HANOVER, N.H. – Backed by two goals by junior Josh Nixon and 25 saves from sophomore Kyle Chauvette, the Union College men's hockey team opened the 2024 road portion of the schedule with a 5-1 win over Dartmouth College on Friday night at Thompson Arena.

Thirteen of Union's skaters found the scoresheet in the victory. Nixon and senior Ben Tupker each recorded multi-point games as Tupker tallied a goal and an assist. Senior Liam Robertson tallied his third goal of the season and first-year Joseph Messina registered his first collegiate goal.

Robertson led all skaters in the faceoff circle with 12 wins and only two losses. Senior Ville Immonen also had another strong day at the dot with eight wins and two losses.
The penalty kill went 4-for-4 in the win tonight.

Union jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first 9:01 of the game. Sophomore Brandon Buhr sent a cross-ice pass to Tupker in the left circle. The senior fired a wrister that beat Dartmouth netminder Roan Clarke for the score. Robertson scored 1:34 later off a cross-ice pass from sophomore Colby MacArthur. Cooper Flinton made it a one-goal game at 11:52 of the first period.

After a relatively back and forth middle stanza, Union found the back of the net with only 18.2 seconds to play in the period. Sophomore Cal Mell sent a quick pass from the right circle to Nixon at the bottom of the left circle and the junior went bar down.

Union started the third period in a similar fashion to the way they ended the second. Junior Cullen Ferguson sent a pass to Messina at the point. The first-year fired a shot that was blocked, but he collected his own rebound and fired a shot through traffic for his first collegiate goal. Dartmouth pulled Clarke with over four minutes to play in favor of the extra attacker. Nixon scored an empty netter for his second goal of the night.

Union goes for the weekend sweep tomorrow at Harvard University. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Bright-Landry Hockey Center.