In the last week of the regular season, the women’s hockey team lost against Eastern Coast Atlantic Conference No. 1 Clarkson University and ECAC No. 4 St. Lawrence University in Thompson Arena. The two-loss weekend left Dartmouth ranked eight in the 2015 ECAC Women’s Hockey Championship this weekend. As the lowest seed, Dartmouth will rematch top seed Clarkson in the first round of the tournament.
“It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t come out with a couple points, but I think we had a good weekend as a team,” Laura Stacey ’16 said.
On Friday night, the women’s ice hockey team fell to Clarkson 2-1 in overtime.
In the first period, Kennedy Ottenbreit ’17 got Dartmouth on the scoreboard with a one-timer from the top of the face-off circle on the power play. Posted up on the blue line, Stacey dished a soft pass to Ottenbreit, who the ripped a slap shot pass the Clarkson goalie. The Big Green held onto the 1-0 lead for the first two periods.
Dartmouth had a chance to lengthen its lead with a few scoring chances in the second, including a shot that Karlee Odland ’15 took directly in front of the net that went just wide of the goal. Clarkson enjoyed a 26-13 shot advantage over the Big Green across the first two periods. Dartmouth goalie Robyn Chemago ’17 showcased play that could keep Dartmouth in the game against any team in the ECAC Championship, making 40 saves over the course of the night.
With just under six minutes left in the third, Clarkson finally broke the offensive seal, taking advantage of a checking penalty against Dartmouth. It took a man advantage and a redirected slap shot from the point to finally beat Chemago and even the score at 1-1.
Neither team was able to score again in the third, and the game headed to overtime. With a minute left in the extra time, Clarkson entered the offensive zone on an odd-man rush. After some confusion in front of the net, Clarkson center Genevieve Bannon was able to knock in a rebound past Chemago, giving Clarkson the win.
On Saturday, Dartmouth took the ice to face St. Lawrence in the final home game of the regular season, which also aligned with the team’s senior day.
In honor of senior day, Gianna Guarino ’15 got her first collegiate start and spent 24 minutes of the game between the pipes.
“Having [Guarino] in the net was a big deal,” Lindsey Allen ’16 said. “We just knew we had to stay confident and back her up.”
In the opening 20 seconds, Karlee Odland ’15 intercepted a Saints’ pass in the neutral zone, handled the puck in the slot and sent it past the St. Lawrence goalie for an early unassisted goal. With six minutes left in the first, St. Lawrence evened the score up at 1-1.
“We wanted to come out with a bang and play for our seniors,” Allen said. “And that’s what happened with [Odland’s] goal.”
The St. Lawrence offense exploded in the second period. In just seven minutes, the Saints scored three goals, building a 4-1 lead over the Big Green.
In the last minute of the second period, Dartmouth was able to generate some momentum to take them into the second intermission. Devon Moir ’17 stole the puck from a fallen St. Lawrence defender and made a quick centering pass to Catherine Berghuis ’16, who charged into an open slot. Berghuis got off a quick low shot and scored, cutting St. Lawrence’s lead to two goals. Chemago was able to shut down the pressuring Saints’ offense in the final seconds of the period.
Despite falling behind by three, the Big Green never lost faith in its offense and fought back to tie the game. In the third period, Dartmouth matched its open to the game, scoring in the first 20 seconds. Ottenbreit controlled a bouncing pass in the slot, spun around and whipped a shot into the bottom right corner of the Saints’ net.
With 12 minutes left to play Allen scored the equalizer for Dartmouth. Stacy took the puck up the right side, making it to goal and getting off a hard shot that hit the goalie’s pads, which set up a rebound that Allen jammed into the top right corner of the net, tying the game at 4-4.
The tie lasted until the final four minutes of the game. Jenna Marks regained the lead for the Saints after knocking the puck off Chemago’s glove and into the net. The Big Green tried to fight back by using an extra offensive player, but with a little over a minute left to play, the Saints iced the game with an empty net goal.
Next weekend marks the beginning of the ECAC tournament, and the Big Green will head to New York to face Clarkson in the quarterfinals. Dartmouth has played and lost to Clarkson twice this season.
Chemago said that the team is ready to “do some damage” against its highly ranked opponent.
