College hockey: UNH gets back on track; big weekend ahead

Jan. 28—In a game the UNH men's hockey team desperately needed, the Wildcats roared out to a three-goal first-period lead on the way to a 6-3 victory over Vermont at Gutterson Fieldhouse on Saturday night.

UNH, which had lost three of its last four, including Friday night's series opener in Burlington, improved to 13-8-1 overall and 6-5-1 in Hockey East. The Wildcats are tied with UMass for sixth place in the league, both with 19 points in 12 league games played.

Vermont dropped to 11-12-1 and 5-8-1 (eighth) in the league.

UNH outshot Vermont in Friday night's 2-1 loss and the trend continued into Saturday as the Wildcats pumped 37 shots on goalie Gabe Carriere. Six different players scored, including three in a six-minute span in the first period: Ryan Conmy (power play), Harrison Blaisdell (shorthanded) and J.P. Turner.

Vermont's Jens Richard scored to make it 3-1, but UNH's Liam Devlin found the net with 35 seconds remaining in the period and UNH led 4-1 after one.

Colton Huard and Marty Lavins scored UNH's final two goals. The Lavins goal was an empty-netter in the final minute, after UVM's Richard had cut the deficit to 5-3 with a shorthanded goal with 3:31 to play.

UNH sophomore goalie Tyler Muszelik, seeing his first action since a Dec. 29 loss at Army, made 28 stops for the victory.

The Wildcats, ranked No. 16 in the nation in last week's poll, now turn their attention to a weekend at the Whittemore Center against Boston University (Friday) and Merrimack (Saturday). The Terriers, who entered last week ranked No. 1 in the country, were swept over the weekend by No. 2 Boston College. BU visits Northeastern on Tuesday night before its Durham stop.

Dartmouth ties Big Red, wins shootout

It wasn't a win, but Dartmouth will take its 2-2 tie and shootout victory over No. 13 Cornell on Saturday at Thompson Arena.

Sean Chisholm and Braiden Dorfman beat goalie Ian Shane on the Big Green's two shootout attempts. On Cornell's two attempts, Dalton Bancroft hit the post, then Gabriel Seger shot wide of Dartmouth goalie Cooper Black, giving the hosts the extra point in the ECAC standings.

Dartmouth is 5-8-7 overall — the most ties of any team in the country — and 3-5-5 in the conference.

All four of the game's regulation goals came in the second period. CJ Foley and Chisholm scored for Dartmouth, offset by Cornell goals by Ryan Walsh and Ben Robertson.

Shane made 28 saves to Black's 20.

Dartmouth visits Princeton and Quinnipiac next weekend.