Colin Hemingway’s name appears six times in the Dartmouth-UNH line score. If you’re a UNH fan, you know that’s a good thing.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats had hot sticks Thursday night as they cruised past Nick Boucher and the Big Green, 6-3, to claim Granite State bragging rights before a record crowd of 10,053 at brand-new Verizon Wireless Arena.<\/p>\n
Hemingway had a hand in all six Wildcat goals, scoring two to go along with four assists as he put together the best game of his career in front of the largely UNH-partisan crowd.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats’ win was their eighth in nine games as they improved to 11-3-2 overall (5-2-2 Hockey East).<\/p>\n
“Anytime you get six points and a ‘W,’ you’re definitely going to be happy,” Hemingway said after the game. “I worked for each and every one of those points. I was skating hard. I guess it was just one of those nights.”<\/p>\n
Hemingway’s previous single-game career high was four points, coming against Providence less than a month ago.<\/p>\n
Against Dartmouth (4-4-1, 3-2-1 ECAC), Hemingway scored the Wildcats’ most important goal of the night, a wrister through traffic from the right circle that knotted the game at two late in the first period after the Big Green had rallied for a couple of quick goals moments earlier.<\/p>\n
After the intermission, Hemingway was on hand as the Wildcats broke free for four goals in the second stanza, making it look easy at times against a struggling Boucher.<\/p>\n
“When you’re playing with great players, great things can happen,” Hemingway said. “A big night like this is a credit to those guys, like Josh Prudden and Darren Haydar.”<\/p>\n
In the Big Green net, “Big Game Bouche” became “Benched Bouche.”<\/p>\n
Boucher’s recurring problems are of a curious nature because of his strong reputation in the ECAC and in college hockey in general. He was expected to have a good season after winning big games for Dartmouth in its run to the ECAC semifinals last March.<\/p>\n
But he has not been himself since Day One. Even in Dartmouth’s 4-1-1 start, many among the Big Green felt that Boucher was not up to his absolute best and quietly waited for him to display the All-Star form that they had come to expect.<\/p>\n
In the past few weeks, Boucher’s problems have been exposed as the Big Green has fallen on hard times, dropping its third game in a row in Thursday night’s loss.<\/p>\n
Boucher allowed six goals on 27 UNH shots.<\/p>\n
“I think, at times, we have to give [Boucher] some support out there too,” said Gaudet, who announced after the game that sophomore Darren Gastrock will start between the pipes in Saturday night’s game against Merrimack. “Nick is a heck of a good goaltender. He’s had a great career. It’s a team game and I think we need to play better defensively at times.”<\/p>\n
Playing in front of the largest crowd ever to witness an indoor collegiate sporting event in state history — the old record was 7,272 at a UNH men’s basketball game — Josh Prudden opened the scoring at the 10:20 mark when he collected a blocked shot and poked it past Boucher’s left glove. Prudden had a big game of his own, finishing with two goals.<\/p>\n
The Big Green claimed a brief lead after Prudden’s goal, as Mike Murray collected a pass from Mike Maturo with his back turned to the net and spun around before beating Matt Carney (34 saves) with his second goal of the year.<\/p>\n
Maturo, a Manchester native, scored off a faceoff on a power play less than two minutes later to complete a two-point night.<\/p>\n
“When I looked at the schedule and saw we were playing here, it put a smile on my face,” said Maturo, who received a 10-minute misconduct late in the second period, a rarity for him. “It would have been sweeter if we had won.”<\/p>\n
After that, it was all Hemingway and all UNH.<\/p>\n
Hemingway’s goal knotted the score at two heading into the intermission, and then the Wildcats victimized Boucher in the second 20.<\/p>\n
They lit the lamp twice in the opening 1:38 of the middle frame, as freshman Sean Collins and Hemingway scored. Collins’ goal was his 13th.<\/p>\n
The Big Green crept to within one once again when Lee Stempniak scored at the 2:20 mark, but UNH added a couple more in the next 10 minutes to claim a commanding 6-3 advantage.<\/p>\n
In addition to Hemingway and Prudden, scoring leader Darren Haydar and junior Lanny Gare also had multiple-point nights for the Wildcats. Haydar had a goal and an assist, while Gare tallied a couple of helpers for UNH, which is unbeaten in 11 of its last 13 games.<\/p>\n
“I think the team is playing well,” Wildcats coach Dick Umile said. “We didn’t have a great weekend last weekend against Clarkson and St. Lawrence, but I thought we beat a good team tonight. We’re very pleased with the win, heading into exams.”<\/p>\n
Although the game took on a more defensive tone after Boucher’s exit, Yacey played well in his collegiate debut. An athletic netminder, Yacey (21 saves) made a number of nice saves in his 25:29, including a sparkling glove stop on a Steve Saviano blast from the circle late in the game.<\/p>\n
On the other end, Tim Collins made his career debut in the UNH net, playing the last 2:48 and stopping the one shot he faced.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats now have two weeks off for exams and will next play Colorado College at the Badger Classic on Thursday, Dec. 27.<\/p>\n
Dartmouth, meantime, looks to get back into the win column when it hosts Merrimack Saturday night at Thompson Arena. That will be the team’s last home game until Jan. 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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