Tomorrow night, the Dartmouth men's hockey team will return to Thompson Arena to host its intrastate rival, the University of Vermont.
The Big Green (9-6-1, 5-4-0 ECAC) traveled up I-89 to Burlington to play the Catamounts on Jan. 4 and came away with its first and only road win this season. Dartmouth now gets the home ice advantage, and quite an advantage that has been this season.
Dartmouth is currently 10-0-0 at home, counting the team's preseason exhibition contest with the University of Guelph and the matchup with the United States U-18 squad. That perfect home mark also includes wins over two of the top teams in the nation, No. 8 Boston College and No. 4 Cornell University.
Dartmouth's most recent contest with one of the nation's elite took place in Manchester, N.H. on Wednesday evening at the Verizon Wireless Arena. The Big Green battled its way to a 1-1 tie with the No. 5 University of New Hampshire Wildcats.
The unlikely hero (and RiverStone Player of the Game) was third-string goaltender Dan Yacey '05, who got the start and played a controlled game with flashes of brilliance among his 34 saves.
Any concern that the coach might not ride Yacey's hot streak back to Hanover was put to rest at the press conference following the UNH battle.
"We'll go with Yace[y]," head coach Bob Gaudet '81 announced. "He's earned his opportunity to play."
Vermont (6-10-3, 3-6-0 ECAC) defeated St. Lawrence 4-1 last Friday before falling to Clarkson by a 1-0 mark the following night. Dartmouth came out of that same trip with zero conference points.
The Catamounts cannot be taken lightly, regardless of the venue. Dartmouth needs to move up in the standings, for as grand as a win over BC and a tie with UNH are on the national scale, Dartmouth needs to position itself for the conference postseason first and foremost.
