Dartmouth's women's hockey team (8-8-2, 5-5-1 ECACHL) made the most of the trip up to Schenectady, N.Y. for two matches against Union College (3-16-1, 0-12-0 ECAC). The Big Green dominated both the Friday and Saturday games, keeping Union off the board in both games and netting a total of 13 goals. Dartmouth took Friday's game 4-0 before running away with Saturday's game 9-0.
"It was nice to be able to find the back of the net since we had been struggling with that all year," assistant captain Caroline Ethier '07said.
The Big Green jumped out to a 19-4 advantage in shots on goal in the first period of the opening game, fired another 16 shots in the second and continued the barrage until the final whistle of the second game. However, the real scoring didn't start until late in the game on Friday evening.
"Beginning with the third period of the first game, we had a bit of a transformation. There was a sense of determination that we have seen glimpses of this year, but this time, they stayed with it for the next four periods. We need to keep that energy and confidence from here on out if we want to have a shot for extended post season play," Dartmouth head coach Mark Hudak explained.
"The difference was that we always had someone going hard to the net," Ethier said. "Our forwards got gritty and picked up many rebounds in front of the net."
Ethier netted a goal and had an assist, but was overshadowed by some almost silly numbers put up by her teammates Danielle Grundy '05 and Shannon Bowman '09
Each scored three goals and earned a pair of assists over the weekend, with all three of Bowman's goals coming during Saturday's game. Maggie Kennedy '09 was their mirror, scored the first goal in both games and assisted on three more on Saturday
The weekend series was marred by an inordinate number of penalties. While Friday's game was riddled with whistle blowing, 13 times between the two teams, Saturday's game was really something to see, and hear.
With a total of 21 penalties called between the teams, one began to hope in vain that the officials might discover some alternative to the shrill screech of a whistle. More time was spent in some sort of special teams situation than was played at even strength during Saturday's game.
While all of this may have been hard on the referee's respiratory system, it created many valuable opportunities for Dartmouth to work on its steadily improving power play.
Dartmouth's special teams squads were solid over the weekend. The penalty killing unit kept Union off the board despite a total of 17 penalties called on the Big Green during the pair of games, and the power play went six for seventeen over the weekend.
While not as eye grabbing, the pair of shutouts posted over the weekend by Carli Clemis '09 and Kate Lane '06 were certainly not insignificant.
"Both goalies had a great weekend," Hudak said. "Playing in games like that is sometimes tougher than any other as the shots are not consistent and the goalie has to do a lot to stay focused. Both Carli and Kate were great this weekend."
While the blowouts could have led to sloppy play, the Big Green remained concentrated on success. "We focused on doing the little things right," Ethier said.
The Big Green's dogged single-mindedness displayed itself clearly in the face off numbers. Dartmouth really ran away with things in the second game, winning 59 draws to Union's 36.
Dartmouth's next action will be against Harvard (10-6-2). The teams last played on Dec. 14, when Crimson Freshman Jenny Brine notched a hat trick that provided Harvard's margin of victory.
The Big Green hopes to avenge that loss tonight at 8 p.m. in a matchup that will be nationally televised on CSTV.
