Game #12 - Dartmouth 9, Southern New Hampshire 8, F/OT

Box Score HERE

Hooksett, NH - The Big Green started out the second half of their season winning an absolute thriller of a game with an incredible 17 combined goals. Although the first two periods back on the ice were defensively shaky for the team, an all-time team high 6 goals in the third period and overtime drove the Big Green to its first divisional win. 

The first period was a lot of back-and-forth for both teams, as neither had played a game in well over a month. Emerson Mahoney broke the scoring open 4 minutes in on a pass from Jack Mascali that was redirected past the SNHU goalie. The Pennmen answered back with two straight goals to take a 2-1 lead halfway though the first frame. Dartmouth freshman Joe Signorelli took control and scored two straight goals to give Dartmouth the lead back, including one beautiful short-handed goal sniped past the SNHU goalie. The tide turned again, however, when SNHU scored two more, ending the first period with a 4-3 game in favor of SNHU. 

The second period was dominated by the Pennmen of SNHU, who scored three straight goals to take a convincing 7-3 lead. The young Big Green team had been in this spot several times before this season though, and was prepared to continue to battle back. Late in the frame, John Schlauchtenhaufen received a pass from Matt Armstrong and riffled a shot that pinballed off 2 SNHU players and trickled into the net to close the score down to 7-4 after two periods. 

The Big Green came out flying in the third. After a long battle in the corner, Chris McCorkle moved the puck up to Tyler Baum who bombed a shot past the SNHU goalie to cut the lead to 7-6. On the same shift, McCorkle again found Armstrong crashing hard to the net for a tip-in goal to tie the game up. Only a few minutes later, Joe Signorelli tipped in a shot from the point from Forstner to complete his first career hat-trick. With a minute left in the third, Ty Teodori took a tripping penalty playing tight defense on an odd-man rush. On the do-or-die penalty kill that ensued, Dartmouth's killers did a great job blocking shots and fighting to save the lead. With five seconds left,Tyler Baum was called for intentionally knocking the net off, setting up a storybook penalty shot with seconds left. Oscar Flory, who had 19 saves in 28 minutes of play in his debut for the Big Green, was facing off against SNHU captain who had 5 points in the match, including his shootout goal to tie the game 8-8, forcing overtime. 

The remainder of the penalty transferred to OT, and the same group of killers did an amazing job finishing it off and moving the play to 4-4, where Jack Mascali was able to find Emerson Mahoney who connected five-hole for the game winner. 

Joe Signorelli, who won player of the game awards, had this to say in the post-game interview: "[It was] great resilience and effort from the team to get a big win to roll into the Ivy League tournament with." Similarly, Emerson Mahoney had positive thoughts on the big comeback win. “It was a great team effort, and in the third period we played the best we ever have as a team. We have a lot of talented guys, and I think when we all work together, like we did in the third, we are not a team you want to be playing against.” 

The Big Green take back to the ice on Tuesday for a week of practice going into the all-important Ivy League Tournament, the annual determiner of the the Ivy League Champion. Check back in next week for recaps of those games. 

-James Earl Bones, junior editor for Dartmouth Men’s Club Hockey

Follow the team on twitter @DartClubHockey for in-game updates and additional media.