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HANOVER, N.H. – Senior Brock Higgs recorded a hat-trick to lead the 10th-ranked Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's hockey team to a 7-1 victory over Dartmouth College, this evening in ECAC Hockey play from Thompson Arena. With the win, the Engineers improve to 5-2-1 overall (1-1-1 ECAC Hockey), while the Big Green drop to 0-4-0 (0-2-0 ECAC Hockey).

Junior Ryan Haggerty (Stamford, CT/U.S. National Development Team) opened the scoring at 6:57 of the first period when he took a cross-ice feed from classmate Zach Schroeder (Prior Lake, MN/Saint Thomas Academy) and ripped a shot into the top right corner of the net, for his nation-leading 10th of the season.

Rensselaer made it 2-0 just 13 seconds later, when Higgs (Kingston, ON/Kingston Voyageurs) took a shot from the left circle that found its way through the legs of Dartmouth senior goaltender Cab Morris (Wilemette, IL/Indiana Ice). Fellow senior Johnny Rogic (North Vancouver, BC/Alberni Valley Bulldogs) earned the lone helper.

Higgs tapped in a power-play goal at 16:23 of the frame, after a shot from Haggerty was partially stopped by Morris, to push the RPI lead to 3-0. The puck trickled towards the goal line before Higgs forced it across.

RPI scored just 1:32 in the second period, as junior Matt Neal (Minesing, ON/Stouffville Spirit) redirected home a shot from the left point by senior Bo Dolan (St. Paul, MN/Penticton Vees).  Higgs then buried his third of the game – and sixth of the season – at 14:07 of the second to give the hosts a 5-0 advantage.

The Engineers added two more goals in the third, as juniors Jacob Laliberte (Rockland, ON/Cornwall Colts) and Luke Curadi (Cheshire, CT/Dubuque Fighting Saints) found the back of the net. Laliberte finished off a feed from Schroeder at 5:26, before Curadi blasted home his first collegiate goal at 17:15.

Junior Scott Diebold (Buffalo, NY/Tri-City Storm) stopped 31 of the 32 shots he faced, including all 14 that came his way in the first period. Morris made 16 saves at the other end of the ice.

The Engineers are back in action next weekend, when they host Cornell and Colgate at the Houston Field House. Puck-drop is set for 7pm on both Friday and Saturday nights.