Dartmouth's women's ice hockey team was unable to defeat UNH during last year's dominant season, and they were not able to so this past Friday either.
But they could not have come any closer. After a fast paced game in which Dartmouth outshot UNH 29-20 and a potential game-winning goal was called back with only minutes left to play, the two teams ended in a 3-3 tie.
"We definitely outplayed them. We're pumped to play UNH on our own ice," said Kate Cochrane '02.
"We were a little disapointed in the end. We felt we proved that we were the better team overall," said Jen Wiehn '01.
The girls took out their disapointment the following day outshooting Colby by a whopping margin of 74-3 to win 7-0.
Indeed the team has undergone quite a transition from the flat, unispired group that struggled against mediocore opponents such as Boston College only a few weeks ago.
It seems the biggest difference in the team is mental. There have certainly been flashes of brilliance in the girls season, but until recently they were too late, often when the game was out of reach.
"We realized that we have to come into games the way we finish. If we do that we're good enough to play with any team in the nation," said Wiehn.
The Big Green certainly did demonstrate its ability to step it up late in the game when playing UNH. Although they had played well from the beginning, the girls found themselves down 2-0 after the first two periods.
The team maintained faith and came into the third period flying. Goals by Kristin King '02 and Liz Macri '01 made the score even at 2-2.
With about three minutes left to play Kathleen O'Keefe '99 hit the UNH goalie off a wrist shot. Wiehn stepped into the crease and batted the puck into the goal. It appeared as if Dartmouth had taken the lead, and possibly even the game.
The referee, however, saw things differently. She felt that Wiehn had entered the crease before the puck had, an illegal move in ice hockey.
Accordingly the goal was voided and the score put back at 2-2. UNH collected itself and came down to score on Dartmouth a minute later.
Down 3-2 with 1:30 left in the game, Dartmouth pulled goalie Meg Cahill '01 for a man advantage on the offense.
The clocked clicked away as Dartmouth struggled to find a whole in the UNH defense. Finally with 3.7 seconds left Carrie Sekela '01 put in a rebound to keep Dartmouth alive.
The game went into a scoreless overtime and finished in a tie.
Next weekend St. Lawrence and Cornell will just have to hope that Dartmouth doesn't play like it is losing from the first period on.