This weekend, the Dartmouth men's hockey team will look to continue its dominance at Thompson Arena against Yale and Princeton.
Last weekend, the Big Green (3-3-0, 2-2-0 ECAC, 1-2-0 Ivy) slapped around Colgate for some much-needed confidence heading into the evenutal upset of Cornell.
Dartmouth put out as much of a veteran line-up as it could muster against the Big Red, and the older guys produced. Mike Murray '03 put up a goal and two assists, while Trevor Byrne '03 and Mike Wheelihan '04 each had a goal.
"We've got enough pieces, there's a lot of guys who can contribute to this team," Coach Bob Gaudet '81 said. "It was good to spread out the scoring."
Last Friday night, the Big Green attack was centered around its second line and power play, the two most productive parts of the team at this point.
This weekend, the tougher opponent comes first, as the Bulldogs (3-2-0, 3-1-0 ECAC, 0-1-0 Ivy) skate against the Big Green on Friday night.
"Yale is one of the most explosive offensive teams in our league," Gaudet said of the team that scored seven goals against Rensselaer and five against Union just last weekend.
"Traditionally, Yale is one of the highest-skilled teams in our league. They're coming in with a high-powered team," Gaudet said.
Yale has only fallen to nationally-ranked teams thus far, dropping a 7-3 decision to the Fighting Sioux of North Dakota and losing an Ivy battle with Cornell, 6-2. The Bulldogs will enter the game on a three-game winning streak.
Princeton (1-5-0, 1-3-0 ECAC, 0-2-0 Ivy) may have some momentum on its side, however, from its first win of the season last Saturday night, a 4-3 decision over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
"Princeton is a hard-working team, traditionally very strong in goal," Gaudet said.
This year, however, it is very much unclear at whom the tennis balls and pucks will be fired. Princeton has played three different goalies in at least two games each. Only sophomore net-minder Trevor Clay has recorded a victory, but has the highest goals against average in the group at 4.81.
Dartmouth will also face off Tuesday night against a formerly No. 1 Boston College team that just suffered its first loss of the season against the University of New Hampshire. Despite the three-game stretch, Dartmouth won't necessarily use its depth in order to rest.
"There's a chance that we could play the same line-up all three nights and there's a chance we'll play a different line-up each night," Gaudet said. "It depends on where we are physically because we're playing a pretty demanding type of hockey."
The puck drops at 7 p.m. right here at Thompson Arena on Friday night against the Bulldogs and on Saturday night against the Tigers.
Don't forget your tennis balls for the Princeton game.