The offense of the Dartmouth women's ice hockey team ran into a brick wall this weekend -- the starting goaltender of the U. S. Olympic gold medal team.
Providence goalie Sara DeCosta stopped 39 of 40 Big Green shots on goal to lead the Friars to a 3-1 victory on Friday night. Dartmouth netminder Meg Cahill '01 made 24 saves in the game.
Meg Cahill '01 salvaged a tie with Brown the following day by turning away a whopping 50 shots on goal preserving a scoreless draw. The shutout marked Cahill's second on the season and the sixth in her career.
Dartmouth now stands 3-2-1 in the ECAC and 0-1-1 in the Ivy League.
"Cahill played the best I have ever seen her play," teammate Sarah Halsell '99 said.
"We were total underdogs coming into the game and were very relaxed," Cahill said. "The puck just kept hitting me and by the second period I had a ton of confidence. I think that it rubbed off on everyone else."
Dartmouth's performance against Brown will most certainly be a source of confidence as the season progresses. Brown, who won last year's ECAC tournament, recently defeated Harvard who were the preseason favorites to win the Ivy League.
"Every single person on the team contributed everything they had to that game, and we never once let up," Halsell said. "The women know they can reproduce that level of effort again if they have to."
Halsell was the sole source of Dartmouth offense this weekend. She tapped in a rebound off of a shot by Carrie Sekela '01 eight minutes into the first period. Providence answered right back though, scoring just 34 seconds later.
The Big Green played well over the next 30 minutes, but was unable to actually put the puck in the net. Providence finally broke through the Big Green defense with less than three minutes left in the second period to take the lead before sealing the deal seven minutes into the third.
In both of Dartmouth's losses this season, to Cornell and Providence, the Big Green outshot their opponents, a definite source of frustration for the women.
The team, in Cahill's words, has simply run into bad the luck. The five goalies the Big Green have faced this season are some of the best goalies in the league, and even the country.
Tonight's matchup against Boston College in Chestnut Hill should provide the team's offense with a chance to explode offensively against a lesser caliber goalie.
Boston College was tabbed to finish 11th out of the 14 teams in the expanded ECAC.
