Sometimes you need to be slapped around a bit before you wake up. Apparently Dartmouth men's hockey needed that against Rensselaer Friday night, as the Big Green spotted the Engineers an early 2-0 lead, before countering with four unanswered goals to take the first game in of the best-of-three series with RPI.
Chris Baldwin '02 gave the Big Green help at crucial points in the game with his two goals, while Nick Boucher '03 was awe-inspiring in net, making 38 saves for the winning cause.
In a game that could have gone either way, the confidence this comeback win gives Dartmouth going into tomorrow night could make the difference in the series.
"Our kids battled back," head coach Bob Gaudet '81 said after the game. "We were down two to a very good hockey team and we found a way."
In finding this way to win, the Big Green defied the notion that they were a team that could not come from behind to win. Prior to tonight's game, the Big Green was 0-8-3 when trailing after the first period. They certainly found a good time to break that trend.
It was the Engineers who got on the board first, and they did so with great speed. Only 39 seconds into the first, before many fans had even settled into their seats, RPI gun Matt Murley lit the lamp off a pass from Jim Henkel. This start was not how the Big Green envisioned opening playoff season at Thompson.
To make matters worse, with Mike Byrne '01 sitting in the box for a questionable hooking call on an odd-man rush, Danny Eberly made it a 2-0 RPI lead at 11:31. Eberly took a pass from Marc Cavosie in the high slot and one-timed it home past Boucher.
Though the Big Green got their fair share of chances and outshot RPI 17-9 in the period, things were just out of synch. Passes were bouncing off sticks, players were falling down, and there was little flow to the offense. It was clear something needed to be tweaked if the Big Green were to make a game of it.
Baldwin provided the needed boost for Dartmouth, when he potted 11th goal of the season on the power play at 19:48. His shot from the right point banked over Nathan Marsters shoulder, making it a one-goal game, and giving Dartmouth some momentum heading into the second.
"It was a huge goal," Gaudet said. "To leave the period down 2-0 would have been difficult[the goal] was a great pass, great finish."
The Big Green must have been inspired by their teammate's good fortune, as the rest of the team picked it up in the second. The game got a bit chippy, especially during a scrum after the whistle in front of the RPI net at 4:35 in which bodies and various equipment was strewn across the ice while the referees attempted to take control. After the men in stripes sorted it out, there were seven penalties assessed in total, and RPI had the power play.
Dartmouth thrived off the physical play and Peter Mahler '01 capitalized on a chance at 10:06 to knot the game at two. The fourth line winger busted in and put home a rebound off sophomore Trevor Byrne's shot for his third goal of the year.
Before the Engineers even had a chance to catch their breath, the Big Green struck again. Only 34 seconds later Jamie Herrington '02 fired a shot from the slot past Marsters to make it 3-2. Herrington's game-winning-goal prompted RPI head man Dan Fridgen to call timeout and regroup.
The Big Green pressed for the rest of the period and Mike Byrne nearly made it 4-2 when he walked in alone on Martsters, but the RPI netminder somehow came up with the puck.
The third period saw the Engineers come back with some pressure, but it was the reliable goaltending of Boucher that kept the Big Green in it. RPI ratcheted up the intensity a bit, and didn't give the Big Green much through the neutral zone.
The Engineers lost some of their momentum when they took an ill-advised bench minor for too many men on the ice at 14:11. As they wasted two minutes on the penalty kill at a time when they could have been pressing in Dartmouth's end.
Any chance of an RPI comeback was thwarted when Baldwin sealed the win with an empty-net goal at 19:14, giving the Big Green some breathing room for the final 45 seconds of the game.
With the 4-2 win under their belts, the Big Green can enter into tonight's game with a bit of room for error. They know that RPI will be coming out flying, but it is their backs against the wall, not Dartmouth's.
So, part one of the mission is over for the Big Green. All the butterflies and kinks should be gone, and now the real work begins.
The Big Green face off with RPI in Game Two, tonight at 7 p.m.
