HANOVER, N.H. - Dustin Walsh scored a pair of goals in the second period and 10th-ranked Dartmouth held off visiting Vermont for a 4-2 win on Wednesday night at Thompson Arena in the 75th all-time meeting between the former ECAC rivals.
Freshman defenseman Yvan Pattyn netted both goals for Vermont to pick up his first career multi-goal game. The Catamounts fall to 3-8-3 (3-5-3 HEA) with the loss, while the Big Green improves to 7-2-2 (4-1-1 ECAC).
"I thought we actually played a really good hockey game tonight. 5-on-5, we really put the pressure on Dartmouth," said head coach Kevin Sneddon. "Dartmouth is an excellent team. The difference was they capitalized on their chances and we couldn't the offense."
"I was really pleased with our cycling. I was really pleased with our offensive zone possession time," Sneddon added. "I thought we outplayed them at times and the difference was their top line finished their opportunities tonight."
Just two and a half minutes into the first period, Dartmouth opened the scoring to take the lead. Mike Keenan took a feed from Jack Barre at the left point and whipped a shot toward goal. The puck deflected off a Vermont defenseman and bounced past Brody Hoffman as the Big Green went on top.
The Catamounts answered at the 11:49 mark as Ben Albertson raced down the left wing off a pass from Anders Franzon. Albertson took a slap shot that was kicked out by the left pad of Charles Grant, but Pattyn pounced on the rebound and stuck it home to knot the score at one.
Vermont took a 10-5 shot advantage to the first intermission, but Dartmouth restored the lead just 29 seconds into the middle frame. Off a feed from Tyler Sikura, Dustin Walsh deked into the slot and beat Hoffman blocker side with a quick wrist shot for his third goal of the year.
Robert Polesello had a chance to equalize shortly after but had a tight shot blocked aside by Grant. At 16:05 of the second, Walsh tallied again to push the Big Green lead to two with a delayed penalty coming on UVM. Eric Robinson threw a pass to Walsh between the circles, and the senior slid a low backhander inside the right post.
Dartmouth added to the lead less than four minutes into the third period to push the score to 4-1. Tyler Sikura scored on a wrist shot off a 2-on-1 with Matt Lindblad as Hoffman couldn't get across his crease in time.
The Catamounts fought back later in the frame as Pattyn tallied his second goal of the night. Mike Montagna skated down the left wing boards and sent a backhand saucer pass into the low slot. Pattyn pinched down and was denied on his initial chance, but buried the second opportunity under Grant's right pad.
UVM pulled Hoffman with under two minutes to play and had several chances to get within one, but Grant (30 saves) kept the Catamounts off the board. Hoffman finished the night with 13 saves in a losing effort as the teams went a combined 0-7 on the power play.
Vermont now has 10 days off before traveling to Canton, N.Y. to face another former ECAC rival St. Lawrence on Saturday, Dec. 15 at 7 p.m. All the action can be heard live on WVMT 620-AM and online at SportsJuice.com as Alastair Ingram calls the play-by-play from Appleton Arena.
NOTES: Vermont and Dartmouth have met every year since 1977 ... The two schools were travel partners in the ECAC before UVM joined Hockey East prior to the 2005-06 season ... Each of the last 11 meetings in the series have been decided by two goals or less ... The Catamounts had won four straight meetings before Wednesday ... Tobias Nilsson-Roos skated in his 99th career game, while Brett Bruneteau played in his 75th contest ... Yvan Pattyn has scored three goals in his last three games ... Ben Albertson and Mike Montagna picked up their first points of the season with assists.