BURLINGTON, Vt. - Dartmouth senior J.T. Wyman scored two goals and had an assist to lift the Big Green to a 4-2 win over Vermont in front of the 60th straight sellout of 4,003 at Gutterson Fieldhouse on Sunday afternoon. Sophomores Brayden Irwin (Toronto, Ontario) and Jay Anctil (Wolfeboro, N.H.) each scored goals in the loss that put the Catamounts at 0-3-1 (0-0-1 Hockey East) on the season. The victory came in the season opener for Dartmouth (1-0-0).
Big Green senior goalie Mike Devine made 31 saves to earn his 37th career victory. Freshman defenseman Evan Stephens scored an even strength goal and junior Rob Pritchard added a power-play goal.
Sophomore Mike Spillane (Bow, N.H.) turned away 27 shots in his first start of the season for the Catamounts.
Vermont led the game 1-0 after the first period and outshot Dartmouth 17-8 in the first 20 minutes. But the Big Green responded with four unanswered goals in the next 38 minutes to pick up the victory.
"It was a frustrating game because I thought we played our best period of hockey to date in the first period," Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon said. "We had great energy and unfortunately the momentum swung towards Dartmouth and they did a great job of sustaining it the rest of the game."
Irwin gave the Catamounts a 1-0 lead with just 2:02 left in the first period. Working from the right circle, sophomore Colin Vock (Plymouth, Mich.) fed Irwin in the slot and he buried the shot for his first goal of the season. Junior assistant captain Corey Carlson (Two Harbors, Minn.) also assisted on the eighth goal of Irwin's career.
Dartmouth took a 2-1 lead and seemed to sway the momentum in its favor, with two goals just 25 seconds apart early in the second period.
First Stephens deflected a shot from the point that beat Spillane top-shelf at 3:19 to make it 1-1. Then Wyman hammered home a rebound in front off a shot by sophomore defenseman Harrison Taylor to make the score 2-1 in favor of the Big Green at 3:44.
With two minutes remaining in the second Vock had a chance to tie the game for the Catamounts on a shorthanded bid. He skated in alone on Devine who made the save to preserve the lead.
Overall the Big Green outshot the Catamounts 14-4 in the second period.
Dartmouth opened up a 3-1 advantage at 9:33 of the final period on a power-play goal by Pritchard. The junior fired a wrist shot from inside the right circle past Spillane for the 16th goal of his career.
Then Wyman struck again at 14:20 of the third period for his second goal of the game to give Dartmouth a 4-1 lead.
Anctil pulled Vermont within 4-2 on his second goal of the year with 1:58 left but the Catamounts would get no closer. Freshman Chris Atkinson (Sparta, N.J.) and senior Reese Wisnowski (East Middlebury, Vt.) both assisted on the play.
The Catamounts outshot the Big Green 33-31. Vermont went 0-for-6 on the power play while Dartmouth went 1-for-6.
Vermont is off next weekend and returns to action on Friday, Nov. 9 at Northeastern in a 7pm start at Matthews Arena.
NOTES: Vermont is 43-22-5 in the all-time series against Dartmouth ... Last season only 11 times in 39 games did Vermont allow more than two goals in a game ... So far this season the Catamounts have allowed more than two goals in three of the first four contests ... Freshman Kyle Medvec finished the game with a plus-two rating for the Catamounts ... Colin Vock finished with a team-high five shots for UVM.