Dartmouth club hockey defeated New Hampshire Community Technical College in another high scoring game this Saturday in Berlin, NH. NHCTC, a team comprised of many of the same players as the Berlin Jr. Kings, against whom the Dartmouth club hockey team lost 10-9 last weekend, played a rough, physical game that pushed the Dartmouth players to their limits.
The 12-11 victory also marked the much-anticipated return from a lengthy one game hiatus of team bruiser Anthony Balsamo '04, who contributed two assists to the team's offensive onslaught. Other standout Dartmouth players included Peter Hanbury '03 with six goals and two assists, Scott Darci '05 with two goals and two assists, and Josh Navikonis '04 with four assists.
The beginning boded well for Dartmouth, as Hanbury drilled the puck into the net only 11 seconds after the opening face-off. Despite this phenomenal start, NHCTC quickly tied the game before scoring two more goals to gain a 3-1 lead. It wasn't until the end of the period when Hanbury, on an assist from Russell Daiber '06, scored a short-handed goal to bring the game within one.
The second period proved to be chock full of goals for both teams, with two coming from Dartmouth's own up-and-coming freshman, Teddy Plumlee, as well as two from Darci, one from Jon Webster '04, and another from Hanbury. Nonetheless, Dartmouth trailed 10-8 at the period's end.
The Clubbers knew they had to pull together and play an exceptionally aggressive period of hockey to come out with a win. Capitalizing on a power play, Hanbury received a pass from Eric Chen '06 and fired the puck past NHCTC's goalie to make the game 10-9. During the next 10 minutes of play NHCTC scored only once, while Hanbury himself scored twice more, evening the game at a score of 11-11.
A small scuffle broke out with three minutes and 22 seconds remaining in the game, during which Hanbury blocked a punch with his face, an offense the officials deemed a "misconduct" that resulted in his ejection.
In the penalty kill that followed, club team goalie Charles Rossenwasser '06 proved to be a stone wall in net. At last, NHCTC also received a penalty, evening the numbers for a short stint before Dartmouth emerged on the power play for the final 20 seconds of the third period.
With only seven seconds remaining in the game, the Dartmouth power play unit prepared for one final assault on NHCTC's goalie. As Navikonis passed the puck to Balsamo, Chris Grieco '03 readied himself for the puck, and when he received it from Balsamo he wasted no time in putting it in the back of the net for the winning goal.
Grieco later said, "I just got good position in front of the net and I was able to get the puck from Anthony and slide it under the goalie. It was a big game for us, coming from behind for the victory and having our captain thrown out of the game on a suspect call that left us short on guys, but we managed to kill off the penalty and then took it to them."
The team returns to Thompson Arena Sunday Feb. 2 at 2:15 p.m. against Castleton State College.
