Despite opening up the 1995-96 campaign with an 0-9-1 record and teetering on the edge of playoff elimination for much of the regular season, the men's hockey team has made the ECAC postseason tournament, and will hit the road to face the RPI Engineers in Troy, N.Y. tomorrow night in the first round.
Just months ago, making the playoffs seemed impossible for the Big Green. But the team rode a late-season surge -- capped off by this past weekend's home sweep of Harvard and Brown -- all the way to ninth place in the conference.
The team officially made the playoffs on Friday night, when Dartmouth's 5-1 victory over Harvard at Thompson Arena, coupled with losses that night by Union and Yale, guaranteed the Big Green a spot in the ECAC postseason tournament.
When the Big Green beat Brown 3-2 on Saturday night and Princeton lost to RPI, Dartmouth jumped into ninth place, setting the stage for the Dartmouth-RPI matchup in the 8-9 game tomorrow night.
While Dartmouth's 6-14-2 ECAC record and 7-19-3 overall mark will hardly earn them a spot in the Top 10 national rankings, Coach Roger Demment will gladly take the playoff berth -- Dartmouth's second trip to the postseason in Demment's five-year coaching tenure here.
Stating the obvious, Demment said making the playoffs is "one of the things you shoot for at the start of the year."
He praised the Big Green for overcoming the adversity of going winless in their first ten games. "For them to accomplish their goal [of making the playoffs] after such a rough start is a tribute to them," Demment said of his players.
The RPI matchup
Dartmouth and RPI split the season series this year, with the home team winning each game.
The Engineers beat the Big Green 5-1 on Nov. 11 in Troy, and Dartmouth defeated RPI 3-1 on Feb. 16 at Thompson.
Following Dartmouth's win over Brown on Saturday night, and before the Big Green's first-round opponent had been determined, Demment said he had no real preference as to whether he would rather the Big Green face Brown or RPI in the opening round of the playoffs.
But he did say the RPI fans at Houston Field House are loud and rowdy, so playing in that building is always a difficult chore.
The Big Green are likely to go with Scott Baker '97 in goal tomorrow night, as Baker has handled most of the Big Green goaltending chores this season, and has played very well as of late.
But should backup netminder Ben Heller '97 be pressed into service, Demment will have the confidence of knowing Heller will also likely be sharp. Demment gave Heller the start against Brown this past Saturday and the goalie responded with a sparkling effort.
Dartmouth last made the ECAC tournament in the 1992-93 campaign, when the senior members of the team -- Dan Bloom '96, Captain Dax Burkhart '96, Scott Dolesh '96 and Bill Kelleher '96 -- were freshmen.
Demment was named ECAC Coach of the Year that season.
But despite being seeded seventh in the postseason tournament that season, the Big Green were ejected from the playoffs in the first round, defeated at Thompson Arena 4-3 in double overtime by Colgate, the 10th seed.
In retrospect, the results from that game should be encouraging for Dartmouth -- if for no other reason, then because it proved the lower-seeded team is capable of defeating its opponent on the road.
Should the Big Green beat RPI tomorrow night, they would next play this weekend in a best-of-three series against either the top-seeded Vermont Catamounts in Burlington, Vt. or the second-ranked Clarkson Golden Knights in Potsdam, N.Y.
The Big Green's second-round opponent would be determined by the result of tomorrow night's Brown-Princeton 7-10 game in Providence, R.I.
The weekend sweep
Dartmouth knew heading into the weekend that two wins would mean a guaranteed berth in the playoffs.
As it turned out, one win would have been enough, based on the results of other action around the league -- but the Big Green won twice anyway.
Friday night, Dartmouth scored three third-period goals to turn a 2-1 game into a 5-1 rout.
The win over Harvard, along with the Big Green's 2-1 beating of the Crimson earlier this season in Cambridge, Mass., completed Dartmouth's first season sweep of Harvard since 1980-81.
Brent Retter '97 scored 2:55 into the third, beating Harvard goalie Tripp Tracy five-hole, to give the Big Green a 3-1 lead.
After Owen Hughes '97 scored at 17:42 of the third off a pretty feed from David Whitworth '98, Retter scored his second goal of the night, as he beat a Harvard defender, moved right to left, and put the puck past Tracy at 19:43 of the third.
Demment said Retter "had probably one of the best games he's ever had in a Dartmouth uniform."
Kelleher opened the scoring 3:03 into the first, and Harvard tied the score on a Henry Higdon goal just 1:25 later.
Kelleher's second goal of the night -- a powerplay score to the top-left corner of the Harvard goal at 9:30 of the second -- broke the 1-1 tie and put the Big Green up for good.
Baker was tremendous in the Dartmouth net, stopping 32 of the 33 Harvard shots -- including all 21 shots he faced in the second period.
"Bakes came to the forefront when we needed him," Demment said. "He was real solid and he made a couple of very outstanding saves."
On Saturday night, Demment elected to rest Baker and give Heller his fourth start of the year -- and Heller responded in a big way, playing his best game of the season.
Following an Adrian Smith goal at 11:57 of the first that put Brown on top 1-0, Dartmouth scored three times in the second period to take the lead for good.
Alex Dumas '97 tied the game at 1-1 on a powerplay goal 6:38 into the second, ripping a slapper from the right point that clanged off the near-side post and deflected behind Brown goalie Mike Parsons.
At 10:25, Burkhart put the Big Green up 2-1 on a goal that almost exactly mirrored Dumas'. Burkhart got the puck at the right point on a delayed penalty call, and rocketed a shot that beat Parsons high to the glove side.
Darren Wercinski '97 added a powerplay score at 19:01 of the second. As Brown was changing their lines, Heller threw a long pass from the goalmouth all the way up to near the Brown blue line, where Wercinski picked it up.
Wercinski took the puck, skated in on Parsons, and blasted a shot that beat the goaltender five-hole.
As an added bonus, Heller got an assist on Wercinski's goal, giving him his first career point, and making him the first Dartmouth goalie since 1991-92 to have a point.
Smith added a harmless goal with two seconds left in the third period to account for the final 3-2 score.
