WEB UPDATE, March 23, 7:00 a.m.
Dartmouth's men's hockey team saw its dreams of an NCAA tournament berth and an ECACHL postseason title come to an end last Friday when Harvard crushed the team 10-1.
The Big Green had previously split their regular season encounters with the Crimson, losing in Cambridge and then blotting them out at Thompson Arena.
During Friday's ECACHL semifinals match against Harvard, Mike Devine '08 allowed seven goals on twenty-four shots before he was pulled after the second period for freshman goalie Daniel Goulding '09, who let three pucks past the crease on eleven shots. Goulding did show signs of improvement towards the end of the period, however, making several tough saves on deflected shots.
The Big Green's lone goal was scored by Nick Johnson '08, with assists coming courtesy of Eric Przepiorka '06 and Jarrett Sampson '06. The game marked the first time Dartmouth had allowed double digits in a game since a 10-2 defeat at the hands of the Boston University Terriers in 1994.
The results were better on Saturday afternoon for the men in green, as they halted the charge of the Colgate Raiders, 3-2. In this contest for third place, goals came courtesy of Rob Pritchard '09 with an assist coming from Jon Grecu '08. With 9:32 ticked away in the first period, Tanner Glass '07 deflected senior Sean Offers' slap shot from the blueline past Colgate's Mark Dekanich, the sophomore goaltender who won the ECACHL's Ken Dryden award for best netminder in the league. Senior Captain Mike Ouellette '06 also assisted on the play.
Dartmouth added its final score with 9:52 ticks gone in the second period, as Ouellette shot from behind the net to David Jones '08, who slapped a falling, worthy shot past Dekanich.
Devine made 21 saves for the Big Green and Dekanich made 39 for Colgate, becoming the Raiders' all-time season leader in saves in the process.
The victory over Colgate marks the second time that the Big Green have won a consolation game, as they defeated Brown 4-2 in the match up in 2002-03, and it is the first time that the Big Green has defeated Colgate in the third-place game. The men's team looks to take a swipe at the competition next year, and with the return of Jones, Johnson, Glass and Devine, among others, the team is in an excellent position to prove that they are truly "a contender."
