Nearly 20 years has gone by since the men's hockey team has won the Ivy League title. This year, Dartmouth has a chance to win it, and it all depends on this weekend.
The fourth-ranked Big Green (7-11-4) travel down to face Yale (9-10-4) and Princeton (8-12-3) for two critical ECAC match-ups.
Both the Bulldogs and the Tigers rank fifth in the ECAC with a 6-7-3 record (.469) while the Big Green have a 6-6-3 record.
"It's the most important weekend we've had all year and could put us in a position to challenge for the Ivy title," captain Ryan Burkart '99 said. "We all know the importance of the games and we know we can beat both of these teams so we're confident going into this weekend."
Burkart says the key for success is simply for the Green to play up to potential.
"We haven't put together a really solid 60 minutes of hockey in a few weeks now so we're definitely due," he said.
"Both of these teams play a similar style to ours so it's just a matter of executing better than them, and outworking them."
Dartmouth has only one weekend sweep this season. It beat RPI and Union on Jan. 7 and 8.
Offensively, Dartmouth is led by sophomore forwards Frank Nardella '02 and Mike Maturo '02. Nardella has five goals and eight assists in 22 games, while Maturo leads the team with six goals.
A pair of defensemen, Trevor Byrne '03 and Pete Summerfelt '03, have scored 10 and nine points respectively from the blue line.
In the net, Nick Boucher '03 has appeared in 12 conference games and is 6-4-2. Boucher boasts a .926 save percentage and a 2.23 goals against average.
Dartmouth will play at Yale on tonight at 7:00 p.m. and at Princeton on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
