Dutchmen breeze past Dartmouth

by Ryan Fay

The Union men's hockey team skated away a 7-2 win at Dartmouth in the ECAC opener for both teams on Friday night at Thompson Arena.

A few highlights:

Stevens (Union)

The win snapped Union's three game winless streak (0-2-1) which dated back to a 6-5 overtime loss versus Lake Superior State on Oct. 18.

Union saw a couple key players return to action on Friday. Junior goaltender and Niskayuna native Colin Stevens (upper-body) made his first start since the Oct. 11 season-opener against Bowling Green, turning aside 15-of-17 shots... junior forward Max Novak (lower-body) made his season debut, chipping in a third period goal.

Senior forward Daniel Carr recorded a second period goal, the 59th of his Union career. It tied him with Mario Valery-Trabucco for the program's Division I-era career goals record. Carr also added an assist on Friday.

Junior defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere collected three helpers, joining junior forward Mark Bennett (two assists) and senior forward Kevin Sullivan (two assists) as Union players with multiple assists on the night. Sullivan's two assists brought him up to a Division I-best 11 on the year.

Freshman defenseman Jeff Taylor, a Clifton Park native, notched his first collegiate goal with a marker in the second period.

Junior forward Sam Coatta scored two goals, marking his first multi-goal game in a Dutchmen uniform. He opened the scoring at 11:56 of the first period, and added a second just under two minutes into the second period.

With a goal and an assist, freshman forward Michael Vecchione enjoyed his second multi-point game for Union. Vecchione has 5 points (3 goals, 2 assists) in his first six collegiate contests.

The win gave third-year Dutchmen bench boss Rick Bennett his 50th as Union head coach. Bennett holds a 50-23-14 mark at Union.

Union uncharacteristically went 0-for-6 on the power play, and allowed Dartmouth (0-1-0 ECAC, 0-3-0 overall) to go 2-for-5 on theirs. But the game was already out of hand when Dartmouth picked up two third period power play goals (Andy Simpson, Eric Neiley).

Union (1-0-0, 2-2-2) returns to action with a visit to Harvard, set for 7 p.m Saturday. Harvard (1-0-1, 2-0-1) blanked #10 RPI, 2-0, on Friday.

Box Score

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