Earlier this season, the Big Green tied the Tigers 3-3 on Friday, Nov. 24, 2006 at Thompson Arena. The next night, on Saturday, Nov. 25, Nick Johnson '08 notched a late goal to earn a 3-3 draw with the Bobcats in Hanover.
Senior defenseman Mike Hartwick '07 said that the lack of injuries and improved offensive production would separate this weekend's contest from the games earlier in the season.
"We had some guys injured for that weekend, with Grant Lewis '07 and Ben Lovejoy '07 out. Obviously, having those two guys back in are a big boost for the defensive corps," he said. "The freshmen are really starting to come around, and we have some defensive men that are starting to produce."
After notching four points last weekend in wins against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Union, the Big Green (11-9-3, 7-6-3 ECACHL) have moved into a tie with Colgate for fourth-place in the league standings at 17 points.
Princeton (9-10-3, 6-8-2 ECACHL) checks in at eighth place with 14 points, but more important for the Big Green is Quinnipiac (14-9-5, 9-4-4 ECACHL) sitting at second place with 22 points.
St. Lawrence retains the top spot in the ECACHL with an 11-4-1 league record for 23 points.
All teams automatically make the ECACHL playoffs, but only the top four teams at the regular season's end earn a first round bye.
"A bye is huge, because the first round of the playoffs usually falls during finals week. It's nice to not to be playing hockey when you have to be studying," Hartwick said.
The Big Green managed to put up good offensive numbers in its last couple of contests. Last week, the squad tallied eight goals against RPI and Union, including a 5-2 triumph over the Engineers on Friday, Feb. 2. On the year, Dartmouth ranks fourth in the ECACHL in goals per game with 3.00. Quinnipiac leads the conferences with 3.75 goals per game.
J.T. Wyman '08 has been a big contributor for Dartmouth in the last four contests, notching multiple goals in three of those games. Most recently, Wyman scored two goals in a key 3-2 win over the Dutchmen on Saturday, Feb. 3 at Thompson Arena.
Kevin Swallow '09 and David Jones '08 also come into this weekend riding scoring streaks. Swallow has tallied five points in the last four games, while Jones has recorded points in the last two.
Jones leads the team in scoring with 29 points, with 13 goals and 16 assists, and leads the ECACHL with 1.29 points per game, including non-league games. Johnson, T.J. Galiardi '10 and captain Tanner Glass '07 each have 18 points.
However, the Big Green has also run into some trouble with penalties as of late. This shortcoming was highlighted in the contest with Union, where Dartmouth picked up six penalties. This included a pivotal five-on-three chance late in the third period for the Dutchmen when the Big Green was holding on to a 2-1 lead. Against RPI, Dartmouth was hit with four penalties, compared to just one penalty for the Engineers.
"The biggest thing is to stay out of the penalty box and execute our systems," Hartwick said. "When we stay out of the penalty box, we're a totally different team and better things happen to you. You get more bounces when you're not killing penalties all the time."
He added, "If we're up in a game, we can't put ourselves in an opportunity to lose that game."
Conversely, the Dartmouth power play unity continued to struggle as the Big Green went one for seven on the man advantage last weekend. Dartmouth has a 13.7 percent success rate on the power play overall, just tenth-best in the league. Point man Lovejoy leads the Big Green with five power play goals.
This trend could continue against Quinnipiac, which touts the highest penalty kill rate in the ECACHL at 88.1 percent and an NCAA-best 12 short-handed goals. Dartmouth has killed penalties at a clip of 84.8 percent, good for fifth in the league, while Princeton is ninth best at 80.6 percent.
Goalie Mike Devine '08 looked sharp during last weekend's league games, when he made 53 saves en route to two victories. He comes into the contest against the Bobcats boasting a 10-9-3 record with a 2.66 goals against average and a .911 percent save percentage, good enough for sixth in the league for goalies with at least 33 percent of the team's minutes played.
Quinnipiac enters Friday evening fresh off a 6-1 rout of Bentley College on Tuesday, Feb. 6 after a 6-3 loss to Brown on Saturday, Feb. 3 in Providence, R.I. Freshman forward Brandon Wong recorded a hat trick against Bentley, scoring the first three goals of the game and picking up two shorthanded.
Wong leads the ECACHL with 34 points, including a league-high 20 goals and a second-best 1.21 points per game average. Senior defenseman Reid Cashman has tallied a conference-best 23 assists, and Jamie Bates' nine power play goals are tops in the league.
Bobcat netminder Bud Fisher has been solid in net with 13-9-5 record in 27 games, a 2.61 GAA and .902 save percentage.
Princeton has had a rough stretch of games over the last week, going winless in three contests. However, the Big Green and the Tigers have played to as many ties as wins over the last 21 meetings in this Ivy League series, and Dartmouth is winless in its last three games on the road against Princeton.
Offensively, the Tigers are led by Lee Jubinville, who also led the team in scoring during the recent downturn. Jubinville has collected 21 points, good for 23rd in the ECACHL. He is followed by Darroll Powe, with a team-high 10 goals and 18 points.
Freshman goaltender Zane Kalemba headlines the net-minding stable for Princeton. Kalemba has a 7-7-1 record with a 2.54 GAA and .903 save percentage.
The Big Green's last win over a ranked opponent came against then-No. 11 Cornell with a 3-2 victory on Saturday, Nov. 11 at Ithaca, N.Y.
