The 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Saints came down to the final minute when St. Lawrence scored a power-play goal.
The Saints opened the game with an early score but were soon answered by Maggie Kennedy '09's fifth goal of the season. The teams would trade scores until Saint Lawrence's final goal went unanswered. Dartmouth's scorers included Kennedy, Amanda Trunzo '11 and Shannon Bowman '09 -- aided by Amy Cobb '08 and Julia Bronson '09 who had two assists apiece.
"We played very well on Friday night," Head Coach Mark Hudak said. "There were several breakdowns which cost us against a very good team. We were where we wanted to be in the last couple minutes of the game, but an unfortunate penalty hurt us."
Both goalkeepers performed spectacularly against very tough offenses. Carli Clemis '09 made 23 saves in a masterful showing.
"Even though we didn't get the win, I think we were all proud of the team's performance -- we just had a couple of bad bounces along the way and didn't come out on top this time," Clemis said.
Despite the loss a night earlier, the Big Green came out strong less than 24 hours later against Clarkson, taking a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on a Jenna Cunningham '10 goal.
Clarkson would soon answer with a goal of its own as players packed the space in front of Dartmouth's net and a Golden Knights forward slid the puck under Clemis during the melee.
A lengthy scoreless span followed which lasted until just three minutes remained in regulation, when Trunzo scored on an assist by Cunningham to put the Big Green ahead for good, 2-1. Cunningham would put the nail in Clarkson's coffin with just one tick left on the clock, as the sophomore notched her second goal of the night. Saturday was Cunningham's fourth multi-goal match of the season.
"We certainly had a slow start [against Clarkson] and struggled to get on track," Hudak said. "The third period was a real test of character and I think the team rose to the challenge."
Clemis gave another solid effort in goal, blocking 27 shots while recording her sixth win of the year. Neither she nor any other Big Green player relented at all as the game churned on and on, turning into a tense defensive struggle.
"I think it was great to see that we could play two games in a weekend without letting a loss affect the next game," Kennedy said. "It's hard to bounce back from a heartbreaker like the St. Lawrence game and move on so quickly, but we knew that was what we had to do."
The weekend's games improved Dartmouth's overall record to 7-1-1, 5-1-0 in conference action. Such strong performances against top-ranked teams bode well for the remainder of the season.
"We learned that we can play with the best teams in the country," Hudak said.
Defeating one top-10 team and fighting to the very end against another this weekend should provide the Women in Green with a sense that they belong at the top of the rankings even after graduating four Olympians last June.
"Believe it or not, I think that even this weekend's loss will give us confidence going into the rest of the season and facing more top-10 teams," Kennedy said.
Today the eighth-ranked Big Green hosts fifth-ranked Harvard. The undefeated Crimson comes to Hanover boasting a 6-0-0 record, having just defeated St. Lawrence 5-1 on Saturday.
"It will be a very difficult game, but we hope to get the win," Marley McMillan '09 said. "Harvard is always a tough team to play but always the most exciting game of the year. Since they beat the Saints, beating them would mean a lot for our current ranking as well as our standing for playoffs at the end of the year."
