For the third straight year, the women's hockey team made it to the Frozen Four championships, but for the third straight year, the Big Green came up short in the semi-final game.
Despite this year's expanded tournament field of eight teams, the Frozen Four pairings were identical to those of a season ago. In the opening round, the Big Green defeated the Badgers of Wisconsin on March 19, 4-3 and joined Harvard, St. Lawrence and Minnesota in the Frozen Four.
Dartmouth (27-8-0) matched up against Minnesota (36-2-2) on Friday night in Durham, N.H., this year's host site for the women's Frozen Four. The Big Green had split the season series with the Gophers last December.
"We're going to have to play 60 minutes of good hockey, take opportunities that are given to us, and not give too many opportunities away," said Dartmouth Head Coach Mark Hudak before the semifinals.
The Gophers, however, took full advantage of their speed and a larger ice surface at the Whittimore Center. Just 13 seconds into the game, Olympian Natalie Darwitz drove down the left side of the ice, took the puck across the crease and beat goalie Kate Lane '06 for a 1-0 score.
Minnesota added two more goals in the first five minutes of the contest, and went on to a comfortable 7-2 victory.
"Minnesota is a very, very good team," said Hudak. "They hurt us early with their early goals and to play catch up against a team like that is nearly impossible."
The Gophers would defeat the Crimson of Harvard 4-3 two days later to capture their second consecutive NCAA national title.
On Sunday afternoon, Dartmouth played in the consolation game against St. Lawrence (28-7-5). Seniors Alana BreMiller, Meagan Walton, Kirsti Anderson and Krista Dornfried ended their Big Green careers by giving everything they had, but the team came up short against the Saints by a 5-1 margin.
"Obviously it's not the way we wanted to end the season," said Hudak. "St. Lawrence played a good game, got the momentum, did a good job, and we couldn't get it going."
Coincidentally, the Big Green lost to the Saints in last year's consolation match as well.
The Frozen Four championship concludes the hockey season, one in which the Big Green tied the school record for number of wins despite a string of injuries and a short bench. Individually, five Dartmouth forwards joined the 100-point club, and Cherie Piper '06 was named as one of the 10 finalists for the Patty Kazmaier award for player of the year.
"We need to reflect on the season," said co-captain Alana BreMiller '05. "We did accomplish a lot. This is the best team since I've been here."
"It's not the way we wanted it to end," said co-captain Meagan Walton '05. "We're still proud of the 17 players in the room."
Dartmouth graduates four players this June, among them co-captains BreMiller and Walton.
"Next year we lose four great leaders that were the heart and soul of the team," said Hudak. "Our goals were not only wins and losses. The seniors did an outstanding job in leadership this year."
Looking onward, with a great recruiting class coming in next year, the Big Green is poised to have another impact year in the ECAC conference and make a run at the national title once again.
