Though Dartmouth's men's hockey team had impressive performances throughout the weekend, its efforts were enough to win only one of two games. On Friday, the Big Green suffered a frustrating loss to Brown 5-4, but Dartmouth rebounded the following night, defeating Yale 7-2 and sending the Big Green seniors off with a victory in their final home game.
Friday's loss was especially disappointing as Dartmouth (10-13-4, 5-12-3 ECAC) outshot Brown (5-18-4, 5-12-3 ECAC) 42-24 but still came short of a win. The Big Green also racked up eight penalties, totaling 27 minutes, which is somewhat out of character for this Dartmouth team.
Head coach Bob Gaudet '81 noted that penalties were one of the reasons for the loss.
"We're the least penalized team in the country," Gaudet said. "It was one of those games where it was really uncharacteristic for us. They actually had more penalties than we did, but when one team has a lot of penalties the other usually does too. It was just the type of game that was being played, and it hurt us."
Captain Nick Johnson '08 echoed his coach's sentiments.
"[The referee] was calling penalties both ways, but we were taking some weird ones," Johnson said. "I took a stupid one in the middle of the ice; there was no need for some of the penalties that we took. We have to stay off of the books."
The Big Green made amends the following night by dismantling Yale (12-11-4, 8-8-4 ECAC) in one of the team's best performances this season as Dartmouth matched its highest scoring output of the year.
The Big Green is now in a three-way tie for ninth place along with Brown and Rensselaer (10-20-4, 5-12-3 ECAC). Both Brown and Rensselaer split the weekend with a win and a loss.
On Friday, Brown controlled the game for the first 10 minutes, but the Big Green scored first when Joe Gaudet '10 redirected the puck from Josh Gillam '10 into the back of the net.
Dartmouth's lead did not last long, as Brown managed to score the equalizer just 30 seconds later. Less than a minute after that, Brown took the lead 2-1 when senior forward Jeff Prough connected on a power play.
Johnson attributed the loss to lapses in the team's defense.
"We scored four goals, which should be enough to win," Johnson said. "We just had a few letdowns in the defensive zone. We had a good effort, but we made some mistakes and that's why we lost the game, and we have to get better at that."
In the second period the Big Green evened the score as Evan Stephens '11 fired a laser towards the goal that beat Brown goaltender Dan Rosen on his glove side.
The Big Green was unable to maintain its momentum, however, and Rob Pritchard '09 was called for a five-minute major for a game misconduct penalty.
Brown junior Ryan Garbutt then put his team up 3-2 on a power play, giving the Bears a lead it would not relinquish. Brown and Dartmouth traded goals before the end of the period and the second ended with a score of 4-3.
The Big Green had a chance to get back into the game early in the third when Brown committed three penalties, giving Dartmouth a man advantage for nearly six minutes. Despite the penalties, Brown struck first in the period, as freshman David Brownschidle scored the game-winner with less than eight minutes left.
Dartmouth got back in the game with just under six minutes remaining when J.T. Wyman '08's slap shot from the point found the back of the net. The Big Green made a furious effort to get one more goal to take the game into overtime, but Brown's defense held the Big Green to come out with a win.
Rosen came up with 38 saves on the night, and bailed his team out of dangerous situations on multiple occasions. Dartmouth's Joe Grossman '10 made 19 saves in the loss.
Gaudet thought the loss did not reflect the Big Green's performance in Friday's game.
"I thought that they capitalized on their opportunities," Gaudet said. "Our guys worked so hard and played a good solid hockey game. It's a funny thing, when you outshoot the other team basically 2-to-1 and you don't get the goods. I just told the guys that we just have to stay after it and keep playing hard. I like the way our team played. They just outscored us."
The following night, Dartmouth continued its strong performance but were met with better results.
Johnson opened up the scoring with the only goal of the first period on a power play with a wrist shot that whistled past Yale goalkeeper Billy Blase. This was followed by a goal on the first power play of the second period scored by Jon Grecu '08 , assisted by Wyman and Johnson.
Yale looked like it would creep back into the game when the freshman Broc Little approached the goal, but Dartmouth goalkeeper Mike Devine '08 made a clutch save, keeping the Bulldogs off of the scoreboard. Devine made 29 saves in the contest.
Midway through the second period, Grecu struck again when he shot a wrist-shot past Blase on yet another power play. Yale sophomore Sean Backman finally put Yale on the board with less than two minutes left in the second period, barely sliding the puck past Devine.
In the third period, Dartmouth piled on four more goals scored by Gillam, Danny Markowitz '11, Reeds and Johnson. A visibly frustrated Yale team grew increasingly physical, and both teams combined for 11 penalties in the final eight minutes.
In contrast to Friday's contest against Brown, it was the Bulldogs who struggled with penalties in Saturday's game. Yale amassed 15 penalties and 57 penalty minutes, thanks in large part to three 10-minute game misconduct penalties. This was in addition to 11 penalties and 41 penalty minutes the team received the previous night against Harvard (13-11-3, 11-7-2 ECAC) in Cambridge.
The Big Green took full advantage of the penalties, scoring four points off of power plays. Entering the weekend, the Bulldogs were the best penalty-kill team in the nation.
Devine was pleased with his team's maturity in light of the Bulldogs' rough play.
"We were able to stay off of the books," Devine said. "They didn't, and we were able to capitalize on that and that's what helped us win the game."
Devine saw the win on senior night as a bright spot in what has been a tough season for the Big Green.
"The year obviously hasn't gone in the best way, but we've been fortunate enough to win on senior night four years in a row. It's been an unbelievable experience and we were able to top it off pretty nicely."
Next weekend, the Big Green will finish the regular season on the road against Cornell (13-11-3, 11-8-1 ECAC) on Friday and against Colgate ( 14-13-5, 8-8-4) on Saturday.
