The men's hockey team hoped the 1994-95 campaign would be a model of consistency, with discipline and hard work leading to a string of victories and resulting in a playoff berth.
But instead, the Big Green embarked on a roller coaster ride that saw the team both struggle and shine, and when the final games of the regular season were over, the squad had narrowly missed the playoffs.
The Big Green finished the season in 11th place in the 12-team ECAC with 16 points while compiling a 7-11-2 ECAC record and a 9-16-2 overall mark.
Coach Roger Demment said the 11th-place finish was frustrating, because the team knew it was better than an 11th-place, non-playoff team.
The season started out with a flurry, as the squad came back from a 4-1 deficit to Boston College to score four unanswered goals and take a stunning 5-4 victory in the season opener. The win was followed by an outstanding three-point road trip at Colgate and Cornell.
Then came the weekend which typified the Big Green's roller coaster ride. Dartmouth trailed the then-nationally-ranked Vermont Catamounts 5-3 with two minutes left in the third before tying the game and winning 6-5 in overtime. The next night, instead of carrying the momentum into Vermont's home rink, Dartmouth was crushed 10-1 by the revenge-hungry Catamounts.
By the end of the 1994 calendar year, Dartmouth had dipped to 4-4-1.Then the bottom dropped out of the Big Green roller coaster. A tie at Princeton was followed by nine consecutive losses, and the team sank to dead last in the ECAC.
Goalie Scott Baker '97, who came out of nowhere to win the starting job, sprained his left ankle against St. Lawrence in late January and missed two weeks. Backup goalies Ben Heller '97 and Darik Buchar '98 played valiantly in Baker's absence but could not stop the losing streak.
At last the Big Green, propelled by Baker's return, broke out of the slump in a major way with a home sweep of RPI and Union.
The next weekend marked the high point of the season, as the Big Green rode their newly generated momentum to stun Harvard in their own building 2-1. It was the first time since 1980 the Big Green won in Harvard.
But then another slump followed as the squad was shutout by Brown the next night, and lost its next two at St. Lawrence and Clarkson.
Finally, Dartmouth closed out the season with a home sweep of Yale and Princeton, but failed to make the playoffs, despite finishing in a tie with Union for the final playoff spot. Union won the tiebreaker and the Big Green had to settle for 11th-place.
Despite missing out on the playoffs, some positives can still be drawn from the season. The team improved by seven points from its nine-point, last place ECAC finish in 1993-94. The Big Green narrowly missed the playoffs despite a 10-game winless streak that appeared it would bury them in the cellar for the balance of the season.
In addition, the program broke in a talented freshman class, including Buchar, Jeremiah Buckley, Bob Cancelli, Brian Fleming, Shane Ness, Shaun Peet Charlie Retter, Jon Sturgis and David Whitworth.
With a year of experience under their belts, these players will be expected to help fill the void left by the departing seniors Dion Del Monte, Mike Stacchi, Patrick Turcotte and Trevor Dodman.
Baker emerged from the junior-varsity team at the beginning of the year to win the starting job, and played brilliantly in many games throughout the year.
Demment conceded that the season was a very streaky one. "It's a season that started off with a real bang, we played a lot of great come-from-behind hock-ey," he said. "We seemed to have found the guy we needed between the pipes and everything looked pretty good at that point.
"Then we got into a rut, and had a tough time getting out. But I think these two games [against Yale and Princeton] were indicative of the kind of hockey we're capable of playing," Demment said. "It's always good after a season which is somewhat frustrating to end on the upswing and that's what we did.
"We end up the season with nine wins, which is not a ton, but is much better than we did last year," Demment added.
"Also, being so close to the playoffs is something for our young guys to shoot for next season."
So while most of the ECAC battles it out in the playoffs, hoping to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament, the Big Green will sit at home and ponder the playoff berth that slipped away. But then again, given the roller-coaster ride they embarked on in 1994-95, it seems rather remarkable they came as close to the playoffs as they did.
And as Demment said, that never-say-die attitude that the team displayed at the very beginning and very end of the season is something the squad will hopefully carry over into next season.
