Dartmouth 2 - Rensselaer 1

Troy, N.Y. - Six point four seconds. That's how close the Dartmouth men's hockey team came to extending its first-round ECAC playoff series with Rensselaer to a third and deciding game.

And, in the end, that's what made the 3-2 loss Saturday night at Houston Field House all the more painful. With 6.4 seconds remaining in regulation and eighth-seeded Dartmouth leading 2-1, the third-seeded Engineers crashed the net and roofed the game-tying goal to send the game into overtime.

In similar fashion, RPI ended it halfway through the extra session. With several of his teammates creating traffic in front of the net, freshman Carson Butterwick wristed a rebound past a flattened Nick Boucher, sending the crowd of 2,451 into a frenzy and closing the curtain on the Dartmouth season in heart-breaking fashion.

"This team did themselves and did our college very, very proud this weekend," head coach Bob Gaudet said following the loss. "We didn't have our 'A' game last night, but had we won this game, I think we would have made a run at it. It's unfortunate that a team this young played so well, and played their hearts out, and came out with a loss."

A night after a 7-2 rout in favor of the home team, Dartmouth (9-17-4) gave RPI a run for its money.

The underdogs outshot the Engineers (21-12-2), 39-34, and pulled off a miracle of their own in the third period. Trailing, 1-0, the Big Green beat Joel Laing - the nation's leader in save percentage - twice, building a 2-1 lead that would stand for over nine minutes.

That's when the favorites cued the beginning of the end. Right winger Pete Gardiner tied it with 6.4 seconds to go, and little-used Butterwick ended it with his fifth goal of the season.

"Anybody who is associated in any way with the college has got to be proud with the way the team performed," Gaudet said. "They beat us 7-2 last night, but they were very fortuante to come away with the win tonight. Unfortunately, had we been able to hold off any longer, we win the series. I don't think there's any question about it.

"I've been coaching this game now for 17 years, and I have never seen a team so young perform so well."

Boucher was in net for all seven RPI goals Friday night, but Gaudet put him right back in net to start this game.

Sensing the vote of confidence, Boucher responded, holding the fiery Engineers to three goals on 34 shots and coming, well, 6.4 seconds from winning it.

"Eric [Almon] is a good solid goaltender, [Rob] Delwo is a good solid goaltender, but I think that Nick's our future," Gaudet said. "Considering the experience that he gains from playing playoff hockey, the gut call was that it was our best chance. That's nothing against the other guys at all, but he's a confident kid.

"He played a tremendous hockey game for us tonight."

From the opening faceoff, it was clear that a second straight RPI romp was not in order. The teams played virtually even in the first period - the Engineers outshot the Big Green, 11-8 - and each team had its share of quality scoring chances.

It was the goalies who shined in the first period. Both Laing and Boucher were perfect before the intermission, sending their respective teams into the locker room with a scoreless tie after the first 20 minutes of play.

Late in the middle frame, the Engineers finally broke the deadlock, as right winger Brad Tapper blasted a tough-angle slapshot past Boucher for his 31st of the season. Dartmouth outshot RPI by an eye-catching 18-7 in the middle period, but the Engineers escaped with a 1-0 advantage.

Midway through the third, Dartmouth stormed back, netting two goals in less than two minutes.

Craig Lund began the outburst, deflecting a pass from Mike Murray on net. Laing made the initial save, but the puck trickled off his pads and bounced slowly between the pipes for a 1-1 tie.

Soon after, Pete Summerfelt gave the Big Green a 2-1 lead. Collecting the puck along the side boards, the rookie blueliner sent a seemingly innocent shot on net. Screened, Laing never saw it, and it whizzed into the back of the net for Summerfelt's fifth goal of the season.

Dartmouth protected its lead for over nine minutes, but then the upstart season came to an end. The young Big Green made the playoffs for the first time since 1996, but will have to wait another year to take the next step.

"This is the first real playoff series that Dartmouth has played since I played," said Gaudet, who netminded the Big Green to the NCAA Final Four in 1979 and 1980. "Our team played so well tonight and deserved to win that game so badly, and it just didn't happen. It wasn't in the cards.

"I've never been as proud of a hockey team that I've coached as I was of these guys tonight."

Big Green playoff notes: Dartmouth is a banged-up team. Michael Byrne (thumb), Gary Hunter (shoulder) and Chris Baldwin (concussion) were out of the lineup this weekend, while Jamie Herrington, Dan Casella, Trevor Byrne and Pete Summerfelt all played through various nagging injuries . . . . Lund's goal was his second of the season . . . . Summerfelt ends the season on a four-game point scoring streak . . . . An extended version of Big Green Notes, along with a restropective on the season, will be posted in the coming weeks.