Dartmouth (3-3-1, 2-3-1 ECACHL) now stands in fifth place in the ECAC Hockey standings, seven points behind league-leading Clarkson.
On Friday, Colgate (4-6-2, 1-3-2 ECACHL) was able to draw first blood against the Big Green despite being outshot in the first period 16-7. Colgate's two leading scorers, seniors Jesse Winchester and Tyler Burton, combined for Colgate's first goal, which came just over eight minutes into the game. Winchester took a shot from the point, which bounced back out to Burton, who wound up and buried the puck in the back of the net.
Ten minutes later, the Big Green took advantage of its second power play of the game, as assistant captain Rob Pritchard '09 scored his second goal of the season. The goal was tallied three seconds after the power play ended, as Pritchard scored off the rebound of a shot by captain Nick Johnson '08.
During the second period, Colgate had its best offensive performance of the night as it notched 13 of its 28 shots in that period. Winchester got in on the scoring again, stuffing home the puck after Peter Bogdanich drew goalie Mike Devine '08 out of the net.
Overall on the night, Dartmouth outshot the Colgate Raiders 45-28 but Colgate's goalie Mark Dekanich stopped 42 of the shots against him, keeping the Raiders in the game.
Seven minutes into the third period, Dartmouth assistant captain JT Wyman '08 continued his scoring ways and tied the game. He took a breakaway from center ice in on Dekanich and beat him for his sixth goal and tenth point of the season. Wyman is averaging more than one point per game.
With the score level, each team fought hard to get the goal that would give it the late lead, but neither was able to find the net until there were seven minutes left in the third period, when Colgate defenseman David Sloane netted his first score of the year.
However, the Big Green fought back and continued its domination in shots on goal, outshooting the Raiders 12-5 in the final period. Connor Shields '09 was able to tie the game with two minutes to go and the score remained at 3-3 after a five-minute overtime period. The tie was the Big Green's first of the year.
On Saturday night, Dartmouth played host to Cornell (4-3-0, 4-2-0 ECACHL) in its Ivy League season opener. The game against the Big Red proved to be much more physical than Friday's against Colgate. The Big Red was coming off a 2-1 loss at Harvard on Friday night but started off strong against the Big Green.
Almost seven minutes into the game, Big Red senior Raymond Sawada potted his first goal of the season, stuffing in the rebound of freshman Patrick Kennedy's shot from the point. It was Kennedy's first collegiate point. He was one of three Cornell skaters to score his first point of the season in the contest.
The game-winner for the Big Red came with two minutes to go in the first period, during a stretch of four-on-four hockey. Cornell junior Evan Barlow was able to corral another rebound and wrapped the puck around the defenseless Devine for the goal.
The lone Dartmouth goal came from Joe Gaudet '10, who scored the shorthanded goal with less than a minute left in the first period. The goal was Gaudet's second goal of the season.
"Nick Johnson ['08] came out of the box and got the puck when it had come around the boards," Gaudet said. "He moved it up and after a nice fake shot, he passed it over to me to find the open side of the net."
That goal was the sole bright spot for the Big Green as Cornell maintained control for the rest of the game.
The start of the second period was delayed for 15 minutes as the lighting system in Thompson Arena failed. After the delay, the teams took a while to restart their offenses, but it was the Big Red who again found the net, with freshman Dan Nichols scoring his first collegiate goal.
In the third period, Nichols added another when he found himself all alone behind the defense after a Big Green pass deflected right to him. Nichols took the puck in on net and deked out Devine for his second goal of the game.
The game finished on a sour note when after the final buzzer had sounded four players, two for each side, were given game misconducts for fighting. The two Big Green players penalized were Gaudet and Rob Smith '10. It did not seem as though any punches were thrown, but regardless, both players will miss the team's next game, which will be a big loss for the squad given the way its younger players have been competing.
"They're doing a good job," Devine said. "It's not easy to step right into a lineup and play every night. They're learning as they go and doing a good job of it. They're getting better every game."
Head Coach Bob Gaudet agreed with Devine's assessment.
"Again our guys played hard but Cornell was opportunistic," Gaudet said. "They're such a physical team and we're a young group; some of the guys aren't quite as strong as they will be. But we battled, our mistakes just seemed to end up behind us."
The Big Green returns to action next Saturday at 1:30 p.m. against Bentley, which will be part of a double-header with the women's team, which faces Clarkson at 5 p.m. Both games are at Thompson Arena.
