In early November, head coach Bob Gaudet warned the '98-'99 Big Green would have their ups and downs. After peaking on the road last weekend, the roller coaster ride bottomed out this weekend with home losses to St. Lawrence and Clarkson.
The Big Green hung close to St. Lawrence on Friday night, but could not force overtime falling 4-3.
On Saturday night, Dartmouth struck first but then saw the Golden Knights score six consecutive goals en route to a 6-1 Clarkson victory.
With the two losses, Dartmouth fell to 6-10-1 overall, and into eleventh place in the ECAC.
In the new year, the friendly confines of Thompson Arena haven't been too kind to the Big Green, as Dartmouth fell to 0-4 at home in 1999.
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. . . . .St. Lawrence
It's tough to win any game after falling behind 2-0, let alone to a team like St. Lawrence that has been in and out of the national rankings all season. Dartmouth did battle back to win the second two periods behind the support of a large turnout that was admitted for free due to inclement weather.
"The team appreciated the support of the administration and fed off the crowd," said David Risk '99. "The crowd provided a boost for us on the ice, its just unfortunate that we couldn't get a win for all the people who came out despite the weather."
Entering the third period down 4-2, Ryan Chaytors '99 wasted no time putting the Big Green right back into the game with his second goal of the night off assists from Mike Maturo '02 and Chris Baldwin '02. However, the next 19 minutes saw the Big Green go scoreless as the game ended 4-3.
St. Lawrence goalie Eric Heffler fended off 10 Dartmouth shots to preserve the win.
The Big Green went down 2-0 after the first period as Dartmouth's offense could not get on track.
Dan Casella '02 put Dartmouth on the scoreboard at 2:11 into the second period, but St. Lawrence's Bob Prier notched a power-play goal at 15:44 to maintain the two goal advantage. Chaytor's power-play goal off the feed from Risk once again cut the margin to one, but St. Lawrence responded right at the end of the period to take a 4-2 lead into the final stanza.
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Clarkson
After the first half of the game on Saturday night, it appeared the Big Green was in for another down-to-the-wire affair. Frank Nardella's goal at 19:24 of the first period gave the Big Green a 1-0 lead going into the second period.
The game was tied at one half-way through the second period when the Golden Knights started connecting on their power-play opportunities as they cruised to victory. Clarkson outscored Dartmouth 3-0 in the second period, and 3-0 in the third period to handily wrap up the game.
The Big Green did manage eleven shots on goal in the third period, but Golden Knights goalie Shawn Grant was equal to the task, finishing the night with 29 saves.
While the results of the weekend were disappointing, Dartmouth's traveling partner and fierce rival, Vermont, lost to Clarkson and St. Lawrence by similar margins and sits just two points (one win) away from the Big Green in the ECAC standings.
Dartmouth hosts the Catamounts next Saturday at 3 p.m. A traditionally raucous affair, the game brings in bus-loads of UVM fans and sells out every year. The Big Green would love to see a large Dartmouth contingent on hand to counter the Catamount crazies as the team looks to get back on track.
