Officials: Jack Dunn (R), Bill Jones, Tom Quinn
Boston - The Dartmouth men's hockey team entered this weekend's two-game road trip looking for some early positives after missing the playoffs for the third straight time last season. Taking on Harvard, those hopes were put on hold for at least a night.
Before 2,104 fans at Bright Hockey Center, the Crimson remained unbeaten (2-0-0, 2-0-0 ECAC) by scoring early and often and leaving the rest to veteran goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo, who made 31 saves in the 7-2 romp.
Dartmouth (0-1-0, 0-1-0), which fell short of the playoffs by just one point last season, looked every bit as young as its roster suggests. Taking seven freshmen and eight sophomores into battle, the Big Green could not contain the experienced Crimson, who broke the game open with three second period goals en route to victory.
"Right now, Harvard is a better team than we are," said Dartmouth head coach Bob Gaudet following the loss. "They outworked us. We are a very young team, but they played much better than we did."
Returning three of its top four point scorers from last season's 10-17-2 finish, Dartmouth hopes to increase its offensive output this season while making some serious noise in the ECAC.
Harvard, cool in front of the home crowd, showed that Dartmouth may still have quite a bit of work ahead. The Crimson took 35 shots to the Big Green's 33, and managed to hold Dartmouth's most dangerous offensive weapons quiet.
Senior Eric Almon, who started the game in goal, stopped just 20 of the 25 shots he faced. He was replaced in the third period by sophomore Rob Delwo, who made eight saves.
Dartmouth was just 1-for-8 on the power play, recalling one of last season's most frustrating weaknesses.
"We had some key points in the game - it was 2-1 to open the second period - but we couldn't bury our chances," Gaudet said. "Harvard's an older team, and it came down to execution. They took advantage of their opportunities."
A trio of freshman opened the scoring in an offensive first period.
The first two wore Crimson jerseys, as Dominic Moore, one of three Moore brothers on the Crimson squad, and Brett Nowak managed to beat Almon midway through the frame.
Down, 2-0, the Big Green awoke late in the period. Forward Mike Murray, one of Dartmouth's highly touted recruits, took advantage of a rebound off Prestifilippo to record his first collegiate goal. Chris Taliercio and P.J. Martin earned assists on the play, and the Big Green pulled to within one at the intermission.
But that was as close as Dartmouth would get. The Crimson exploded for three goals in the second period and two in the third, receiving points from 12 different players in the rout. Scott Turco, a native of Norwich, recorded an assist on Harvard's seventh goal.
Dartmouth's only other netter, coming early in the third period, was tallied by forward Frank Nardella. Defensemen Ryan Burkart and Ryan Poulton earned assists on the play.
"I just think we need to chip away and get better," said Gaudet. "We worked hard. We have to bury a few more and finish our chances. It wasn't from a lack of effort, but we were just outplayed by a very experienced team."
Playing without Martin, who went down late in the game with a knee injury, the Big Green will look to rebound tonight against winless Brown (0-2-0). The Bears were 6-4 losers last night at the hands of Vermont.
Gametime is 7:00 at Meehan Auditorium.
Statistics
| Scoring by Period | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Total |
| Dartmouth |
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| Harvard |
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Dartmouth: 1 for 8
Harvard: 0 for 4
| Goals | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Team | Goal | Assists | Time |
| 1 | H | D. Moore | MacLoud | 8:12 |
| 1 | H | B. Nowak | Capouch | 14:20 |
| 1 | D | Murray | Martin, Taliercio | 15:38 |
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Scorsune
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Schwefel, B. Nowak
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14:52
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D. Moore | Kerner, Bala | 16:28 |
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B. Nowak | Chodorow | 19:34 |
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Nardella | Burkart | 1:15 (PPG) |
| 3 | H | Chodorow | Scorsune, B. Nowak | 1:56 |
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Macloud | Turco, Allman | 10:37 |
| Saves by Period | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player-Team | Min. | 1 | 2 | 3 | Total |
| Prestifilippo (H) |
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| Almon (D) | 40:00 | 9 | 11 | - | 20 |
| Delwo (D) |
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| Penalties | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Team | Player | Penalty | Time |
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B. Nowak | holding | 4:18 |
| 1 | D | Lund | hooking | 9:37 |
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Desjardins | interference | 5:46 |
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Allman | holding | 8:07 |
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B. Nowak | interference | 10:48 |
| 2 | H | S. Moore | slashing | 13:41 |
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Murray | slashing | 13:41 |
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S. Moore
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high sticking | 19:57 |
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Erickson | slashing | 19:57 |
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Murray | slashing | 19:57 |
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Desjardins | cross-checking | 4:39 |
| 3 | H | S. Moore | interference | 5:13 |
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Capouch | boarding | 8:26 |
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M. Moore | holding | 11:27 |
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T. Byrne | slashing | 11:39 |
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M. Moore | holding stick | 14:08 |
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Murray | holding | 14:08 |
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M. Moore | hooking | 16:55 |
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