Before this past weekend, the Dartmouth men's hockey team had very little to be excited about. True, the squad had just beaten Harvard 2-1 in their own building last weekend, but the Big Green were still in last place in the 12-team Eastern College Athletic Conference, and the squad was already in danger of dropping out of playoff contention.
But the Big Green sent a message to the rest of the ECAC that they will not be pushed around anymore, as they won two huge home games -- a 4-3 win over the Yale Bulldogs and a 3-2 victory over the Princeton Tigers.
In the process, the squad (3-6-0 ECAC, 4-11-1 overall) vaulted out of the ECAC cellar, leapfrogging from twelfth place in the conference into a three-way tie for ninth.
The squad has won three games in a row, all within the conference, and the Big Green are on perhaps their biggest roll since 1992-93, the last time the Big Green made the ECAC playoffs.
Coach Roger Demment called the weekend sweep, which earned the Big Green four points in the standings, "a real shot in the arm."
There were many heroes for the team over the weekend, but perhaps none as important as goalie Scott Baker '97, who continues to dazzle the rest of the league with one stellar performance after another.
Offensively, David Whitworth '98 continued his sizzling play with three goals and an assist over the weekend. Whitworth has seven goals and five assists in his last nine games.
The Big Green's penalty killing unit also continued to shine, letting up just one goal on 14 powerplay chances by their opponents over the weekend. The Dartmouth penalty killing unit has surrendered just two goals in their opponents last 39 chances with the man advantage, a whopping .949 success rate.
Dartmouth 4, Yale 3
Demment called Friday night's game against Yale "ugly," as both teams played sloppy hockey, but the Big Green will still gladly take the win.
Yale's Matt Cumming trimmed a Dartmouth lead from 4-2 to 4-3 with an unassisted goal at 12:07 of the third period, and the Big Green were back on their heels for the last seven minutes of the game. Some key saves by Baker, however, helped preserve the Dartmouth victory.
Whitworth broke a 2-2 tie with 4:47 to go in the second on a patented top-shelf goal. Whitworth took a pretty feed from Curtis Wilgosh '99, waited for Bulldog goalie Alex Westlund to drop to the ice, and calmly flipped the puck over him for a 3-2 Dartmouth lead.
Jeremiah Buckley '98 scored his second goal of the year 8:19 into the third to extend the Big Green lead to 4-2.
The Big Green had leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in the game, but each time Yale came back to tie the score.
Bill Kelleher '96 opened the scoring at 4:14 of the first period, beating Westlund to the shortside, but Yale's Brad Dunlap responded at 8:07 of the first, ripping a shot past Baker into the top-left corner to tie the game at 1-1.
At 8:23 of the second, the Big Green spoiled a Yale powerplay when Matt Giedt '99 blasted a shot past Westlund into the top-left corner of the net to give Dartmouth a 2-1 lead. It was the Big Green's first shorthanded goal of the year.
But at 14:38 of the second, Yale's John Emmons tied it up, off a nice feed from defenseman Curtis Millen.
Baker made 23 shots in the Dartmouth win.
An interesting note surrounding the game Friday night was the 30 minute delay in the start of the contest due to the late arrival of the referees. The game started with replacement officials, and the real refs arrived for the start of the second period.
Dartmouth 3, Princeton 2
More than 3,000 fans were in attendance for Saturday's game against Princeton, and the Big Green rewarded the unusually large crowd with an entertaining win.
Dartmouth took control of the game in the second period on goals just 2:29 apart by Whitworth and Charlie Retter '98.
Whitworth broke a 1-1 tie at 14:00 of the second period when he deflected a point shot by Owen Hughes '97 past Princeton goalie James Konte. The goal, which came on the powerplay, was Whitworth's second score of the night.
At 16:29 of the second, Retter extended the Dartmouth lead to 3-1. Wilgosh carried the puck up the ice and ripped a shot at Konte that squirted through the goalies pads and came to rest in the goalmouth. Retter cruised in untouched and punched the rebound in for his first goal of the year.
Princeton made things interesting near the end of the game, scoring a goal at 18:57 of the third to cut the Dartmouth lead to 3-2.
With Konte pulled for an extra attacker, Princeton's Tony Rinaldi took a nice feed in front of the Big Green net and flipped the puck over Baker for the goal.
The Tigers almost tied it up with 20 seconds left, but Baker made the save of the game, a brilliant lunge across the crease to deflect the potential game-tying shot just wide.
Princeton jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a powerplay goal 13:21 into the penalty-laden first period. Mike Bois intercepted a potential clearing pass from behind the Dartmouth net and fired it past Baker. The goal came on Princeton's fifth powerplay chance of the first period.
Whitworth tied the game at 1-1 with 3:33 left in the first stanza. The forward took a pass from Kelleher at the right of the net and beat Konte to the shortside.
With Whitworth's goal, the Big Green's first score of the game, came the traditional shower of tennis balls from the stands. Big Green fans threw several hundred tennis balls -- and a few oranges -- at Konte, littering the ice and delaying the continuation of the game.
At that point, the officials sent both teams to the locker rooms for an early intermission, and the remaining 3:33 was tacked onto the beginning of the second period.
The Big Green look to bring the momentum with them on the road, when they travel to St. Lawrence and Clarkson for two always-tough conference games this weekend. St. Lawrence is in second-place in the ECAC, and Clarkson is in a two-way tie for fifth.
