Powered by junior Katie Weatherston's fourth hat-trick of the season, the Dartmouth women's hockey team finished its non-conference schedule with a 3-1 victory over No. 6 New Hampshire on Wednesday night in Durham.
After allowing the first goal of the game to UNH (13-4-2), Dartmouth (14-1-0) relied on solid team-play and an opportunistic Weatherston to quickly regain control of the contest. The three tallies, including a beautiful give-and-go which tied the game, gave Weatherston 22 goals in 12 games, the best goals-per-game average in the nation.
"I think [the hat-trick] had a lot to do with me being in the right spot at the right time tonight and I received a great pass from [Cheryl] Muranko '05 to score our short-handed goal."
Dartmouth, coming off a 10-2 rout of Providence on Sunday, started slow in the first period, allowing the Wildcats to dominate the pace of the game. UNH also had a chance early in the second period when Dartmouth was whistled for a major penalty, but the Wildcats recorded just one shot on goal during that five-minute stretch. Dartmouth regrouped following the penalty and tallied two power-play goals to ice the final score.
"As a team, we did not play focused and determined hockey for the entire 60 minutes," said coach Mark Hudak. "We had spurts of good play, but rarely seemed to have all six people on the ice playing well as a unit."
On a positive note, all three Big Green tallies were scored in special-teams situations. The power-play, which plagued the Dartmouth squad a year ago, has drastically improved this season, producing at 28 percent compared to last season's mediocre 16 percent.
"Special teams were certainly a point of emphasis from the beginning of the year," said Hudak. "It's not that we are doing anything drastically different this year, but the execution by the players on the ice and the support from the entire team has been incredibly positive."
In the win, Cherie Piper '06, who leads the team in overall scoring with 33 points, recorded the 100th point of her career on the first of her two assists. The Olympian from Canada needed only 61 games to accomplish the feat.
Coming home after the victory, Dartmouth enters the season's final stretch of 14 consecutive conference games. Last year, the Big Green finished third in ECACHL with a 14-3-1 record, behind Harvard and St. Lawrence. This season, Dartmouth was picked as the preseason favorite to win the conference, which includes five top-ten squads. The team is currently tied for second place with 12 points but remains the only undefeated team in conference play.
Next on the agenda is Union College (3-13-1, 0-8-0 ECACHL), a team that did not give Dartmouth much trouble last year in the two teams' inaugural series. The Big Green easily handled the Dutchwomen with 7-0 and 11-0 victories. Despite the overwhelming success, the team is not taking this weekend lightly, even though it is a change of pace from a string of five games against top-ranked teams in the nation.
"We are prepared to treat these games like any other," said Piper. "You can never walk into the rink and expect anything. We have to always be prepared."
The Big Green will play its next eight games in the friendly confines of Thompson Arena, including a Jan. 15 encounter with nemesis St. Lawrence, who handed Dartmouth four of its eight losses last season. This year, with the top-scoring offense in the nation and a top-ten defense, the Big Green looks to return the favor and return to glory in the ECACHL.
