RPI - Dartmouth College
Saturday, March 11,2000
Houston Field House, Troy, NY
 
officials: Drew Taylor-Brian Bouyea-Kevin Sullivan
 
period -1-
P   0:18 RPI Gardiner (unsportsmanlike conduct)
P   0:18 DC  Hontvet (unsportsmanlike conduct)
P  10:02 RPI Graham(unsportsmanlike conduct)
P  10:02 DC  Burkart (unsportsmanlike conduct)
P  15:24 DC  Nardella (slashing)
P  19:40 RPI Caley (elbowing)
 
period -2-
P   3:01 RPI Butterwick (roughing)
P   3:01 RPI M. Cavosie (roughing)
P   3:01 DC  Casella (roughing)
P   3:01 DC  Burkart (roughing)
P  11:08 DC  Taliercio (elbowing)
P  12:32 DC  Martin (cross-checking)
G  13:07 RPI (1-0) Tapper(Murley,Pothier) 5x3ppg
P  14:25 RPI Pothier (holding)
P  17:34 RPI Vickers (tripping)
 
period -3-
P   5:45 DC  Taliercio (hooking)
P   7:28 RPI M. Cavosie (roughing)
P   7:28 DC  Summerfelt (roughing)
G   8:49 DC  (1-1)  Lund(Murray,Gillings)
G  10:33 DC  (1-2) Summerfelt(Nardella,Taliercio)
P  12:07 DC  Nardella (roughing)
P  12:07 RPI M. Cavosie (roughing)
P  17:14 RPI Butterwick (tripping)
   19:09 timeout RPI
   19:25  Laing comes out of RPI net
G  19:54 RPI (2-2) Gardiner(Murley,Henkel) 6x5
 
OT
G  10:37 RPI (3-2)  Butterwick(Murley,Henkel)
 
saves           1     2     3      ot      t
RPI(Laing)      8     18    10     1       37
DC(Boucher)     11    6     8      6       31
 
 
Tonight was playoff hockey at its best.  After being totally dominated by the Engineers on Friday night, the Big Green of Dartmouth College came out fired up, determined to prove that they deserve to be in the playoffs. Fortunately, RPI did not rest on their laurels from the previous night and also came out looking for the win.
 
The game was very physical (but clean) with both teams skating hard and sending forecheckers in deep. Both teams' defensive pairings were excellent, not leaving rebounds out in front and seeing to it that any forward who hung around the crease, paid dearly.
 
Both teams flew in the first period with neither team getting the advantage, yet both teams playing extremely well. The first period ended 0-0.
 
In the 2nd, RPI went on a power play when Dartmouth's Chris Taliercio was sent off at 11:08 for elbowing.  RPI swarmed in front of goalie Nick Boucher and Big Green defenseman PJ Martin got a litle carried away trying to clear Pete Gardiner out front and was sent off for cross-checking putting the Engineers up 5 on 3. The Engineers poured it on until Pothier pushed the puck to Matt Murley in his favorite spot behind the net. Murley turned and whirled and got the puck out front to Brad Tapper who poked the puck home for a 1-0 Engineer lead. The 2nd period ended 1-0.
 
In the third, RPI went into an aggressive defensive shell. RPI was winning the faceoffs and winning the battle along the boards behind both nets.   But they weren't generating offense. Their period game plan was obvious: Sit on the lead and the series is over. Dartmouth never let down and started rush after rush keeping the RPI defense and Joel Laing under pressure all period. Finally, Dartmouth got their break when Craig Lund got loose and put a hard shot low into Laing's pads. Laing thought he had stopped it, but it trickled out from under him and slid
ever so slowly over the goal line to tie the game. The stunned Engineers then needed to change their game plan to get back into offensive mode. They clearly did not want to play Sunday night. But Dartmouth, sky high from tying the game, came back a minute and a half later to take a 2-1 lead when Pete Summerfelt picked up a rebound out near the face-off circle to Laing's left and fired a soft shot from a very steep angle that Laing apparently never saw. The puck floated over Laing's blocker and suddenly the Big Green was up 2-1 and playing with a lot of confidence.  RPI's defense got their act together and shut down Dartmouth the rest of the third period but the RPI offense just couldn't seem to get any sustained offensive pressure going. Finally, with under 4 minutes left,  RPI's offense started to click. Just when
they seemed to be taking the momentum away from the Big Green, RPI's Carson Butterwick was called for tripping with just 2:46 left in the third. RPI effectively killed off the penalty as Dartmouth wasn't really interested in scoring, just running the clock. RPI did get some offensive pressure going when Pete Gardiner and a trailing forward broke in 2 on 1 on Nick Boucher,
but Gardiner chose to shoot and missed the net high sending the puck into the stands and moving the faceoff out of the zone.  When the penalty expired with 46 seconds left, the puck was deep in the RPI end. It took another 10-15 seconds for RPI to break out of their zone and for Laing to head for the bench with about 30 seconds left.  With under 15 seconds left, Jim Henkel dug the puck out of the corner, flipped it to Murley behind the net
who slid the puck over into the corner to Pete Gardiner who started skating towards Boucher with a defenseman hanging all over him. Boucher made the save but the defenseman left Gardiner to move toward the slot to clear the puck. Gardiner, meanwhile, continued skating toward the slot and picked up his own rebound and pushed it through a scrum in front of Boucher to tie the score with 6.4 seconds left on the clock.
 
The overtime was a continuation of the third period. It was end to end action with both teams skating hard and hitting hard. Dartmouth had to win and RPI did not want to go to a third game. Finally, with 10:37 left in OT, Jim Henkel, once again, dug the puck out of the corner to Boucher's left and poked it to Murley in his usual position behind the net.  Murley backhanded
a pass into the slot where Carson Butterwick somehow got his stick down and pushed the puck under Nick Boucher and at least 3 Dartmouth players to win the game and send the Engineers to Lake Placid.
 
Hats off to a fine young Dartmouth team. After being utterly humiliated on Friday night, they shook it off and came back to play an outstanding game on Saturday. Both teams played extremely well and it was an example of a game where it was a shame someone had to lose.
 
All five home teams win their preliminary series in 2 games as the final five in Lake Placid is set with all five teams being from New York State.
On Thursday night, Clarkson opens against Cornell in the play-down game. On Friday, #3 RPI goes against #2 Colgate while #1 St. Lawrence goes against the winner of the Clarkson/Cornell contest.
 
This was an excellent end to RPI's home season. This will be my last recap for the year. Next Friday night while RPI is playing Colgate, I'll be listening on WRPI while packing for a trip to sunny Florida.  I'm bringing my laptop but don't expect to reach the shore until late Saturday afternoon. Hopefully, RPI will be playing Saturday night in the finals so I can sit out on the
deck, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico with a margarita in one hand and listening to RPI in the evening game Saturday over the internet.
 
Good luck to all the teams in the ECAC except when you're
playing my team...    ;-)
 
Mark Lewin
class of '69
 
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