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The Dartmouth
July 5, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Men's hockey defeats Brown, falls to Yale

1.22.13.sports.mens-hockey
1.22.13.sports.mens-hockey

Putting their offensive depth on display against Brown (6-8-4, 2-5-4 ECAC), four different players scored for the Big Green, including a nifty short-handed goal from assistant captain Matt Lindblad '14, who picked off a Brown pass, tipped the puck into the neutral zone and converted unassisted to give the Big Green a 2-1 lead in the first period.

Other goals came from Tim O'Brien '16, who opened the scoring for the Big Green with his second goal of the season, Eric Robinson '14 and Brandon McNally '15, who scored an empty net goal with close to a minute remaining as Brown pushed for a comeback.

"We've pretty much gotten even production from everyone this season," Robinson said. "We've never looked to any one guy, one line for production."

Although the Big Green impressed with the win, sweeping the season series against Brown, they were disappointed by their loss of focus with nine seconds remaining, which allowed Brown to draw a goal back. This changed the final score to 4-2.

"We were up three, the game was kind of winding down, and I guess we took the foot off the pedal a little bit," Lindblad said. "We definitely need to cut back on that, but I think it's the first time it's happened this season."

On a two-game winning streak following the result in Providence, the Big Green continued its road swing and moved inland to face Yale (11-4-3, 7-3-1 ECAC) in an important ECAC matchup in New Haven, Conn., where the Big Green has not clinched a win since 2007.

"They've been a very good team for the past five to six years," captain Mike Keenan '13 said. "Yale is one of the top teams in the league, and we knew it was going to be a tough game coming in."

Facing the highly ranked Yale squad on the road, the Big Green did not change its approach.

"Our game plan pretty much stays the same whether we play ranked teams, unranked teams or teams ranked higher than us," Robinson said.

The Big Green conceded the first two goals of the contest to Yale, digging a hole that their furious comeback attempt could not overcome. Dartmouth came the closest to surmounting the lead in the third period when Eric Neiley '15 scored on a power play to reduce the deficit to one goal, but as the Big Green pushed for the tying marker, an empty net goal by Yale put the game out of reach.

"We felt like we were in it the whole way," Keenan said.

Despite bringing the Big Green's highly ranked penalty kill record, they failed to stop Yale on the power play in both the second and third periods, conceding two goals that proved to be decisive in the tightly fought game.

"Their first power play goal was a nice one, a good shot," Keenan said. "The second one was kind of a fluke goal, but they capitalized."

The split decisions highlighted the difficulty of playing on the road in such a competitive league. The Big Green have lost five games on the road this season, compared to only one loss in the friendly confines of Thompson Arena. Highlighting the parity of league play, four of the Big Green's six losses have been by only one goal.

"Maybe it says a lot about our home stadium, the atmosphere here," Robinson said.

Moving forward, the Big Green hosts ECAC opponents St. Lawrence University and Clarkson University at home this weekend, the only two teams remaining in the conference who the Big Green have yet to face on the ice.

"We'll keep playing the way we have been, hopefully get some guys healthy and just play our game," Keenan said.

As the Big Green traveled on the road this weekend, the National Hockey League also returned to the ice after a four-month lockout. The student athletes welcomed this development, for they had missed watching favorite players and teams.

"It's kind of surreal watching it," Robinson said.