The men's hockey team played two very different games this past weekend against conference opponents Union and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but unfortunately for the Big Green, each contest had an identical result -- Dartmouth losses.
The Big Green dropped a 6-2 decision to the Union Skating Dutchmen on Friday night and were defeated by the RPI Engineers by a 5-1 margin on Saturday night.
The two losses drop the squad's overall mark to 0-3-1, with an 0-2 record in the ECAC.
In dropping the back-to-back decisions, the Big Green wasted standout performances from many of the freshmen on the squad, including Matt Giedt '99 and Scott Peach '99, each of whom scored their first collegiate goals over the weekend.
But ultimately it was an anemic offense -- totalling only three goals over two games -- that did the Big Green in. Furthermore, the squad scored only once out of a whopping 21 powerplay opportunities over the two games.
Union 6, Dartmouth 2
Dartmouth played well through the first period on Friday night at Achilles Rink in Schenectady, N.Y., trailing the Skating Dutchmen only 1-0 after the first, but three second period goals by Union proved too much for the Big Green to overcome.
Despite the fact most of the first period was spent in the Dartmouth zone, and the Big Green were outshot in the period 13-4, Dartmouth was down only 1-0 after one.
But in the middle of the second, the Dartmouth defense, which had been playing so well, virtually evaporated as Union struck twice in 24 seconds.
At 13:02 of the second stanza, Union's Ryan Donovan came down the right boards and slid a nice pass in front of the net to Brent Ozarowski, who tapped it past goalie Scott Baker '97 for a 2-0 Union lead.
Then, at 13:26, the Skating Dutchmen struck in absolutely identical fashion, this time with Chris Ford feeding Jon Sicinski in front for the score to make it 3-0 Union. Chad Thompson's breakaway goal near the end of the second made it 4-0 Union.
Coach Roger Demment opted to start Ben Heller '97 between the pipes in the third period, because Baker had stopped only two of the five shots he faced in the second period.
In a strange twist, Heller had to borrow Baker's mask before entering the game, since his own mask had been stolen from the bench between the first and second periods. Heller's mask was returned after the game, having been "borrowed" by some Union fraternity pledges.
Union's Russ Monteith made it a 5-0 game 4:34 into the third with a powerplay tally, fighting his way to the front to punch a rebound past Heller. Craig Reckin scored four minutes later on a breakway to extend Union's lead to 6-0.
The only suspense left in the game was whether or not Koenig would post a shutout of the Big Green, but Peach scored a powerplay goal to get Dartmouth on the board at 11:37 of the third.
Peach lifted a backhander past Koenig for his first career goal.
Giedt closed out the scoring with a fluky goal to make it 6-2 Union. Giedt slapped a shot from the blue line that was deflected a couple of times in front, popped up into the air, and actually hit Koenig on the back before dropping in the net.
Despite the strong play of the freshmen, Demment was not pleased with his team's effort on Friday night. "We got outplayed in every facet of the game," he said.
During the first period of the game, defenseman Scott Dolesh '96 pulled a muscle on his right side below his rib cage, and did not return. Dolesh did not dress against RPI and his status is day-to-day.
RPI 5, Dartmouth 1
Dartmouth played a much more disciplined and gritty game on Saturday night at the RPI Fieldhouse in Troy, N.Y., but the Big Green still lost handily to the Engineers.
RPI scored two goals in each of the first two periods, matched by only one Dartmouth tally, to jump out to an easy 4-1 lead, and then cruised from there.
Patrick Rochon opened the scoring at 6:31 of the first with a powerplay score, ripping a slapshot that past Baker, who again got the start in net. At 14:31, RPI's Tim Regan scored another powerplay goal, tipping home a Rochon shot to make it 2-0.
Dartmouth pulled to within 2-1 at 4:14 of the second, with Giedt scoring his second goal in as many nights. Ryan Chaytors '99 and Giedt came down the ice together and did a pretty crisscross, before a patient Chaytors finally fed the puck to a wide-open Giedt, who punched the puck past RPI goalie Mike Tamburro.
RPI quickly struck back, when Bryan Richardson intercepted a bad pass in the Dartmouth zone, and slipped the puck to freshman Matt Garver, who lit the lamp to make it 3-1 RPI.
RPI made it 4-1 at 19:13 of the second on a delayed penalty call. Chaytors was signalled for tripping an RPI player, and Tamburro headed for the bench for the extra skater. Richardson came off the bench as the extra skater, took a feed from Regan, and beat Baker glove side.
The third period was extremely frustrating for the Big Green, as they peppered Tamburro with 14 shots -- almost equalling their total from the first two period combined -- but were unable to put one past him.
Garver added his second goal of the night, a powerplay marker with 26 seconds remaining, to close out the 5-1 victory for the Engineers.
Special teams was clearly a factor in this game, with RPI converting three of nine powerplay opportunities, while the Big Green were a hideous 0 for 11 with the man advantage.
Demment was much happier with the Big Green effort on Saturday night despite the 5-1 loss. "[Friday] night versus Union we displayed a lack of discipline and questionable effort, whereas tonight we got an outstanding effort from each member of the team," he said.
Still optimistic about the team's chances for success despite its 0-3-1 record, Demment said, "The bad news is that we come out of this weekend with no points, but the good news is ... the season is still very young."
The brightest spot of the weekend was clearly the offensive play of the freshmen, including the all-freshman fourth line, with Curtis Wilgosh '99 centering Chaytors and Giedt.
In addition, Peach had looked very good on a line centered by David Whitworth '98 with Darren Wercinski '97 on the other wing.
The Big Green return home to Thompson Arena this weekend for their home opener against two tough ECAC opponents -- Colgate and Cornell.
