The men's hockey team kicked off the regular season in good fashion as it beat a quality Boston College squad 5-4 Saturday at Thompson Arena.
With the win, the team hinted that this season could be much different from last year, when it finished with a disappointing 5-21-1 record.
Dartmouth came into the match-up with the Eagles flying high after ending the exhibition season Friday night with a 6-2 win over Williams College.
The win gave the players a boost of confidence as they prepared for the Eagles, who have historically been a challenge for the Big Green. Saturday's contest was the 85th between the schools, with Boston College having won 58 of them, including last year's 9-2 victory.
Setting out to avenge that decisive loss, the Big Green were able to mount the first serious offensive attack of the game. That pressure came eight-and- a-half minutes into the first period as Dave Whitworth '98 appeared to have netted the team's first goal of the year.
To the dismay of the elated 3,215 fans in attendance, though, the goal was waived off by the referee, saying it never crossed the goal line. The referee had no argument one minute later, however, as Mike Stacchi '95 scored on assists from Bob Cancelli '98 and co-captain Trevor Dodman '95.
The Eagles were able to even up the score nearly 10 minutes later when Tom Ashe and Joe Harney delivered the puck to Ryan Haggerty, who managed to shoot it past Ben Heller '97 and into the goal.
The teams went into the first intermission deadlocked at 1-1, thanks to a bit of ingenuity provided by Patrick Turcotte '95. The Dartmouth forward, who was left without his stick after he gave his to teammate Dax Burkhart '96, was alone as the last line of defense in front of Heller.
An Eagle attempted to shoot it past Turcotte, but the Dartmouth player had apparently taken some lessons from his pal in the net and blocked the shot with his legs. He then picked up the puck and threw it high into the stands, much to the joy of the father and son who caught it. It was a brilliant move, but Turcotte was punished for it, receiving a two-minute delay of game penalty.
The second period was a rough one for the Big Green. Jerry Buckley, on assists from Ken Hemenway and Jamie O'Leary, gave the Eagles a 2-1 advantage at 10:44 into the period.
Instead of regrouping after relinquishing the goal, the Big Green became sloppy with their passes and slow on their skates, losing all the momentum they had in the early part of the game.
The result was another goal for the Eagles. The defense was not following the BC forwards and the vulnerable Heller was taken completely by surprise as Jim Krayer shot the puck in at 16:38.
Only one minute later, the Eagles flew again as Mike McCarthy shot a fourth score into the Dartmouth net.
"We got out of rhythm," Coach Roger Demment said. "We started to fool around a little bit with the line combinations and we got caught in a couple of line changes. At one point we made a couple of poor decisions... obviously in the second period, those decisions did not work."
Although the period was a tough one for the Dartmouth fans to bear, they were amused when BC goalie Mike Correia fell over for no apparent reason in the 12th minute. Correia quickly recovered with help from a BC trainer and was able to stay in net for the remainder of the game.
Pay-back time for Dartmouth came in the third period. Down 4-1, the Big Green became more aware of their opponents' presence on the ice and followed them closely, putting up more of a fight than they did in the previous period. To boost Dartmouth's confidence, Cancelli scored a goal only 1:49 into the period on an assist from Owen Hughes '97.
During the next seven minutes, Dartmouth was given many opportunities to score, but came up empty. Finally, 9:15 into the period, Jon Sturgis '98, assisted by Darren Wercinski '97 and Dodman, took his opportunity on a Dartmouth power play.
Three minutes later, Stacchi scored his second goal of the night on an assist from Charlie Retter '98. With the score tied 4-4, the Big Green kept up their assault.
As if answering the wishes of the cheering crowd, Retter got a hand from Del Monte with four minutes left in regulation and slipped it into the Eagles' goal, reclaiming the lead for the Big Green.
After that, it was just a matter of defense for Dartmouth -- and the team was able to ward off the Eagles to stay ahead 5-4 and win the game.
Faced with a big deficit during the decisive break between the second and third periods, Demment encouraged the players to use the skills they learned during pre-season, assuring them that a comeback was possible.
"I simply went into the locker room and said, 'Okay, it's 4-1 here. We're a very good hockey team, a much better team than they are. We're going to go out on the ice, we're going to work hard and we're going to win this game 5-4,'" Demment said.
Demment's prediction was on target, as the team rallied behind its strong veterans and assertive newcomers to stage a four-goal turnaround. "I can't ask any more from this team than what we did tonight," Demment said Saturday.
The Big Green will travel to face Cornell University Friday and on to Colgate University Saturday. The team's next home game is Nov. 18 against the University of Vermont.
"Next week's games are crucial, " Stacchi said. "We've got two teams that are in the middle of the pack. We've got to keep going from the game tonight, which set the stage."