"We weren't supposed to do anything," senior Captain Rachel Rochat said of the women's hockey team.
Perhaps the lack of pressure from high expectations helped the team, as Dartmouth tied Brown 3-3 Wednesday night for the second time this season, holding on to its lead in the Ivy League.
The team now shares first place with the Princeton team it beat last weekend at home. Brown trails by just two points.
The game versus Brown was fairly even throughout. Dart-mouth's first line, left-wing Rochat, center Sarah Howald '96 and right-wing Sarah Devens '96 were the scoring power in the first period. Rochat scored in the game's early minutes, assisted by Howald and Devens.
But Brown came back quickly when Katie King scored off a pass from Becky Kellar just 30 seconds later.
The Big Green would not stand for that and just 32 seconds after Brown scored, the trio of Howald, Rochat, and Devens notched yet another score.
This time the goal went to Howald with assists by Devens and Rochat.
The first period scoring did not end there, though. At 8:13, Brown's Kellar added a goal for her team, assisted by Molly Driscoll. At the
end of the second period, the teams were tied at 2-2.
Dartmouth's third line saw action in the second period. Eight minutes into the period, left-wing Michelle Erickson '96 shot one past Brown goalie Michele Mortensen. Center Sarah Hood '98 and defenseman Michelyne Pinard '98 assisted. This gave Dartmouth a 3-2 advantage going into the third period.
Dartmouth managed to hold Brown for almost all of the third period. With only 1:09 left on the clock, Brown's King scored her second goal, tying up the score and sending the game into overtime.
"I was a little worried after that [goal]," Coach George Crowe said. "So much of athletics is momentum."
In the five-minute overtime, neither team was able to score, leaving the final score at 3-3.
"We played great. We out-played them, we out-hustled them. Brown was supposed to roll over us and the fact that we should have won ... it was really tough to tie," Rochat said. "I'm so proud of the team, though. We've come so far since the beginning of the season. We should tie for the [Ivy League] title."
The team had a slightly different setup due to freshman right-wing Emilie Schnitman's injury in Sunday's game. The team compensated by having Hood play on two lines, the second and third. She played wing on the second line and center on the third line.
"For the first game with Brown we were happy that we tied 1-1, but in the second game, we weren't happy with the 3-3 tie," Crowe said. "I thought we had a couple of opportunities that we just missed."
As for the future, Dartmouth must now beat Cornell and Harvard in order to hold onto first place. They must then wait to see how Princeton and Brown fare to see whether they will share the title or win it outright.
"Harvard and Cornell are good enough to upset people. We're going to have to play well. They will be big games," Crowe said.
This weekend, Dartmouth faces RIT and Cornell. In the previous match-up with Cornell, Dartmouth won, 9-0. Cornell enters the game with a 3-4 Ivy League record. As of the beginning of the month Cornell goalie Sarah Brewster was one of the leading goaltenders in the league with a .829 save percentage.
Dartmouth is yet to play RIT this season. RIT comes into Thompson Arena with a 5-8-0 record overall. The game is not an Ivy League game but will count towards the ECAC standings.
"These are for the two championships we are going after,"Crowe said. We want to make the ECAC -- the top four teams get home ice, we'd love to get it."
"It's important that we keep playing the level of hockey we've been playing for the past couple of weeks," Hood said.
Dartmouth will take on RIT on Saturday at 3:00 and Cornell at 2:00. Both games are in Thompson Arena.
