Brown, frustrated and facing a 4-2 deficit at the beginning of the third period, played with a desperate physicality. Eighteen of the game's 25 penalties were handed out in the third period, including 11 after a major scuffle at the end of the stanza that left Big Green captain Mike Keenan '13 fighting to protect himself without a helmet.
"It's a physical sport," Bears head coach Brendan Whittet said. "I wish it would have been physical in the first period, but we waited until we were down by three until we wanted to do something. Some of it is frustration, and it's not a good way to be frustrated, so that's annoying to me."
Keenan, who leads the Dartmouth squad with 17 penalties and 42 penalty minutes on the season, was banished from the ice at 18:47 with a 10-minute misconduct penalty, alongside Jim Gaudet '12, Rick Pinkston '15 and three Brown players.
"They are a physical team, and they always have been," Keenan said about the Bears. "We were prepared for it and ready to match it."
Both teams continued to fight until the end, when Jason Bourgea '13 finally silenced Brown with an empty-net goal at 19:51. The Big Green held the Bears to 22 shots on goal, while Brown started particularly slow, managing only two shots during the majority of the first half of the first period.
"I didn't think we played anywhere near well enough to play a hockey game ... it's just discouraging," Whittet said. "They outbattled us and outplayed us and had more energy and enthusiasm."
Jumping out to a strong start, Dartmouth quickly established a 2-0 lead by 5:44 in the first and added a third goal to end the period up 3-0. Nick Walsh '12 and Doug Jones '12 netted the Big Green's first two goals. Jones now leads Dartmouth in scoring with 17 points.
Just 19 seconds into a power play, Brandon McNally '15 notched Dartmouth's third goal, sending a shot high between the pipes and knocking the Brown goaltender's water bottle from atop the net onto the ice. Eric Robinson '14 and Keenan assisted on the play, while the three-goal deficit forced Whittet to pull sophomore goaltender Marco DeFilippo in favor of senior Mike Clemente.
Dartmouth's special teams units were strong against Brown, according to head coach Bob Gaudet. The Big Green capitalized on two of five power-play opportunities while holding the Bears to zero goals on five power plays. Due to the abundance of penalties, Dartmouth was forced to start both the second and third period on the penalty kill.
"In a game like this, you basically have to protect yourself," Gaudet said. "That's what the guys did ... the penalties that we did take, I thought we did a great job penalty killing."
Connor Goggin '12 notched the Big Green's second power-play goal at 15:27 in the third period during Dartmouth's five-on-four advantage.
Six different Big Green players contributed to the evening's goals, as the Dartmouth offensive effort produced 39 shots on goal.
"I thought we played really well from the drop of the puck to the final buzzer right across the board," Gaudet said. "It was a really solid game against a very good team that has beaten [the University of New Hampshire] and beat Union [College] last week."
James Mello '12 protected the net, ceding two goals and absorbing several body hits. He now owns an .890 save percentage and 3.23 GAA.
Mello also started in Saturday's match-up against Yale (9-10-2, 6-7-1 ECAC), allowing five goals to take the loss. On the season, Mello has a 5-6-1 record in net.
With 34 seconds remaining in the third period, Yale sophomore forward Kenny Agostino capped a four-goal comeback effort to clinch the 5-4 Bulldog victory. The win snapped Yale's four-game losing streak.
With the score knotted at 4-4 and under 30 seconds remaining in the game, Agostino took control of a loose puck and headed toward the goal. Agostino's shot eluded Mello's glove and found the back of the net for the game-winning goal.
Notching two goals, Agostino both initiated and ended Yale's scoring run of four consecutive goals throughout the second and third period. He has scored eight goals on the year and ranks third in Bulldog scoring with 18 points this season.
Dartmouth eagerly pounced on the puck during the first period, building a 4-1 lead by the end of the stanza. Tyler Sikura '15 put the biscuit in the basket at 3:49 before Yale notched an equalizer at 4:56 to tie the game at 1-1.
Scoring three goals in a time frame of 6:42 in the middle of the first period, the Big Green offense dominated the Bulldogs to re-establish its lead. Dartmouth outshot Yale, 20-13, in the first period.
Robinson, Troy Mattila '12 and Paul Lee '12 each contributed to the Big Green's offensive outburst. Mattila and Lee both potted the first goals of their senior seasons, while Robinson added his ninth.
Robinson and Sikura lead the Dartmouth squad in goals with nine each, and the two are tied for second in overall scoring with 15 points.
The second period saw momentum shift to the Bulldogs, and Yale's renewed energy carried over to the third period, as it outshot the Big Green by a 15-6 margin. Yale notched its second goal in the middle of the second period to bring the score to 4-2 before adding three more goals in the third.
The game was similar to the teams' first encounter this season, a tight 2-1 Yale victory in Hanover in October.
While Saturday's victory clinched a season sweep of the Big Green for the Bulldogs, Dartmouth is now 2-0 against Brown. The Bears succumbed to the Big Green, 2-1, in October in another charged game featuring 14 penalties.
Currently ranked seventh in the 12-team ECAC, Dartmouth will face two more Ivy foes this week in Harvard University and Princeton University before taking on Quinnipiac University on Sunday.
The Big Green takes to the road to meet the Crimson (6-6-8, 5-4-6 ECAC) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Harvard, sitting in fourth place in the ECAC, battled Dartmouth to a 3-3 overtime tie in November. Like the Big Green, the Crimson faced Yale and Brown this past weekend, bettering Dartmouth's results by defeating both foes.
The Tigers (6-10-5, 5-8-2 ECAC) and the Bobcats (13-8-5, 5-5-4 ECAC) will also provide strong opposition in the Big Green's weekend match-ups, though Dartmouth has beaten both teams already this season.
Against Quinnipiac, the Big Green earned a come-from-behind 5-4 win in November after potting two goals in the last two minutes of play. The early-season matchup against Princeton was also a back-and-forth event, culminating in a 5-3 Dartmouth victory.
The Tigers are coming off a tie with the No. 9 Cornell University squad that triumphed over the Big Green, 4-3, in a hard-fought overtime clash a week ago. Princeton also routed Colgate University, 6-2.
The Big Green will confront the Tigers in Princeton, N.J. on Friday at 7 p.m. and Quinnipiac on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Hamden, Conn.
