The Dartmouth women's hockey team continued towards its goal of a repeat of last season's Ivy League championship this past weekend, beating Ivy rival Cornell 5-3. The team improved its undefeated Ivy status to 3-0, keeping the team in first place.
"Since before Christmas, we've picked it up a notch," Jen Lane '98 said. "We're strong and playing with confidence."
Through the second period, things did not look good for the Big Green. Entering the third period, the team was facing a two-point deficit after chronic penalties put points on the board for both teams.
With Cornell up 3-1, three of the four goals were scored during power plays and only one was scored during a normal five-on-five situation.
"The refs really took it away from the players," Coach George Crowe said. "They didn't let them play. That took away from the flow. It was hard to get continuity of one line after another."
Cornell's first goal came at 8:30 as Sarah Hood '98 sat out a five-minute major penalty for checking from behind. Goalie Sarah Tueting '98 was drawn out of the goal, allowing Cornell's Jennifer Wilson to tip the puck into an empty cage.
Senior co-Captain Sarah Howald's slashing penalty, with five minutes left in the first period, gave Wilson the chance for a second power play goal.
With less than a minute left in the first, Dartmouth reversed the earlier trend, and Hood slid the puck to Michelyne Pinard '98 for a Dartmouth goal as Wilson and Morag McPherson watched from the penalty box.
It was not until the end of the second period that the next goal was scored, this time by Cornell's Tracey Cornell.
By the third period, Dartmouth meant business. Howald avenged an injury to teammate Malaika Little '97 with a slapshot fired past Cornell goalie Alanna Hayes, another power play goal.
Seconds later, with Cornell's Robin Thompson sitting out two minutes, freshman Kathleen O'Keefe knocked one in to tie the game.
That was by no means the end of the Dartmouth attack. With five minutes left in the game, Pinard fed Hood the puck for the game-winning goal.
In the last minute, Cornell pulled its goalie to put out six potential scorers. The plan went awry, however, as Howald slid in one more insurance goal for the Big Green.
"We had two bad periods but it showed we have a lot of heart to be able to come back like that," Howald said.
One key to Dartmouth's success was goalie Tueting, who had several key saves in her 29 stops.
"I felt good about how our team played," Cornell Coach Julie Andeberhan said. "Dartmouth is a team you can't take lightly. They really capitalized on their opportunities. It was a hard fought game."
In the first game of the weekend, the Big Green crushed ECAC opponent St. Lawrence, 6-1.
"We definitely outskated them," Crowe said. "We had six goals and we had a lot more opportunities. If you have opportunities, the goals will come."
Although Dartmouth dominated play from the start, the Saints were able to hold the Big Green scoreless for the first six and a half minutes.
But after Brown's Michele Selzer took a seat in the penalty box for interference, Howald took a pass from Hood and put her team on the board, 1-0.
While the period ended with no further goals, St. Lawrence did have several opportunities to score, but goalie Tueting kept her ground.
Tueting came out strong in the second half with several key saves to keep her team ahead by one.
At 10:38, Jessica Clark '98 crossed the puck from the left side to Sarah Halsell '99, who was waiting at the right corner. Halsell redirected the puck past goalkeeper Lori Townsend and gave Dartmouth a two-point lead.
Six minutes later, Howald fed the puck to Amy Coelho '97 who tipped it in, giving Dartmouth a 3-0 lead.
Back in the third with a vengeance, the Big Green spent the first two minutes firing shot after shot at Townsend. The machine gun attitude of the Big Green paid off 2:22 into the period when Coelho scored unassisted.
Thirteen seconds later Coelho assisted a Pinard goal to pull the score up to 5-0.
Dartmouth's final goal came just over 14 minutes into the final period from Howald.
"It was good to get that many goals," Howald said. "We need to get our scoring confidence up."
With only 1:23 remaining on the clock, St. Lawrence's Julie Barnett stole Tueting's potential shutout with a slapshot from in front to the lower right corner of the net.
Despite just missing a shutout, Tueting did tally 27 saves during the afternoon. St. Lawrence's two goalies, Townsend and Taryn MacLiver, recorded 35 total saves.
