The men's hockey team desperately needed to pick up points on the road last weekend to keep its dim playoff hopes alive. Instead, the Big Green dropped two straight games, a 5-4 loss to St. Lawrence and a 6-1 trashing by Clarkson.
If the team's playoff hopes were dying before this past weekend, consider them hooked up to the respirator now. To make the playoffs, the Big Green need a lot of help. They must win their last two games against Yale and Princeton next weekend, and hope that Union and Yale each lose their last two. Even then, the Big Green would face a tiebreaker situation with Union, which at this point could go either way.
The Big Green barely avoided elimination this past weekend, when Yale lost on Saturday night. Had the Bulldogs won, Dartmouth would have been officially eliminated from the ECAC playoff picture.
Instead, the team lives on until this coming weekend, the final one of the regular season.
St. Lawrence 5, Dartmouth 4
Of the two games over the weekend, the Big Green players thought they had the better chance to pick up points against St. Lawrence on Friday night. And when the Big Green led 4-2 early in the third period, it appeared they were well on their way.
But instead, the Saints turned the tables and jolted Dartmouth with three unanswered goals to close out the game. The third period outburst left the stunned Dartmouth team looking for answers.
With Dartmouth leading 3-2, Captain Dion Del Monte '95 scored only eight seconds into the third period to extend it to a 4-2 Big Green advantage.
But St. Lawrence answered back just more than a minute later to make it 4-3.
St. Lawrence's leading scorer, Burke Murphy, then tied it up at 4-4. Murphy picked up a rebound in front of Big Green goaltender Scott Baker '97 and punched it into the net to tie the game.
At the 12:42 mark of the third, Saints forward Scott Stevens put St. Lawrence ahead 5-4 with a power play goal. It was St. Lawrence's second powerplay tally of the game.
Dartmouth scrapped to tie the game, but Saints goaltender Jon Bracco made the lead stand up and Dartmouth fell one goal short.
The highlight of the game for the Big Green was Del Monte's 100th career point. Del Monte assisted on the Big Green's first goal of the game, a tally by Dax Burkhart '96 in the first period, to achieve the milestone.
St. Lawrence opened up quickly and jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Burkhart's goal made it 2-1 midway through the first.
In the second, Dartmouth added two more goals to make it a 3-2 Dartmouth edge. David Whitworth '98 ripped a wrist-shot to the upper-right corner to tie the game at 2-2.
Then, at 18:12, Del Monte got credit for a goal when he tipped a Trevor Dodman '95 point shot past Bracco for a 3-2 Dartmouth lead. For the game, Del Monte was a factor on three of the four Big Green goals.
Clarkson 6, Dartmouth 1
The disappointment of the St. Lawrence game seemed to carry over into Cheel Arena, where on Saturday night a dispirited Big Green squad was dealt a crushing 6-1 defeat by the Clarkson Golden Knights.
The Big Green played Clarkson close in the first period before the Golden Knights widened the gap in the second and then pulled away in the third.
Marko Tuomainen scored the only goal of the first period, a powerplay tally with 5:36 left in the period.
In the second, Clarkson's Todd White scored two goals -- an even strength tally and a powerplay marker -- to make it a 3-0 game after two.
Chris De Ruiter made it 4-0 Clarkson 1:30 into the third before Patrick Turcotte '95 got the Big Green on the board by punching a rebound past Golden Knights goalie Dan Murphy.
Brian Mueller, Clarkson's All-American defenseman burned the Big Green for a goal that made it 5-1 Clarkson before Kevin Murphy closed out the scoring with 5:56 left in the game.
The Big Green return home this weekend for their final two games of the season, against Yale on Friday night and a Saturday matinee against Princeton.
There is no more room for error for the Big Green -- it is now officially do or die time.
