Princeton Ekes By Dartmouth in OT

Sudden death certainly lived up to its name at Hobey Baker Memorial Rink on Friday evening, as Cam MacIntyre went end-to-end and scored just 37 seconds into overtime to give No. 19 Princeton a 2-1 victory over visiting Dartmouth.

“It was a good win,” said Princeton coach Guy Gadowsky. “They were a scrappy team, and there was good goaltending at both ends and a highlight-reel goal to end it.”

Alan Reynolds made 23 saves for Princeton in both his second straight start and victory for the Tigers, who outshot the Big Green by a 41-24 margin. Jody O’Neill made 39 stops for Dartmouth, which stymied all three Princeton power-play opportunities.

“It was a good game on both sides,” said Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet. “We battled, and so did they.”

The Tigers’ first line got things going late in the first period. All three forwards went to the net, and the puck pinballed around a tangled slot before Mike Kramer put it home at 16:50 for his second score of the season, with assists going to Mark Magnowski and Matt Arhontas.

The Big Green would later tie the game on Scott Fleming’s first goal of the campaign, on Dartmouth’s second power play of the evening, late in the second stanza. Standing at the inner edge of the left circle in the Princeton zone, Fleming took a pass from Kyle Reed from the left boards, and then wristed a shot inside the near post with 42 seconds left before intermission.

“I thought we did a real nice job on the penalty kill, and it was nice to score a power-play goal,” said Gaudet. “It was a real positive for our team.”

Princeton thought it had taken back the lead on a Kevin Kaiser shot less than two minutes into the third period, but the goal was immediately waved off because of what was ruled to be a hand pass.

The teams then battled scoreless through the rest of regulation, exchanging a pair of power plays and trading chances at both ends as the Tigers outshot the Big Green by a 15-9 count.

The end came quickly in the extra session. Reynolds stopped Connor Goggin’s shot from the left circle, and the puck bounded into the slot where it was cleared by Princeton defenseman Jody Pederson to MacIntyre on the right side. MacIntyre skated it out and weaved towards his left in the neutral zone, and then tried to go outside of a defender on the left boards at the Dartmouth blue line.

He then skated deep into the left circle before he pulled up and fired the puck past O’Neill low, to give Princeton its second win in two overtime games this fall.

“I saw his shot,” said Reynolds of MacIntyre’s game-winner. “He got it off well, and he has a great shot, so I’m not surprised.”

“There was a little scrum and Jody got the puck out to me, and I had a lot of space,” said MacIntyre, who had five shots on goal and also hit the post on a second-period attempt. “I turned on the d-man and got low and wanted to get a shot off. I lost my angle, so I stopped quickly and shot.”

“It was a heck of a shot,” commented Gadowsky on MacIntyre’s first goal this season.

“It was a tough goal at the end, but that’s the way the game goes,” said Gaudet.

Princeton (3-2-0 overall, 2-1-0 in the ECAC) now closes out its season opening eight contest homestand on Saturday afternoon against Harvard, while Dartmouth (0-4-0, 0-4-0) will end its four-game road trip that night at Quinnipiac.