No matter how hard the men's hockey team tries these days, they can't seem to come up with a win. Losses over the weekend to Clarkson and St. Lawrence extended Dartmouth's longest losing streak of the season to five games.
The Big Green dropped a 7-4 decision to Clarkson on Friday night and lost 6-3 to St. Lawrence on Saturday night.
The Big Green have earned only one point in their last seven games, and their last victory came on Dec. 30 over Providence. In addition, they have not beaten an ECAC opponent since an overtime win over Vermont on Nov. 18.
The Big Green currently sit in a three way tie with Cornell and Union for the 10th, and last, playoff spot in the ECAC.
St. Lawrence 6, Dartmouth 3
Starting goalie Scott Baker '97 was one of the casualties of the weekend, giving up 7 goals against Clarkson despite playing brilliantly, and then injuring his left leg against St. Lawrence on Saturday night.
Baker suffered the injury 13 minutes into the first period as he tried to make a stretching save. Baker said as he dove to his left to try to get in front of a spinning puck, his left skate caught in the ice, resulting in a strained or pulled muscle in his lower left leg.
Baker clearly had difficulty standing and he was helped from the ice. He left the arena on crutches.
But Baker said he expects to play this coming weekend. Ben Heller '97 played well in relief of Baker on Saturday night.
Saturday night, St. Lawrence's Kris Laamanen broke a 3-3 tie at the 3:30 mark of the third period and put the Saints ahead to stay. Laamanen came in alone on a breakaway opportunity. Dartmouth appeared to have a chance to get back on the play, but the closest Big Green defenseman to the puck was heading off the ice on a player change, so Laamanen came in all alone and beat Heller for a 4-3 Saints' lead.
With 3:45 left in the third, St. Lawrence put the game away on a two-on-one. Dan Skene came down the left wing with the puck. Skene's feed across to Cullen was picture-perfect, and Cullen scored his second of the night to make it 5-3.
Joel Prpic scored an empty netter with five seconds left for St. Lawrence to close out the scoring.
The Big Green came back from a 3-1 deficit with two straight goals in the second. Trevor Dodman '95 scored on a power play goal that was anything but pretty, but the Big Green were happy to have it nonetheless.
Dodman did not get good wood on a shot from the point, and it knuckleballed towards the lower right corner of the net. The puck deflected off a St. Lawrence defender's skate into the net to cut the Dartmouth deficit to 3-2.
About three minutes later, Patrick Turcotte '95 made it a 3-3 contest. Dion Del Monte '95 had the puck poked away from him but the Saints' defenseman failed to follow up the play. Turcotte picked up the puck and as he moved left to right, he shelved it under the crossbar.
After St. Lawrence jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first, David Whitworth '98 put the Big Green on the board. Shaun Peet '98, making a rare start, saved the puck at the point, and fed it down low to Owen Hughes '97. Hughes zipped it across the middle to Whitworth, who went to the backhand and shelved a shot over the shoulder of Saints's goalie Clint Owen to make the score 2-1.
St. Lawrence extended to a 3-1 lead on Derek McLaughlin's goal 2:55 into the second. McLaughlin came down on a slowly developing 2-on-1. Dartmouth got back, so McLaughlin fired a hard shot at the net which beat Heller in the top right corner.
Clarkson 7, Dartmouth 4
Friday night the Big Green lost 7-4 to the Clarkson Golden Knights in what Coach Roger Demment called one of their poorest games of the season. In the process, they wasted a truly brilliant performance from Baker.
Baker stopped at least five clean breakaways, including a two-on-zero. Dartmouth's defense didn't give its goalie too much help against Clarkson. The difference in the game was the Clarkson powerplay, which netted four goals.
With the Big Green trailing 5-4, Clarkson extended to a two-goal lead on its fourth power play goal of the game. Golden Knights's forward Steve Palmer fed the puck from behind the net to Patrice Robitaille, whose one-timer beat Baker to his right.
Marko Tuomainen put the icing on the cake with 6:15 left in the game and Clarkson in a shorthanded situation. Baker faced not one, but two consecutive shorthanded breakaways
Baker stopped the first attempt, but moments later, Toumainen came in all alone and beat Baker through the five-hole for a 7-4 Clarkson lead.
Demment said the turning point in the game came midway through the second period, when the Big Green lost their discipline.
The Big Green committed three straight penalties, and Clarkson cashed in on every one of them, turning a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 lead.
Clarkson scored three consecutive power play goals in a span of 2:57. All three goals involved Dartmouth simply being outmanned, and in each case the Clarkson scorer had a good look at the net and beat Baker from right in front of the net. The Clarkson goals in this stretch were scored by Palmer, Tuomainen and Claude Morin.
The Big Green got back to within one at 16:26 of the second on a score by Hughes. Hughes came in from the point
and with a clear shot at the net, the defenseman elected to fire the puck. He beat Clarkson goalie Dan Murphy with a shot just under the crossbar, and Dartmouth was within 5-4.
With the contest tied at 1-1, Dartmouth extended to a one-goal advantage at 11:30 of the first period. Brent Retter '97 took a long shot that Clarkson goalie Dan Murphy stopped as he fell to the ground, and the puck squirted out front.
Bob Cancelli '98 hacked at it and Murphy made another save, while flat on his back, as he reached out his glove hand and stopped the progress of the puck.
At this point a barrage of players piled up in front of the net trying to get at the puck. Through the confusion, Charlie Retter '98 punched the puck over the goal line.
After Clarkson tied the score at 2-2, the Big Green again took the leadon a great individual effort by Darren Wercinski '97.
Wercinski's original point shot was stopped by Murphy, who could not control the rebound and tried to dive on the puck.
Instead, the goalie ended up on his stomach and the puck glanced off of his glove and dribbled in front.
Wercinski, following the play all the way, swooped in and put the puck into the empty net for a Dartmouth 3-2 lead.
Dartmouth hits the road this weekend, with games at Union this Friday night and at Rensselaer on Saturday night.
