The women's hockey team thrashed McGill Saturday, coming away with a 12-2 win behind a five-goal effort from center Sarah Howald '96..
Historically McGill has not fared well against Dartmouth. In their four previous matchups, Dartmouth outscored McGill 35-1. Saturday's game added another notch to the Big Green's post.
Dartmouth came out slowly. "During the first period, McGill was a little better than I thought," Coach George Crowe said. McGill seemed to take Dartmouth by surprise when Heidi Bloomfield scored the first goal five and a half minutes into the game.
The tide of the game quickly turned though. With five minutes left in the period, McGill's Cindy Mikromastoris went to the penalty box for two minutes for cross checking. During the ensuing power play, center Sarah Howald '96 put the puck into the top right-hand corner, scoring unassisted.
Mikromastoris went back to the penalty box for roughing with just more than a minute left in the period. The team took advantage the opportunity again. Howald notched her second goal of the afternoon, this one assisted by defenseman Amy Coelho '97 and right-wing Sarah Devens '96 with just 16 seconds left on the clock.
"After the first period, McGill started standing around and watching. They totally took themselves out of the game," Crowe said. In contrast, the Big Green exploded into the second period, scoring eight of their twelve goals during this time.
Dartmouth got started right away. At 2:05 in the second period, right-wing Emilie Schnitman '98 scored off a pass from left-wing Michelle Erickson '96.
One minute later, Dartmouth began a run where it tallied three goals in less than a minute. The first goal in the series came from defenseman Michelyne Pinard '98 with assists from Captain Rachel Rochat '95 and Devens. Twenty seconds later, the second goal came unassisted from defenseman Andrea Paradis '97. Sarah Hood '98 scored the final goal, hitting the top right corner of the net just twenty seconds after Paradis' score. Defenseman Sara Vogler '96 and left-wing Phoebe Manchester '96 assisted Hood.
With 14 minutes left in the period and Dartmouth leading 6-1, McGill pulled goalie September Weir and replaced her with Annette VanDerLinde.
Six and half minutes later McGill's Jocelyne Barrett scored on a power play, but it was not enough to stop the Big Green.
Hood scored her second goal 40 seconds later at 11:02 with assists from Vogler and Schnitman. This goal set off another series of goals. Hood's goal was followed by one from Rochat assisted by Howald and Devens at 11:32 and then by one from Howald, completing her hat-trick, at 12:19. Devens had her fourth assist on this goal. These goals brought the score up to 9-2.
The final goal of the period came with three and a half minutes left on the clock. Center Jessica Clark '98 assisted Devens who scored this one.
The team came back to the ice for the third period with the same enthusiasm. Dartmouth continued to pass the puck efficiently and play as a team. McGill tried to pick up the pace, starting to fight for the puck more. It had a few opportunities but was unable to capitalize on them.
Six minutes before the end of the game, McGill's Heidi Bloomfield went to the penalty box for tripping. Howald could not let this chance slip by and scored her fourth goal unassisted just 30 seconds later.
With 1:19 left on the clock, Howald had her fifth and last goal of the game off an assist by right-wing Malaika Little '97 and Rochat. The goal brought the final score to 12-2.
Goalie Sarah Lenczner '97 had a total of 13 saves to help preserve the win for Dartmouth.
"We were working a lot better. It was a good team effort -- everyone got in on it," Howald commented after the game. Pinard agreed: "It was good to click and to finish it off," she said.
"I felt like the blue line [Rochat, Howald and Devens] played really well," Devens said.
Dartmouth resumes play this weekend, hosting Yale on Saturday and Princeton on Sunday.
