Dartmouth entered the night needing at least a tie to clinch 4th, while still holding an outside shot at third place. Everything broke Dartmoth’s way, and the team ended up with its best regular season record since 1980, the last time they made the NCAA Tournament. Dartmouth (17-11-1, 13-9-0) took down Union 2-1 at Achilles Rink on Saturday, and in the process claimed 3rd place in the ECAC Standings after Cornell defeated Yale 3-0. Jarrett Sampson got Dartmouth’s first goal, and Lee Stempniak got the game winner 4:14 into the 3rd period, his 40th point of the year. Dartmouth hadn’t had a 40-point scorer in 10 years, and now has two of them in Stempniak and Hugh Jessiman, who leads the team with 41 points. Nick Boucher made 33 saves on 34 shots to earn the victory.
Dartmouth will be off next weekend as the ECAC playoffs get underway. They’ll host a quarterfinals series the following weekend, starting March 14th at Thompson Arena. Game two will be Saturday the 15th, and game three if necessary Sunday the 16th. All games will start at 7:00 EST. And yes, it does suck because Spring Break starts on the 14th and thus there will be little to no student presence at the games.
The Conference Semis and Finals will be March 21st and 22nd at the Pepsi Arena in Albany, NY and will be televised on NESN and YES. The winner receives an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.
Friday: Dartmouth 7 at Rensselaer 1
Saturday: Dartmouth 2 at Union 1
Regular Season Stats:
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