Dartmouth (9-17-3, 7-12-3 ECAC Hockey) ranked 10th in the ECAC will face No. 7 seed Quinnipiac University in the first round of the playoffs in Hamden, Conn., this weekend.
In other Ancient Eight action, Princeton University delivered a 7-3 loss to Brown University on Saturday, allowing the Tigers to edge out Harvard University and the Big Green for home ice in the ECAC playoffs.
"We would have liked home ice, obviously, but we are pretty happy with where we are sitting right now," Nick Walsh '12 said. "We have had a strong end of the season we are going in with a lot of confidence. Quinnipiac has been a little slow the second half of the season, so I like our chances going in there."
Dartmouth and the Crimson are tied in conference standings with 17 points apiece. Harvard's better head-to-head record, however, matched it up with ninth-seed Princeton in the first round of the playoffs.
Despite outshooting the Golden Knights (8-22-4, 4-15-3 ECAC Hockey) 41-24 on Saturday, Dartmouth took just two shots in the overtime period and the game resulted in a stalemate.
Off a series of passes from captain Peter Boldt '10 and Joe Stejskal '11, Walsh notched a five-hole power-play goal to put Dartmouth up, 3-2, just over four minutes into the third period. It was Walsh's sixth goal of the season.
The Golden Knights answered less than a minute later, knotting the game at 3-3 and forcing overtime.
"During overtime, we really wanted to get the win to try to sweep the last weekend," assistant captain Scott Fleming '11 said. "We are kind of disappointed that we blanked in overtime. We had a lot of good chances, but we just weren't able to score."
Potting his 20th goal of the season, Fleming put the biscuit in the basket past Clarkson goaltender Paul Karpowich to give Dartmouth a 2-1 lead. Adam Estoclet '11 currently leading the Big Green with 33 points and Jim Gaudet '12 assisted on the play.
Just 13 seconds into the second period and on a two-man advantage, the Golden Knights' Adam Pawlick notched a power-play goal to allow Clarkson to break onto the scoreboard after a scoreless opening frame.
Despite being shorthanded, Dartmouth rebounded less than a minute later, as assistant captain Joe Gaudet '10 wrapped around the net and drilled the puck past Karpowich to even the score at 1-1.
On Friday, Fleming posted his sixth multiple-point game of the season, netting two goals to propel the Big Green past the Saints (15-13-17, 9-8-5 ECAC Hockey).
Assisted by Estoclet and Boldt at 13:58 in the third frame, Fleming slapped a backhand shot through senior St. Lawrence goaltender Kain Tisi's legs to establish a 3-1 Dartmouth lead.
The Big Green defense kept senior Travis Vermeulen from putting the puck in the net, but he assisted on St. Lawrence's second goal, which was potted with 2:22 left in the game to put the Saints within one. Vermeulen leads the Saints with 17 goals.
Despite pulling Tisi with 1:17 remaining in the game, the Saints failed to complete the comeback effort.
At 15:29 in the second frame, Paul Lee '12 drilled his third goal of the season, assisted by defenseman Evan Stephens '11, to push the Big Green to a 2-0 lead.
With 1:47 remaining in the second period, senior Mike McKenzie put St. Lawrence on the scoreboard with an unassisted goal to tighten Dartmouth's lead to 2-1. He also earned an assist on the Saints' second goal and posted a team-high seven shots.
Giving Dartmouth an early 1-0 lead almost seven minutes into the first period, Fleming netted his first goal on the power play off passes from Estoclet and Doug Jones '12.
James Mello '12 earned both starts in net this weekend, pushing away 33 shots against the Saints and 21 against the Golden Knights. He now posts a .916 save percentage the second-highest in the ECAC and has allowed an average of 2.95 goals per game.
Dustin Walsh '13 returned to the ice after being out due to an injury for the past few weeks, taking four shots against St. Lawrence.
Now looking to the ECAC playoffs, Quinnipiac (17-15-2, 11-11 ECAC Hockey) will host Dartmouth this weekend in a best-of-three series from Friday to Sunday, with all games starting at 7 p.m.
The Big Green has split the regular season competition against the Bobcats, recently earning a 4-3 victory after succumbing earlier in the season.
In the 4-3 win, Dustin Walsh, Nick Walsh, Estoclet and Stephens recorded two points each.
"We are hitting our best hockey at the end of the season, which is what you want to do," Stejskal said. "We are confident we can pull out a first round win next weekend against Quinnipiac."
