Dartmouth (9-10-4, 6-7-3 ECACHL) tied Quinnipiac (9-16-5, 3-12-3 ECACHL) 2-2 on Friday evening and lost 7-2 in a rout to Princeton (15-5-4, 11-3-2 ECACHL) on Saturday afternoon. Neither game featured particularly impressive play from the Big Green.
"We can't wait until we're down [to start playing] ... which we seem to do a lot, and by then it's too late," Maggie Kennedy '09 said.
Dartmouth did seem to wait too long to ramp things up in this weekend's games. The Big Green scored three goals while blanking their opponents in the final frames. The team managed to turn the momentum of the Quinnipiac game around in the third period and salvage a point with an all-freshmen goal at 5:54. Shannon Bowman '09 scored the equalizer, with assists going to Maggie Kennedy '09 and Marley McMillan '09.
While the point was better than moving on empty handed, earning only a tie against a team with a record well below .500 was disappointing.
"[We] could not keep up the intensity and focus for the full 60 minutes," assistant captain Caroline Ethier '07 said.
The Big Green's lapses in concentration at various points throughout the game hurt them. After jumping out to an early lead against Quinnipiac on the strength of an Ethier goal, the Big Green were held scoreless for more than two periods and gave up a pair of goals.
"We made a lot of mistakes that the other teams, especially Princeton, were able to capitalize on," Kennedy said.
Princeton capitalized early and often on Dartmouth's mistakes. The first two periods were positively nightmarish for the Big Green as the sixth-ranked Tigers utterly dominated action.
On top of exceptionally strong play, Princeton had good fortune on its side. Adding insult to injury, Princeton's seventh goal was credited unassisted to junior Kim Pearce after she threw a pass through the crease that caromed off a Dartmouth player and wobbled past goalie Carli Clemis '09.
Clemis replaced Kate Lane '06 just before the midway point in the second with the score already 6-0.
"We let Kate down a bit in the Princeton game and we'll need to do a better job in this upcoming weekend," head coach Mark Hudak said.
While Dartmouth dominated the third period of the Princeton game, it did so against the Tigers' bench and a backup goalie. Nevertheless, Hudak was pleased with the way the team recovered from the disappointment of the first two periods and played hard in the third.
"I was very impressed with how we responded in the third period against Princeton -- we did not give up and showed some of what we are capable of during the third," Hudak said.
Dartmouth clearly did not play its best this weekend, but it would have been difficult to expect a masterful performance from the squad. Three of the team's central cogs, Tiffany Hagge '06, Emily Nerland '06 and Kelly Marcotte '09 missed the game due to injury. The losses, compounded with a bench shortened by the loss of four players to various Olympic teams, left the Big Green undermanned.
The Big Green next plays on Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. at home against the Colgate Red Raiders.
