The men's hockey team heads into this weekend's road games against St. Lawrence and Clarkson with a simple mission: pick up points, or be eliminated from the playoff hunt.
After a split last weekend, the Big Green are three points away from the 10th and final ECAC playoff berth and are in danger of dropping out of contention.
Dartmouth (5-11-2 ECAC, 7-14-2 overall) is in last place in the conference with 12 points. The Big Green trail 11th place Union by one point and are three points behind Yale and Cornell, who are tied for the coveted 10th playoff spot.
Coach Roger Demment conceded that the team "definitely has got to get points this weekend to stay in the playoff picture." He added that the Friday night's game against St. Lawrence is, for all intensive purposes, a playoff game for the Big Green.
Scott Baker '97, who has helped the team win three of its last four, will again get the start in net.
As he usually does, Demment shook up the lines for this weekend's road trip. Charlie Retter '98 returns to the first line with Dion Del Monte '95 and Patrick Turcotte '95. Del Monte is only one point away from 100th for his career.
Demment retained the line of David Whitworth '98, Mike Stacchi '95 and Bill Kelleher '96, but also formed an all-freshmen line of Shaun Peet, Jeremiah Buckley and Brian Fleming.
Dan Bloom '96, who is recovering from the flu, will sit the weekend out, Demment said.
The St. Lawrence Saints (8-10-0 ECAC, 13-14-1 overall) defeated the Big Green 6-3 earlier this season at Thompson and will be looking for a series sweep.
St. Lawrence, after languishing near the ECAC cellar the entire season, has been on a roll of late and now sits in eighth place in the conference with 16 points.
Saint's forward Burke Murphy is one of the conference's top scorers and he leads the St. Lawrence offensive attack. The Big Green will likely face sophomore goalie Jon Bracco, who has carried most of the workload for the Saints this season.
The Clarkson Golden Knights (11-4-3 ECAC, 17-7-4 overall) appeared ready to pull away from the rest of the league until uncharacteristically dropping two straight home games last weekend. Clarkson was in first all alone before last weekend, but are now tied with Brown atop the conference with 25 points.
Clarkson beat Dartmouth earlier this season at Thompson in a 7-4 slugfest. Demment said he expected the Golden Knights to come out this weekend with fire in their eyes, trying to avenge last weekend's two losses.
The Golden Knights easily have the most prolific offense in the ECAC, and are led by Marko Tuomainen, Patrice Robitaille and Claude Morin. Defenseman Brian Mueller is an All-American and is widely considered one of the top defenseman in the country.
Freshman goalie Dan Murphy will probably get the start in net for Clarkson. In his rookie campaign, Murphy has already established himself as one of the most talented goalies in the conference.
