The Dartmouth women's hockey team will face off against the Princeton Tigers and the Yale Bulldogs this weekend at Thompson arena. After an impressive 1-1-1 tournament showing in Lake Placid, N.Y. against several national teams, these average conference opponents should not intimidate the Big Green. A couple of wins this weekend could lift Dartmouth back atop the ECAC North and into the top three nationally.
"When we were playing the international teams we came together pretty well and started connecting on our systems," defenseman Melissa Dolan '02 said.
"Going into this weekend we feel confident and fresh after a 10-day break. We're not thinking so much about Princeton and Yale as much as we're thinking about how we're playing. When we play well, we're pretty tough to beat."
Dartmouth (8-1-1, 4-0-0 ECAC North) is unbeaten against conference opponents so far this season. Credit Dartmouth's offense, led by forward Carly Haggard '03 who has recorded 10 goals and nine assists in 10 games. Three other forwards have over 10 points so far this season, making Dartmouth one of the most potent offensive forces in women's college hockey.
Dartmouth cannot afford to overlook the Princeton Tigers (7-5-2, 3-2-0 ECAC North), who upset No. 7 New Hampshire, 1-0, in an overtime thriller on December 8. While Princeton does not score many goals, the team remains competitive because of superb goaltending. Sophomore Megan Van Beusekom and junior Sarah Ahlquist share time between the pipes and collectively sport a 1.75 goals against average and a .924 save percentage. The Tigers may prove rusty after losing two straight to Ohio State more than two weeks ago.
On Sunday, Dartmouth will face a Yale team (4-6-1, 1-2-0 ECAC North) that has already doubled last season's win total.
While that marks a strong improvement, the Bulldogs will have to struggle mightily to take even the smallest bite out of the Big Green.
Yale is particularly poor on the power play, and has difficulty killing penalties, which it has to do alarmingly often.
Yale, like Princeton, splits time between two goalies, but with far less success, giving up 2.61 goals per game.
The action starts at 2 p.m. tomorrow afternoon when Dartmouth takes to its home ice against Princeton.
The Big Green also take on Yale this weekend, in another 2 p.m. game on Sunday.
