Friday night, the Big Green relied on a quick start to put early pressure on the Dutchmen, scoring three goals in the first period. However, the first goal proved to be all that was necessary, as goalie and assistant captain Mike Devine '08 recorded 29 saves to earn his first shutout of the season.
The scoring Friday began in the second minute of the game, when, on a power play, Scott Fleming '10 took a shot that rebounded directly to Big Green captain Nick Johnson '08, who put the puck home for his third goal of the year.
The Big Green power play was just getting started. After missing chances to score on its second man-advantage of the night, Connor Shields '09 made sure to convert on the squad's third power play chance, scoring an unassisted goal, his first of the year, to double Dartmouth's lead.
A minute and a half later Fleming got in on the goal-scoring action, scoring the first collegiate goal of his career. Evan Stephens '11 passed the puck out of the Dartmouth zone to Fleming, who scored to open up a sizeable lead.
The second period was played evenly and defensively, as neither team put forth its most offensive game. Dartmouth had only three shots in the period against Union's five shots.
The third period saw more in the way of shots yet the majority of goals had already been scored in the first frame. With four minutes left in the period, Joe Gaudet '10 scored his first goal of the season, as he combined with linemate Rob Smith '10 and defenseman Peter Boldt '10 for the tally.
On Saturday, in the weekend finale, the Big Green hit a bump in its schedule as RPI's offense proved to have too many weapons for the Big Green to handle.
The game began favorably for the Big Green, as assistant captain JT Wyman '08 added to his team-leading point total with a goal just 21 seconds into the game, after RPI
goalie Jordan Alford was able to turn away two shots by Stephens.
The lead did not last long as Andrei Uryadov scored five minutes later on the power play. Less than two minutes after that, Chase Polacek nothed a goal to give the RPI Engineers a 2-1 advantage.
After back and forth action for most of the period, Boldt had a chance to level the score with two minutes to go, when he intercepted a puck at the RPI blue line and went in on the breakaway, but his shot deflected off the post.
In the second period, while Dartmouth outshot RPI, the Engineers were able to turn their nine shots into three goals, while Dartmouth was only able to convert one of its 14 shots on net. RPI added to its lead, first with another goal from Uryadov 10 minutes into the middle frame, his sixth of the season, and then with a short-handed goal from captain Jake Morissette, who blasted the shot in from the left face-off circle, making the score 4-1. Fleming netted his second collegiate goal on the power play, but a breakdown in defense at the end of the period, which led to an RPI goal with 10 seconds to go in the period, allowed RPI to head into the final intermission with a three-goal lead.
In the third, Morissette again found the net, with Uryadov getting one of the assists for his third point of the night.
While that goal put the game practically out of reach, there were still bright spots on the night for Dartmouth. Wyman got a goal back with four minutes to go, somehow stuffing home a rebound that initially looked to have been covered up. The goal was his fifth of the season, as it was the second time he has scored two goals in a game thus far.
After an empty net goal for RPI, Matt Reber '11 scored his first collegiate goal to finish the scoring, as the Big Green fell 7-4.
"I thought we played a good solid game tonight," Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet said. "We controlled play for large parts of the game; it was just one of those nights where it seemed like all our mistakes ended up on the scoreboard."
"Obviously it was a big win on Friday and I think Saturday didn't necessarily reflect that we played any worse," Wyman said. "Hockey is a game of bounces and we caught some bad ones, while RPI caught some good ones."
