Six days after toppling Harvard and Vermont in convincing fashion to open its 2006-07 campaign, the Dartmouth men's hockey team showed that it is still a good distance from developing into the dominant force it hopes to become.
Following a heartbreaking 2-1 home overtime loss to St. Lawrence on Friday night, the Big Green (2-2-0, 1-2-0 ECACHL) fell to 13th-ranked Clarkson 6-3 Saturday night at Thompson Arena.
After taking a brief 1-0 advantage two minutes into the third period against St. Lawrence (4-3-0, 2-0-0 ECACHL) on T.J. Galiardi '10's second goal of the season, Dartmouth lost its lead at 11:53 in the frame when sophomore Shawn Fensel beat Dartmouth goaltender Mike Devine '08 on his second rebound chance, sending the contest to overtime.
As the game looked to be heading towards a tie with less than a minute remaining in the extra period, St. Lawrence forward Charlie Giffin capitalized on an open look, sending a screaming slap shot over Devine's left shoulder with 26.4 left on the clock and giving the Saints a 2-1 victory in sudden death.
Up until Fensel's third period strike, Devine, the reigning ECACHL Goalie of the Week, had been flawless between the pipes, recording 33 saves on the night. With St. Lawrence outshooting Dartmouth 35-23, Devine found himself under pressure all game long, coming up with one tremendous save after another. Most notably, with two minutes left in regulation, Devine made a diving stop after a St. Lawrence forward broke free, going one-on-one with the Big Green netminder.
Dartmouth, which had moved up to as high as 11th in one national poll prior to the weekend, struggled to find any offensive stability throughout the first two periods of play. Quick shots and passing miscues combined with a stalwart defensive effort by St. Lawrence plagued the Big Green, which was not without its chances. Dartmouth could not convert on seven power play opportunities, including a five-on-three with 9:20 left in the third period.
"St. Lawrence is a really good team, and we didn't have our 'A' game," said head coach Bob Gaudet '81. "They ran a nice play at the end there, capitalizing on us missing our three-on-one at their hand to beat us."
"We have good games and bad ones -- you learn from them, and then move on," continued the coach, referring to the content of his long post-game speech to his dejected players.
St. Lawrence outworked us tonight, that's why the result was the way it was," concluded Gaudet. Saints players, once they had changed in their locker room after the game, proceeded to run sprints around the empty concourse of Thompson Arena."
Team captain Tanner Glass '07 mirrored his coach's sentiments. "We know what we have to work on, there's no need to dwell on it," said Glass after the game. "Every time you lose like that you want to remember the feeling, and then not feel it ever again."
Unfortunately, it would not be too long until the Big Green felt the sting of defeat once again.
On Saturday, Clarkson (6-1-1, 2-0-0 ECACHL) pushed Dartmouth into an early hole, notching three unanswered goals by the 12th minute of the opening frame. The Big Green finally got on the board at 5:27 in the second period on a power play goal by Ben Lovejoy '06, pulling Dartmouth within two. After Clarkson freshman Matt Beca extended the Golden Knights' lead back to three, Nick Johnson '08 made the score 4-2 on another Big Green power play at 14:32 in the second.
Two more insurance goals at the start of the third period put the proverbial nail in Dartmouth's coffin. The only highlight for the Big Green during the final frame came, once again, from freshman phenom Galiardi. With seven minutes to go in the game, the early favorite for Dartmouth rookie of the year connected on the Big Green's third power play goal of the night.
The weekend's two losses knock Dartmouth back to the .500 mark and to eighth place in the league. St. Lawrence, Clarkson and Cornell are tied for first in the ECACHL.
"On Saturday I thought we were much better than the previous night, but they got three quick ones which we just couldn't recover from," said Johnson. "It's not a good feeling to ever get swept, but it's especially frustrating after the strong showing we had on Saturday."
Devine does not believe that Dartmouth should be demoralized by this weekend's performance. "We're not going to go into panic mode just because of one bad weekend," said the junior goalie. "We didn't have it this weekend, and we all know that. We just need to prepare ourselves so that this doesn't happen again."
Looking toward next weekend's matchups at Colgate and Cornell, Devine remained optimistic. "This upcoming weekend is huge for us to get back on the track we want to be on," said Devine. "We have a lot of veterans on our team that have been through some tough stretches here and we know how to deal with adversity. We will be fine. This upcoming weekend should be a fun one."
The Big Green returns to action next weekend, traveling to New York to take on Colgate on Friday and Cornell on Saturday. Both games begin at 7 p.m.
