Since the beginning of the season, Head Coach Bob Gaudet and his Dartmouth men's hockey team have said their goal is to reach the ECAC playoffs. This weekend, as the Big Green hit the road for contests against Yale tonight and Princeton tomorrow night, the team can just about sew up that coveted playoff spot with a productive two games.
The Green (11-10-4 overall, 7-9-2 ECAC, 8th place) currently sit in an 8th place tie with Princeton, with each team holding 16 points. Seventh-place Harvard is just a point ahead at 17, and Brown and Cornell are in a fifth-place tie with 19 points apiece.
Incidentally, the top five teams in the league get home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs, so if the Green are to make a last-ditch effort to reach fifth place by season's end, they will probably need at least a three-point weekend.
But a win and a tie this weekend won't be easy, especially with league-leading Yale on the schedule for tonight. The Bulldogs have been the biggest surprise in all of college hockey in 1997-98, and with four games remaining on the schedule they are looking to complete their Cinderella season by clinching the regular season ECAC title this weekend.
Yale (20-5-0 overall, 15-3-0 ECAC, 1st place) has a four-point edge over Clarkson for the top spot in the league. The Bulldogs have already clinched the Ivy League crown, and are looking for their first ECAC championship and first NCAA tournament berth since 1952.
Even more ominous for the Big Green, Yale has been fearsome at home this year, going a perfect 12-0 thus far at Ingalls Rink.
The Bulldogs are loaded with talent -- from flashy goaltender Alex Westlund to defenseman Ray Giroux, who leads the ECAC in points by a defenseman. Sophomore center Jeff Hamilton, who is one of the most lethal offensive players in the league, leads the ECAC in goals scored and comes into tonight's game on a 13-game point scoring streak.
To their credit however, the Green upset Yale 4-3 earlier this season in Thompson Arena, one of just three blemishes on the Bulldogs' ECAC record.
Tomorrow night's contest against Princeton looms even larger than tonight's Yale matchup, for while Dartmouth has no hope of catching Yale in the standings, the Green are in direct competition with Princeton (12-8-5 overall, 6-8-4 ECAC, 8th place) in the playoff seedings.
The good news for the Green is that the Tigers have been struggling lately. They picked up just one point last weekend to slide into the 8th-place tie with Dartmouth, and they have been decimated by injuries of late.
Among Princeton's walking wounded is Casson Masters, part of the Tigers' lethal "Orange Line," along with Scott Bertoli and Jeff Halpern.
Erasmo Salterelli figures to be between the pipes for the Tigers tomorrow night, as he has for most of the year.
For the Big Green, players to watch include Jon Sturgis '98, who leads the Green in goals, Dave Whitworth '98, who leads the team in assists, and Jeremiah Buckley '98, who has scored goals in six of his last seven games.
If Gaudet is true to form, then both of Dartmouth's sophomore goalies -- Eric Almon '00 and Jason Wong '00 -- figure to play this weekend.
Once the Big Green emerge from the Yale and Princeton games, they return home next weekend for the final two games of the regular season against Harvard and Brown.
