This story originally ran in The Standard-Times on Dec. 31, 2002.

By Nick Tavares
Standard-Times correspondent

NEW BEDFORD -- Powered by Pat Galligan's natural hat-trick, Dartmouth's hockey team came back to life in the third period yesterday in a 5-3 win over New Bedford.

"I'm very excited," said Dartmouth head coach Mike Cappello. "It's a nice way to end (2002) on a high note. And against New Bedford, who's a very quick and talented team, so it's a big win for our program."

The Indians (2-2-2) also got a big lift from goalie Luke Velho, who had yet another solid game in net, stopping 26-29 shots and keeping Dartmouth in the game early.

"Once again, it's been the Luke Velho show for us," said Cappello. "He had a fantastic game today, and he just comes up big when he has to."

New Bedford controlled the game through the first two periods, taking a 2-0 lead halfway through the second period, with goals scored by Nick Medeiros and Derrick Vertentes.

Collin Carmo got Dartmouth on the board with 1:14 left in the second when he put in a rebound from Nick Silva to make the score 2-1 going into the third.

Galligan's first goal came with 10:09 left to play when he put in a shot off of goalie Ryan Santos' pads.

The game remained tied at 2-2 until 2:28 left when Galligan took a pass from defenseman Jeff Dumas and poked it in the left side of the goal, giving Dartmouth a lead it wouldn't surrender.

Galligan came up big again less than a minute later, zipping down the ice alone and putting in a backhand for his third goal.

New Bedford wouldn't go down easily, however, as Ryan Raymond poked in a goal 23 seconds later to bring the Whalers within one.

Silva sealed the game for Dartmouth with 40.2 seconds remaining, racing down to put in an empty-net goal with an assist coming from Galligan.

"Our top line, which has been there for us all year long, came through with Galligan and Carmo" said Cappello. "We had guys rotating through (as well). Brian Pimental was one, and we got a nice effort from our second line with Bret Noyes and Nick Silv,a and a tremendous effort from our four defensemen, especially Matt Pimental and Jeff Dumas, who's a converted wing playing defense.

"It was definitely a team win and a team effort today."

Coach Cappello still sees room for improvement in his squad, however, despite the big win.

"We continue to struggle in the second period. That's my one big concern leaving this game. Our play in the second period has to get better."

The loss drops New Bedford to 2-5, and head coach John Sullivan notes that his team will have to start pulling together in order to turn the season around.

"We out shot them early, but we just stopped playing," said Sullivan. "We didn't come ready to play in the third period. They took it to us and we kept staying back instead of coming forward, and (Dartmouth) wasn't going to quit."

"We're getting beat to loose pucks, we're not winning the battles, we're just getting outplayed."

This story appeared on Page C4 of The Standard-Times on Dec. 31, 2002.