Call it David vs. Goliath Part II.
The Big Green entered their first meeting with national powerhouse UVM as a "big" underdog. They threw all the right stones on the November 22nd matchup at Thompson however, and toppled the college hockey giant, 4-1.
Saturday, the "giants" in the yellow and green welcome Dartmouth to Burlington, a city that strikes fear into all visiting teams. The Big Green will have their sling shots ready, though, as they hope to equal their early season form, and
earn Dartmouth's first win at UVM since 1980.
UVM enters Saturday's game playing the kind of hockey everyone expected from them. Their superstar front line of Martin St. Louis, Eric Perrin and J.C. Ruid lead the team in scoring with 41, 38 and 20 points respectively.
Their All-American goaltender Tim Thomas has amassed a 2.78 goals against average, with a .916 save percentage. They sit near the top of the ECAC with a 7-4 league record, and for the month of January, they are 5-1.
Things don't seem nearly so rosy for the Big Green, who have dropped six out of their last eight, and are missing the stellar play in net from Jason Wong '00 and Eric Almon '00, who have cooled off as of late.
However, Dartmouth can never be counted out against UVM. At Thompson, the Big Green have a four game unbeaten streak against the Catamounts, and would love to break their fifteen straight losses at Gutterson Field House.
The Big Green succeeded on November 22nd with superb forechecking, thus tying up the Catamount attack at center ice, and taking UVM entirely out of their game plan.
"Once again, the key to victory will be to take away their team speed," Coach Demment said. "Our ice sheet is smaller than theirs, so it was easier to do at home, but we've still got to slow them down."
UVM's ice surface isn't the only difference from Thompson. The deafening home crowd can stir up mental havoc on even the most focused players.
"We don't want to get caught up in the 'rah-rah' atmosphere of the place," Demment said. "We've got to play solid, disciplined hockey and do our best to keep the crowd from becoming a factor."
This translates into not letting UVM get on the board quickly and often in the first period. Dartmouth has surrendered some big periods over the past couple of weeks -- like the six goals Clarkson tallied against them in the second period.
When the Cats come out hot, they have a tendency to get on a roll, as evidenced by their 13-3 record when they score first.
Emotions will be running high during this game as well, as the two teams have a storied history of friendly verbal jabbing with one another. While Dartmouth backed the talk with a brilliant effort in November, it will take another similar effort to sweep the Cats.
"We have 11 game objectives, and in our first meeting we met all 11," Coach Demment said. "We feel that if we can meet 75 percent of them on the road, we should win the game."
For some reason, the Catamounts bring out the best in Dartmouth's game, and a regular season sweep of UVM would be something the players and fans would savor for a long time.
"This has been a team that has achieved a lot of firsts," Demment said. "It'd be really nice to add a sweep of UVM to that list."
