Friday night the Big Green staged a stirring comeback; Saturday night it came back to haunt them.
The day after scoring four unanswered goals in under seven minutes to tie host and defending East Coast Athletic Conference champion Clarkson 5-5, Dartmouth (3-11-1 overall, 2-7-1 Ivy league) allowed St. Lawrence to embark on a three-goal, third-period rampage and escape with a 5-3 home victory.
The tie with the Golden Knights endowed the Green with a confidence they have often lacked in a sometimes frustrating season. "To find it in ourselves to come back was a big step for us," Defender Trevor Dodman '95 said.
"We are crossing the fine line between a winning and a losing team. We have established four solid lines," center Owen Hughes '97 said.
Such positive feelings did not fully emerge until after the contest. Indeed, down 4-2 at the close of the second period, Dartmouth uneasily wondered what lay ahead.
"We were a little bit back on our heels," Dodman said. "We talked about it and said we were going to come back."
Come back they did. Scott Fraser '94 ignited the rally with a goal at 17:41 in the second period and finished it with a score 4:02 into the final period. "We need him to be scoring like that," Dodman noted.
Right-winger Fraser did receive help in his endeavors. Tony DelCarmine '94 and Dan Bloom '96 assisted on his first score, and Tom Ruzzo '97 fed him on the game's final goal.
The tying score featured DelCarmine swinging in front of the net and taking a defender with him, after which Ruzzo, the left wing, passed the puck to an open Fraser for the put-in.
Sandwiched between Fraser's goals were scores by Dodman off a deflection and by Hughes on a shot from ten feet out. Dion Del Monte '95 led the scoring for the Big Green in the first period before Clarkson's five-goal deluge.
With its comeback, Dartmouth more than stemmed the tide and basked in the result. "It meant a lot for us," Ruzzo said. "If we can do that, we can come back against anyone. We are going to use that as a stepping-stone."
Nevertheless, the Green tripped over that stepping-stone the following night against St. Lawrence. League Player of the Week Mike Bracco '94 fended off repeated shots on goal, but mental mistakes cost Dartmouth in this one.
"We did not react well," Dodman said. "We lost our focus in the third period, and before we knew it, the game was over."
Dartmouth displayed that lack of concentration on St. Lawrence's go-ahead goal. First, the Big Green had given the hosts a house-warming power-play present for having too many men on the ice. Playing shorthanded, the Green immediately followed that mistake by allowing the puck to deflect off a Dartmouth stick into its own net.
Offensively, Dartmouth's bright spots appeared in the form of goals by Del Monte, Patrick Turcotte '95 and Mike Stacchi '95, but the Green once again came up short.
Clarkson knows firsthand, however, that the Big Green are capable of much more.
