As he watched Princeton fourth-line winger Ethan Early burn Dartmouth defenseman Mike Loga '93 for a goal that put the Tigers ahead 4-1, Princeton's Assistant Sports Information Director Mike Jackman grinned and said, "Gotta love those tennis balls."
Just about anyone in orange and black would have to concur. After the felt pelting of Princeton goalie James Konte, the Big Green suddenly fell as flat as a cup of day-old beer. Princeton seized the initiative, and a 5-1 win, to even its record at 6-6-3 overall.
On Saturday night, Yale kept praying for a blizzard of felt - or any other gifts from above - to halt the rout, but it never came. The stomping began with a four-goal first period for Dartmouth and ended in a convincing 7-2 thumping. Patrick Turcotte '95 treated the hometown crowd to a hat trick and Tom Ruzzo '97 scored twice.
The weekend split pushed Dartmouth's record to 3-8 overall and 2-4 in the East Coast Athletic Conference.
Tigers Pounce
Dartmouth skated figure eights around Princeton for the first 14 minutes, right up until Mike Stacchi '95 swiped the puck in front of the Princeton goal and scooted it past Konte for Dartmouth's first goal.
Before the puck had even reached the back of the net, a hail storm of tennis balls, oranges, apples, grape fruit - even a dead fish - reigned down on Konte. The bombardment was revenge for a similar bombardment of Dartmouth goalie Vern Guetens '93 last year.
It took 20 minutes to clean the ice and remake it. The final six minutes of the period were added to the second period.
By the time Dartmouth hit the ice again, it was clearly a different team than the one that dominated over the bulk of the first period.
"In many ways, we were better hockey players, but not playing as well as a team," Dement said.
That lack of team play manifested itself on offense, where Dartmouth struggled to establish any continuity. The Big Green were making sloppy passes and, as the game slipped further from their control, began to press their shots.
Bulldogs Blasted
Dartmouth put the bite on the Bulldogs early in Saturday night's game with a three-goal explosion in the first eight minutes en route to a 7-2 win.
By the end of the first quarter Dartmouth had equaled its offensive output of the past three games with four goals.
Ruzzo set the tone 1:40 into the game when he stole the puck from Princeton right defenseman Dan Nyberg and beat out Princeton goalie Todd Sullivan in a one-on-one confrontation for Dartmouth's first goal of the game.
The second came three minutes later. Scott Fraser '94 threaded his way through a pair of Princeton skaters, and then dumped the puck to Turcotte, who fired in the first of his three goals.
Fraser ended the game with two assists, as did Dion DelMonte '95, who also scored once.
Yale did not score until late in the second period, by which point Dartmouth had already built up a 5-0 lead.
