The Dartmouth men's hockey team stumbled in its return to its ECACHL schedule, the team's first league action since Saturday, Jan. 6. The Big Green blew a two-goal lead late in the third period in a 4-4 tie with No. 10 Clarkson in Potsdam, N.Y., on Friday night, before suffering a 4-1 loss to No. 17 St. Lawrence in Canton, N.Y., on Saturday evening.
Josh Gillam '10 led the Big Green with two goals, and J.T. Wyman '08 and Kevin Swallow '09 each had two points with a goal and an assist during the road trip. Grant Lewis '07 also contributed two assists during that span.
After the draw against the Golden Knights, the loss to the Saints snapped a four-game unbeaten streak for the Big Green (9-9-3, 5-6-3 ECACHL). Dartmouth moves to a fifth-place tie in the conference standings with Cornell, each with 13 points. St. Lawrence (14-10-2, 10-3-1 ECACHL) retained the top spot with 21 points, two better than second-place Clarkson (16-6-4, 8-3-3 ECACHL) and Quinnipiac.
Against Clarkson, the Big Green jumped out to a 4-2 lead with 11:40 remaining in the game when David Jones '08 netted a short-handed goal after Connor Shields '09 picked up the puck at center ice off a Golden Knight turnover and hit Jones going into the offensive zone.
Clarkson managed to mount a comeback behind center Nick Dodge and knot the game in the latter part of the third period. Dodge scored the Golden Knight's third goal of the game on a power play with 6:45 left when he pulled a right-to-left deke on goalie Mike Devine '08.
With less than two minutes to play, the Golden Knights decision to not pull netminder David Leggio for an extra skater paid off when Dodge notched the game-tying goal with 1:45 on the clock. Dodge had three points overall in the contest.
Hartwick said that four Dartmouth penalties in the third helped give Clarkson an advantage late in the game.
"I thought there shouldn't have been any calls, and I think that took some momentum away from us in the third period. We were playing so well up to that point," he said. "Being on the penalty kill didn't help, we didn't have the legs this weekend."
Devine stopped three shots in the overtime frame to preserve the tie for Dartmouth. He finished the night with 28 saves for his third tie of the season.
Wyman started the scoring with a power play tally 7:52 into the first period. Defenseman Mike Hartwick '07 brought the puck end-to-end behind the Clarkson goal and passed to Lewis on the point, who found Wyman down low for the goal.
Swallow pulled the Big Green ahead 2-1 late in the second period off a tipped pass from Nick Johnson '08. But Clarkson was able to knot the game with 17:41 left in the third when Philppe Paquet notched a goal when his shot bounced off a Dartmouth defender into the net.
Gillam became the second freshman in as many weeks to get his first collegiate goal, following the score of Joey Gaudet '10 against Canisius on Friday, Jan. 19. Gillam's tally came off assists from Gaudet and John Gibson '09 with 14:29 to play in the game.
"It was a really good game all the way through," captain Tanner Glass '07 said. "In the last 10 minutes, nothing really changed. They just buried two goals and it counted. We played a really good game, but so did they."
The following night, Dartmouth never got its offense going after tying the game at 1-1 with 9:01 left in the first period. Swallow set up the goal with a pass from behind the Saints' net to the slot after Lewis moved the puck up to the blue line from the Big Green's defensive zone.
But after Gillam's goal, it was all St. Lawrence, thanks in part to the offensive production of Brock McBride. The right-winger had a hand in the next three Saints goals to end the night with a game-high three points.
"Against St. Lawrence, they've got a good, fast and strong team. They possessed the puck well in our defensive zone. It wore on our D and our centermen playing down low," Glass said.
"I think if we win on Friday night, that's going to change how we come out and play on Saturday. I think the way we played against SLU in the first period was great. The second period came around and we just did not have it," Hartwick said.
McBride took advantage of a Saints power play in the opening moments of the second to break the tenuous tie. He collected a rebound off Devine and stuffed it into the Big Green net with only 35 seconds elapsed in the frame, giving the Saints a 2-1 lead. St. Lawrence went two for seven on power play opportunities against Dartmouth.
McBride then connected for his sixth goal of the season when his shot was deflected off a stick. The redirection fooled Devine at the 13:04 mark in the period. McBride picked up an assist when line mate Max Taylor added an insurance tally with 2:53 remaining in the contest.
"The puck seemed to have eyes and find the back of the net," Hartwick said. "In hockey when the puck's tipped, it's really hard for a goalie to move to get back into position to stop the puck.
Despite allowing eight goals in two games, Hartwick credited Devine with keeping Dartmouth in a position to win.
"I didn't think that [the goals allowed] showed how well he played this weekend. He made some huge shots, especially against St. Lawrence," he said.
Dartmouth was outshot in both games this weekend. Clarkson gained a 32-24 advantage in shots while St. Lawrence clocked in with 31 to the Big Green's 24.
The Big Green struggled on the power play, going one for 10 in extra man opportunities over the two-game span.
"We're obviously talking about the two top teams in this league, so you have to give some respect to their penalty kills," Hartwick said, alluding to SLU and Clarkson's high penalty kill rate. "Those are stats, but that's not an excuse for us."
Dartmouth returns to action next weekend with two home games, hosting RPI on Friday, Feb. 2 and Union on Saturday, Feb. 3 at Thompson Arena. Both games are set for a 7 p.m. start.