Novak sends Dutchmen to Lake Placid (with 5 videos)

Box Score

by Ryan Fay

Union is headed to Lake Placid.

Max Novak broke a 2-2 tie midway through the third period to lift the top-seeded Dutchmen to an eventual 4-2 win and an ECAC Hockey quarterfinals series sweep of 10th-seeded Dartmouth Saturday at Messa Rink.

The win advances third-ranked Union (26-6-4) to the ECACH final four next weekend at Lake Placid's Herb Brooks Arena. The Dutchmen, who own a nation-best 11-game unbeaten streak, will face either Clarkson or Cornell in a semifinal game Friday at 4 p.m. Those two teams play a decisive game three tonight at Lynah Rink.

It will be Union's fourth trip to the league final four in the last five seasons.

“It never gets old,” said Dutchmen senior defenseman Mat Bodie. “This was a goal we set up for ourselves. Step one is complete.”

The Dutchmen made the game interesting by showing an uncharacteristic lack of discipline. Union gave Dartmouth seven power play opportunities, all in the first two periods. The Dutchmen hadn't given an opponent that many power plays since giving Lake Superior State eight in a 6-5 loss on Oct. 18.

“They were calling penalties," said Bodie. "I’ll just leave it at that."

The first two power plays given to Dartmouth (10-20-4) came back to bite the Dutchmen. After Union forward Mike Vecchione opened the scoring at 4:34 of the first period, Dartmouth made two quick strikes on power plays to take a 2-1 lead. 

A Noah Henry holding penalty led to a Brandon McNally tally at 11:38 that snapped Union goaltender Colin Stevens' shutout streak at 140:45. Tim O'Brien followed at 13:01, seven seconds into a hooking penalty on Shayne Gostisbehere.

Union's penalty kill tightened up the rest of the way, killing Dartmouth's final five power plays.

“Our penalty kill did a great job tonight after the first two penalty kills,” said Daniel Carr. “Those two were just part of the learning curve. We’re going to learn from those and move forward. After that, we did a great job. [Assistant] coach [Joe] Dumais coming in after the first period and making a few adjustments [helped].

Dartmouth held the lead until 18:45 of the second, when Carr tied the score at 2-2 after jamming home a loose puck. It was the senior's third goal of the series and gave him his third 20 goal season.

"Big time players come up in the playoffs," said Union head coach Rick Bennett. "Dan Carr, I thought he was the best player we had this weekend."

Novak capitalized on a rebound to break the tie at 9:09 of the third. Dartmouth goalie Charles Grant made a save on a right-point shot from Jeff Taylor, but the rebound found Novak at the side of the net and he lifted a backhander past Grant.

“After Jeff's shot, the puck just came right to me,” said Novak, who was playing in his 100th career game. “I had a second, so I just tried to throw it at the far post. Luckily, it went chicken wing on him and found the back of the net.”

Daniel Ciampini's empty-net goal at 19:08 secured the series sweep and put Union two wins away from capturing its third consecutive Whitelaw Cup, something no ECACH team has accomplished since Boston University in the mid-1970's.

“Like we talked about [Friday night], the hardest thing to do is close out a team,” said Carr. “They played great tonight, hats off to them. We got a few good bounces there. Max scored a huge goal for us. … It was a fun series to play in.”

VIDEOS

Max Novak's series-winning goal



Daniel Carr's game-tying goal

Union players (Max Novak, Mat Bodie, Daniel Carr) press conference



Union head coach Rick Bennett press conference



Dartmouth head coach Bob Gaudet press conference

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