4-2 over the past 10 games, oftentimes falling flat at inopportune moments. Last weekend, with the sixth seed on the line, RPI was annihilated 5-0 by Yale.
Dartmouth’s recent string of performances has given the players the confidence and the momentum to believe they can advance to the Quarterfinals with a couple good outings.
“ECAC Championship play is what we look forward to all year,” Tyler Sikura ’15 said.
This weekend will be the fifth time both teams have played each other in the playoffs. All-time, RPI is 7-5 against Dartmouth in playoff encounters, but split the series record 2-2.
“RPI is going to see a different team this weekend than they did earlier in the season,” Sikura said.
Dartmouth will try to take Haggerty, RPI’s biggest scoring threat, out of the game by keeping him away from the net, Grant said.
Haggerty leads RPI in goals, 24, and points, 14, with five game-winning shots while Grant has been one of the nation’s hottest goaltenders in recent weeks.
Earlier this week, Grant was named ECAC hockey men’s goaltender of the month for February, posting a 4-0-1 record, which included a historic shut-out of Cornell. Grant’s shut-out was the third shut-out all-time by a Dartmouth goaltender at Cornell in 54 years. The first ever shut-out occurred in 1927.
This weekend will also be the first time Grant will face RPI’s offensive lines this season as he was not in the net during both previous outings against RPI.
If Haggerty is effectively taken out of the game, senior Brock Higgs and junior Matt Neal, who have combined for 24 goals and 52 points, can fill in nicely for Haggerty, but they won’t be able to match his superior production.
Grant will need to maintain his stellar play to keep RPI from netting too many goals that could sink Dartmouth’s hopes. If Grant can keep RPI from scoring more than two goals in each game, Dartmouth can counter with its first and second lines.
For its first line, Dartmouth will likely keep Eric Neiley ’15, Brandon McNally ’15 and Grant Opperman ’17 together.
Together, the three forwards have been much more productive as a unit than when they’ve been split up. Unfortunately, although they combined for 26 goals and 55 points on the season, including 10 on the power play, their aggressiveness has limited their effectiveness at times.
McNally leads the team in penalties with 27 in 27 games while Neiley is third with 11 penalties.
For Dartmouth to upset RPI, the first line will need to avoid penalties yet somehow maintain the aggression that allows them to be effective.
Sikura serves as the nucleus of the second line and delivers a significant change-up. Although he was out for a large chunk of the season, Sikura has rebounded and provided much-needed depth for Dartmouth’s short-handed, injury-reduced squad.
Since returning, Sikura has notched two game-winning goals, including a dramatic overtime shot in the win over Brown two weeks ago.
Puck drop will occur both Friday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m., and if a third game is necessary, Sunday’s winner-take-all showdown will also be at 7:00 p.m.
Dartmouth heads to RPI who swept the season series against the Big Green, winning both matches 7-1 and 4-2. Dartmouth, however, has gone unbeaten in six of its past eight games and is a completely different team than it was when playing RPI earlier in the year.
By comparison, RPI has gone an improbable 4-4-2 over the past 10 games, oftentimes falling flat at inopportune moments. Last weekend, with the sixth seed on the line, RPI was annihilated 5-0 by Yale.
Dartmouth’s recent string of performances has given the players the confidence and the momentum to believe they can advance to the Quarterfinals with a couple good outings.
“ECAC Championship play is what we look forward to all year,” Tyler Sikura ’15 said.
This weekend will be the fifth time both teams have played each other in the playoffs. All-time, RPI is 7-5 against Dartmouth in playoff encounters, but split the series record 2-2.
“RPI is going to see a different team this weekend than they did earlier in the season,” Sikura said.
Dartmouth will try to take Haggerty, RPI’s biggest scoring threat, out of the game by keeping him away from the net, Grant said.
Haggerty leads RPI in goals, 24, and points, 14, with five game-winning shots while Grant has been one of the nation’s hottest goaltenders in recent weeks.
Earlier this week, Grant was named ECAC hockey men’s goaltender of the month for February, posting a 4-0-1 record, which included a historic shut-out of Cornell. Grant’s shut-out was the third shut-out all-time by a Dartmouth goaltender at Cornell in 54 years. The first ever shut-out occurred in 1927.
This weekend will also be the first time Grant will face RPI’s offensive lines this season as he was not in the net during both previous outings against RPI.
If Haggerty is effectively taken out of the game, senior Brock Higgs and junior Matt Neal, who have combined for 24 goals and 52 points, can fill in nicely for Haggerty, but they won’t be able to match his superior production.
Grant will need to maintain his stellar play to keep RPI from netting too many goals that could sink Dartmouth’s hopes. If Grant can keep RPI from scoring more than two goals in each game, Dartmouth can counter with its first and second lines.
For its first line, Dartmouth will likely keep Eric Neiley ’15, Brandon McNally ’15 and Grant Opperman ’17 together.
Together, the three forwards have been much more productive as a unit than when they’ve been split up. Unfortunately, although they combined for 26 goals and 55 points on the season, including 10 on the power play, their aggressiveness has limited their effectiveness at times.
McNally leads the team in penalties with 27 in 27 games while Neiley is third with 11 penalties.
For Dartmouth to upset RPI, the first line will need to avoid penalties yet somehow maintain the aggression that allows them to be effective.
Sikura serves as the nucleus of the second line and delivers a significant change-up. Although he was out for a large chunk of the season, Sikura has rebounded and provided much-needed depth for Dartmouth’s short-handed, injury-reduced squad.
Since returning, Sikura has notched two game-winning goals, including a dramatic overtime shot in the win over Brown two weeks ago.
Puck drop will occur both Friday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m., and if a third game is necessary, Sunday’s winner-take-all showdown will also be at 7:00 p.m.
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