Officials: Bill Doiron (R), Michael St. Louis, Richard Norman
Reprinted with permission of The Dartmouth, Inc.
by Jeffrey Beyer
The Big Green were up 3-0 before the first period was half over on Friday night against Union, and the Green cruised from there on the way to an 8-1 blowout of the Skating Dutchmen.
Mike Byrne '01 got things going for Dartmouth just 2:28 into the game, beating a screened Union goalie Trevor Koenig with a shot from the top of the left circle to put the Green on top 1-0.
Jon Sturgis '98 made it 2-0 at 5:52 of the first frame with a turnaround shot from the slot, and Dave Risk '99 made it 3-0 at 9:16 of the first, taking a nice dish in the slot from Dave Whitworth '98 and beating Koenig for the defenseman's first goal of the season.
Risk's goal chased Koenig from the net, having stopped just 3 of the 6 shots he faced in the game. Koenig is heralded as one of the better goalies in the ECAC, but he didn't have his best stuff on Friday night. Leeor Shtrom came on for the Skating Dutchmen, but didn't fare much better.
Union got a powerplay goal from Jason Ralph at 10:55 of the first to get on the board, but Sturgis' second goal of the period, at 13:08 of the first, put the Green up 4-1.
Tom Ruzzo '97 scored his seventh goal of the season at 4:24 of the second, taking a dish from Scott Peach '99 and blasting a slapper past Shtrom to make it 5-1 Dartmouth. And just 25 seconds later, Byrne made it 6-1 when he took the rebound of a shot from Zach Hafer '99 and put it past Shtrom.
Jeremiah Buckley '98 put the Green on top 7-1 with a shorthanded tally at 8:32 of the second -- extending his streak to six straight games with a goal -- and Peach beat Shtrom to the top right corner at 9:05 of the third to close out the scoring at 8-1.
Eric Almon '00 stopped 19 of the 20 shots he faced for the Big Green, and, when figuring in his 4-0 blanking of the Skating Dutchmen earlier in the season, allowed just one goal in 115 minutes this year against Union -- a 0.52 goals against average.
With the game comfortably in hand, third-string goalie Mike Chen '01 got five minutes of action late in the third, to the delight of the Dartmouth crowd, who serenaded him with the chant: "C-H-E-N! Chen! Chen! Chen!"
Head Coach Bob Gaudet was pleased with the Green's effort, and with the fact that six different goal scorers got on the board: "I think that down the stretch we're gonna need production from a wide variety of guys and we've been getting that."
| Scoring by Period | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Total |
| Union | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Dartmouth | 4 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
Union: 1 for 8
Dartmouth: 1 for 7
| Goals | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Team | Goal | Assists | Time |
| 1 | D | Byrne | Peet, Cancelli | 2:28 |
| 1 | D | Sturgis | Giedt, Wilgosh | 5:52 |
| 1 | D | Risk | Whitworth, Wilgosh | 9:16 (PPG) |
| 1 | U | Ralph | Moxham, Ozarowski | 10:55 (PPG) |
| 1 | D | Sturgis | Wilgosh, Whitworth | 13:08 |
| 2 | D | Ruzzo | Poulton, Peach | 4:23 |
| 2 | D | Byrne | Hafer, Poulton | 4:48 |
| 2 | D | Buckley | Chaytors, Poulton | 8:32 (SHG) |
| 3 | D | Peach | Chaytors, Buckley | 9:05 |
| Saves by Period | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player-Team | Min. | 1 | 2 | 3 | Total |
| Koenig (U) | 9:16 | 3 | - | - | 3 |
| Shtrom (U) | 50:44 | 6 | 15 | 7 | 28 |
| Almon (D) | 55:03 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 19 |
| Chen (D) | 4:57 | - | - | 3 | 3 |
| Penalties | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Team | Player | Penalty | Time |
| 1 | D | Giedt | high stick | 3:36 |
| 1 | U | Westernman | elbow | 7:21 |
| 1 | D | Hafer | cross-check | 10:08 |
| 1 | U | Yackel | slashing | 11:05 |
| 1 | U | Anderson | elbow | 15:08 |
| 1 | U | Todd | roughing | 15:50 |
| 1 | D | Whitworth | tripping | 19:48 |
| 2 | D | Peach | holding | 1:20 |
| 2 | U | Willl | roughing | 5:08 |
| 2 | D | Peach | elbow | 7:32 |
| 2 | U | Jones | cross-check | 10:09 |
| 3 | D | Poulton | interference | 7:08 |
| 3 | U | Shtrom | hooking | 7:31 |
| 3 | D | Poulton | tripping | 9:54 |
| 3 | D | Wilgosh | borading | 15:40 |