The men's hockey team learned the hard way that when you leave your fate in someone else's hands, the results are not always to your satisfaction. So, despite closing out the regular season with back-to-back wins against Yale and Princeton, the Big Green missed out on the playoffs because another ECAC game turned outwrong.
To make the playoffs, Dartmouth needed to win both its games, plus get help in eight other games over the weekend, a definite long shot. But, in the end, Dartmouth held up its end of the bargain, and seven out of those eight games had favorable results for the Big Green.
If Cornell had beaten RPI on Friday night instead of skating to a 2-2 tie, the Big Green would be in the playoffs. Instead they finished tied with Union for the last playoff spot, but lost the tiebreaker because Union had a better record against the top eight teams in the ECAC.
And the fact that the Big Green missed making the playoffs because of that one Cornell-RPI game makes the pain even more bitter. A long shot almost became reality, but in the end the squad fell just short.
Still, the Big Green closed out their season on a positive note, beating Yale 7-4 on Friday night and topping Princeton 3-2 on Saturday at Thompson Arena.
Dartmouth 7, Yale 4
The Big Green jumped out to a big lead against Yale on Friday night before the Bulldogs made it interesting in the third. But ultimately it was the Class of '95, playing its last weekend before the home crowd, that sealed the Dartmouth win.
Before the game, the hockey program held a ceremony to honor the five outgoing seniors. Then all four of the seniors who dressed for the game went out and scored goals.
Patrick Turcotte '95 started the senior scoring parade only 12 seconds in, taking a feed from fellow senior Trevor Dodman and beating Yale's Todd Sullivan to the shortside. Midway through the first, Turcotte returned the favor, sliding a pass to Dodman, who beat Sullivan to the lower right corner for a 2-0 Dartmouth lead.
Mike Stacchi continued Sullivan's blitzkrieg with a powerplay tally 13:16 into the game to extend the Dartmouth lead to 3-0. Yale's Andy Weidenbach scored on Scott Baker '97 about two minutes later, but Turcotte responded with 1:46 to go in the first with his second goal of the period, off a feed from Stacchi.
Dion Del Monte became the last senior to score for the Big Green when, on the powerplay, he took a pass from Dodman down low and beat Sullivan to the top-right corner, extending Dartmouth's lead to 5-1.
When Bill Kelleher '96 scored six minutes later, it appeared the Big Green would cruise to victory, but Yale scored on the powerplay to make it 6-2, and then the Bulldogs added two more in the first four minutes of the third period to cut it to a 6-4 game.
Stacchi stopped the bleeding, however, as he took a pass from David Whitworth '98 and scored to make it a 7-4 contest, a score which held up for the rest of the game.
When the smoke had cleared, six of the seven goals had been scored by the Dartmouth seniors.
Dartmouth 3, Princeton 2
The Cornell-RPI tie on Friday night meant that the Big Green were already eliminated heading into the Princeton game, but the squad didn't yet know it. So, they went out and played like a playoff team. Dartmouth jumped out to a 2-0 lead, only to be tied up in the third before winning it late in the game.
After a scoreless first, Dodman scored 4:30 into the second period, beating Princeton goalie James Konte with a long slapshot to give Dartmouth a 1-0 edge. The goal prompted the Dartmouth fans' traditional showering of the ice with tennis balls, most of them landing near Konte.
Following a 10-minute delay during which the ice was cleared (and some of the offending fans were ejected) the game resumed, and Stacchi quickly made it a 2-0 game. Turcotte slid a pass down low to Stacchi, who wristed a cleverly placed shot over the right shoulder of Konte.
In the third, Princeton tied it 2-2 on goals by Mervin Kopeck and Mike Bois. Dartmouth appeared to be reeling, but with just less than seven minutes to go in the contest, Turcotte broke the tie with a shot that rattled off the right post and under the crossbar.
From there, the Big Green withstood a late charge by Princeton and held onto the 3-2 victory.
The team finished the season at 7-13-2 in the ECAC and 9-16-2 overall. Those numbers were good for 16 points within the ECAC and an 11th place finish.
While eleventh place will not turn a lot of heads, compared to the 1993-94 campaign when the team recorded only four league wins and missed the playoffs by seven points, this season represents a marked improvement.
The squad missed the playoffs by the narrowest of margins, but it is remarkable that it was even alive heading into the final weekend, given the 10-game mid-season winless streak that almost sank its season completely.
