Not only did the victories increase the Big Green's home winning streak (10-9-3, 7-6-3 ECACHL) to five games, dating back to a 4-0 victory over Holy Cross on Jan. 16, the wins gave Dartmouth valuable points in the league standings.
On Sunday morning, Dartmouth had moved up to fourth place in the ECACHL standing with 17 points, putting the team in a tie with Cornell and two points ahead of Colgate. St. Lawrence retained the top spot with an 11-4-1 conference mark and 23 points.
After the Union game, head coach Bob Gaudet '81 weighed in on the progress of his team late in the season.
"It was obviously a big win for us," he said. "Our team has been up and down. We've been playing good hockey for a stretch of time now, and we knew we were playing a good team. Tonight we needed to play well."
The marquee game came against Union (13-13-2, 6-10-0 ECACHL) on Saturday, when the Big Green had to hold off a strong, physical Dutchmen squad during a second period surge.
With Dartmouth leading 1-0 early in the second, Ben Lovejoy '06 was sent off to the penalty box on a two-minute cross-checking minor.
This allowed the Dutchmen -- who had been outshot 12-1 in the first stanza -- to set up its power play. Lane Caffaro got a shot off on goalie Mike Devine '08, but the rebound popped out to Torren Delforte who shot the puck home to knot the game 1-1 with 15:03 in the period.
The Dutchmen came out with more intensity following the goal and began playing more physically. Union also found its offensive groove, recording 11 shots to the Big Green's 13 in the period.
The third period saw a slew of penalties to both Dartmouth and Union. After Rob Pritchard '09 stuffed the puck in tight by the right post on an initial shot from Jon Grecu '08 to give the Big Green a 2-1 lead early in the frame, the officials called a total of five penalties in less than 10 minutes.
Union had a great opportunity to tie the game again when it earned a five-on-three power play with 11:57 to play. Captain Tanner Glass '07 was sent to the box for boarding following a crushing hit to a Union player in the corner of the Dutchmen defensive zone. Then, assistant captain David Jones '08 got into a scuffle after the play and received a roughing call for contact to the head, leading to a Union timeout.
Gaudet said he preached simplicity during the timeout.
"We were just trying to keep things calm," he said. "There was no complaining about the calls or anything like that, we were just focused on playing the game. We want to put out a little bit of a forecheck in the neutral zone and find a way to get aggressive with only three guys."
The Big Green held tough, and behind some solid saves by Devine Dartmouth was able to kill the penalties and hold Union scoreless. Minutes later, J.T. Wyman '08 netted his second goal of the night and third of the weekend when he hit a one-timer from the slot off a pass by Pritchard for a decisive 3-1 advantage.
The Dutchmen closed the gap to 3-2 on a power play tally following another Jones penalty for interference. With less than three minutes left, Grecu laid a strong hit on the boards near the Union bench, leading to a five-minute major for elbowing to the head.
"The major at the end of the game -- we don't want to be in that position, but it puts a lot of pressure on Union, quite honestly," Gaudet said. "We knew if we got their goalie out, we could just launch the puck down the ice. It's not as big of an advantage as you think. We just needed to force them to dump the puck, and pressure them when they were on their backhands and then block lanes when they have control."
Union did not pull netminder Justin Mrazek until the 1:45 mark for a two-skater advantage, but the Big Green played strong defense to seal the win.
Gaudet chalked up the energy of the players after scoring to the team's resolve.
"This is exactly how we wanted to play the game," he said. "We wanted to get rebounds and we wanted to get the puck to the net. They're really hardworking goals, not those tic-tac-toe goals, but really gritty type goals."
Against Union, the Big Green went zero for six on the power play, but outshot the Dutchmen 37-24.
On Friday, Dartmouth used a three-goal third period to dispatch the Engineers (8-13-7, 4-8-4 ECACHL).
Following goals by Wyman in the first period and Kevin Swallow '09 in the second, the Big Green found success in its only power play of the evening to net the game-winning goal. Lovejoy took a pass from T.J. Galiardi '10 and fired a rocket shot from the right point, beating goalie Jordan Alford on the high glove side to give Dartmouth a 3-1 lead with 14:53 remaining.
RPI received a five-on-three power play chance in the latter half of the frame on penalties to Mike Hartwick '07 (hitting after the whistle) and, 35 seconds later, to the Dartmouth bench (too many men on the ice).
While the Engineers could not convert on the man advantage, RPI scored just three seconds after the second penalty expired on a goal from Jonathan Ornelas with 6:19 to play, cutting the Big Green lead to 3-2.
Nick Johnson '08 propelled the Big Green with the final two goals of the contest. With under two minutes to play, Johnson got the puck on a pass from Jones in the neutral zone and streaked down the right side with support in the middle of the ice.
Instead of passing, he took a tough angle shot down near the circle, threading the puck above Alford's shoulder for the goal. Johnson then picked up an empty netter with 15 seconds remaining for his eighth tally of the season.
Gaudet said that the coaching staff emphasized a change in philosophy going from RPI to Union.
"We forechecked a little bit differently, but the mentality was to pay the price [physically]. You're in position to pay the price, and you know your going to get smoked potentially. The mentality was really important for our team," he said.
Dartmouth will be on the road for its next four league games, starting with a contest against second-place Quinnipiac on Friday, Feb. 9 in Hamden, Conn., and a game with Princeton on Saturday, Feb. 10 in Princeton, N.J. Both games are at 7 p.m.
