The Dartmouth men's hockey team continued to slide this past weekend, dropping two ECAC road games at Cornell and Colgate and in the process slipping into a three-way tie for last place in the conference.
The Big Green fell 4-2 to the Cornell Big Red on Friday night and were blasted 8-2 by the Colgate Red Raiders on Saturday night.
With the two defeats, the Big Green (3-12-1 ECAC, 4-17-2 overall) are now tied with Union and a suddenly resurgent Princeton for 10th place in the ECAC, with all three teams holding seven points.
Following a strong start to the 1996 calendar year, which saw the Big Green vault into ninth place in the conference on the heels of three straight ECAC wins, the team has gone winless since Jan. 14. The squad is 0-6-1 in its last seven games and has been outscored 40-19 during that stretch.
With just six games left in the regular season, the Big Green are now desperate for points if they are to make the playoffs for the first time since the 1992-93 season and the second time in 15 years.
Cornell 4, Dartmouth 2
The Big Green played Cornell tough through the first two periods of their matchup on Friday night at Lynah Rink in Ithaca, N.Y., but the Big Red won it by outplaying Dartmouth in the third.
Cornell's Brad Chartrand broke a 2-2 tie 7:43 into the third period, when his high wrister to the top-right corner of the net beat Dartmouth goalie Scott Baker '97 over his glove side.
Chartrand added his second goal of the night, an empty netter with 27 seconds remaining, to seal the Cornell victory.
The Big Green drew first blood, jumping out to a 1-0 lead just 4:45 into the game when Tom Ruzzo '97 tallied a powerplay goal. A slapshot from the point by Dave Risk '99 was steered aside by Cornell netminder Eddy Skazyk, but the rebound dropped at the right of the net, and Ruzzo punched it in for his third goal of the year.
At 11:22 of the first, Cornell struck back when Jamie Papp picked up a loose puck behind the net and slid it past Baker to tie the game at 1-1.
Darren Wercinski '97 scored his fifth goal of the season 6:09 into the second period to again give the Big Green a one-goal edge. Wercinski took a pass from Charlie Retter '98 and took a hard slapper from about 15 feet out, which found its way past two defensemen and into the net.
But again, the Big Red evened the score, on a pretty passing play that saw Kyle Knopp take a feed from Mike Sancimino and beat Baker. Knopp's goal, at 19:12 of the second period, knotted the game at 2-2.
Colgate 8, Dartmouth 2
While Friday night's matchup versus Cornell was close throughout most of the game, such was not the case on Saturday night at Starr Rink in Hamilton, N.Y., when the Big Green were blown out by Colgate 8-2.
The two teams actually played to a scoreless tie after one period, but once the second period again, the Colgate offensive floodgates opened.
After Jon Sturgis '98 put the Big Green in front 1-0 1:09 into the second period, cleaning up a rebound in front, Colgate reeled off eight straight goals -- four in the second period and four in the third.
The big star for Colgate was Mike Harder, the Red Raiders' sensational forward, who scored four goals on the night.
Chris DeProfio started the onslaught 4:08 into the second period, taking a feed next to the net from the right point to beat Baker for a 5-on-3 powerplay goal. Harder scored his first goal two minutes later and at 13:20 Dru Burgess scored to make it 3-1.
Harder scored again to make it 4-1 at 16:15 of the second and he then scored a breakaway goal at 7:41 of the third to make it 5-1.
After two more goals by the Red Raiders -- scored by Tim Brokaw at 9:07 of the third and Harder at 14:00 -- Coach Roger Demment yanked Baker and replaced him with Ben Heller '97. Heller was greeted rather rudely, as Harder scored his fourth goal of the night at 17:03.
Dartmouth's Dan Bloom '96 closed out the scoring at 18:06 to account for the 8-2 final.
The Big Green return home to Thompson Arena this weekend to face the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers and the Union Skating Dutchmen. RPI is currently in eight in the ECAC with 12 points and Union, in a three-way tie for 10th with Dartmouth and Princeton, has 7 points.
