The Dartmouth men's hockey team suffered a lopsided loss at the hands of one of its fiercest rivals, but rebounded to get a win in its last home game, giving the Big Green some momentum heading into the Eastern College Athletic Conference hockey league playoffs. The Big Green wrapped up its regular season on the road, earning a split against Cornell and Colgate. Dartmouth lost big to the Big Red on Friday, 6-0, but came back to earn a 5-2 victory over the Raiders to spoil Colgate's senior night.
Dartmouth (11-14-4, 6-13-3 ECAC) finished the regular season in a tie for tenth place along with Brown and Rensselaer, marking the first time the team has not finished in the top five in the ECAC since 2001. Due to tiebreakers, the Big Green will be given the 12th seed in the ECAC playoffs out of 12 league teams. In the first round of the playoffs, Dartmouth will travel back up to Ithaca to face off the five-seed, Cornell.
The Big Green has not fared well against Ivy League opponents this season, going 1-9 against Ancient Eight members.
Cornell (14-12-3, 12-9-1 ECAC) needed a win or a tie coupled with a Union loss to clinch a first-round bye in the playoffs on Saturday, but fell just short when the Big Red fell to Harvard, 3-1.
Colgate (14-14-6, 8-9-5 ECAC) finished the regular season in eighth place. The Raiders will host the first round of the playoffs, as they welcome St. Lawrence (12-18-4, 7-13-2 ECAC).
Elsewhere in the league, No.10 Clarkson (20-10-4, 15-4-3 ECAC) clinched the regular-season title on Friday by defeating second-place No. 14 Princeton (17-12-0, 14-8-0 ECAC) by the score of 4-3.
At Ithaca, Cornell dominated Dartmouth from start to finish, thanks to a hat-trick from sophomore forward Colin Greening, .
The Big Red struck first midway through the first period on the second power-play of the period. Cornell's Brendon Nash blasted a hard shot towards the goal, and Mike Devine '08 was able to save the initial shot, but Greening was there to collect the rebound and score to give his team the early lead.
Dartmouth was able to get 11 shots on goal during the first period to keep Big Red goaltender Ben Scrivens busy, but was not able to come away with any points.
In the second period, Cornell added to its lead with two more power-play goals. The first goal came midway through the second when Michael Kennedy passed to Justin Kreuger on the right side, who shot a one-timer over Devine's shoulder. The Big Red got another power play less than a minute after the goal on a boarding call on Rob Pritchard '09. Nash got another hard shot in on Devine to force a rebound, and this time his younger brother Riley Nash was there to collect the rebound and score.
Greening added another goal with just under three minutes remaining in the period to put Cornell up 4-0.
In the third, the Big Red tacked on two more scores on goalie Joe Grossman '10, who came in to relieve Devine. Raymond Swanda scored his first on the night, and Greening completed his hat-trick just 17 seconds later.
Scrivens had 31 saves in the shutout, his third shutout of the season and the fourth of his career. The Big Green actually outshot Cornell 31-27, but Scrivens kept Dartmouth off of the scoreboard.
Cornell capitalized on three of its four power-play opportunities, while the Big Red's penalty killing unit stopped all three extra-man opportunities for the Big Green.
Head coach Bob Gaudet '81 hopes the team will not repeat its performance from the weekend.
"We still want to keep playing, and I think this team still has some great games in it," Gaudet said. "We're looking forward to getting back to Cornell and getting some revenge for Friday. I think we can have a good practice this weekend and after watching some game film, we plan on going into their rink and giving the Big Red all they can handle."
The following afternoon, a Dartmouth team determined not to be shut out again bounced back with a convincing win over Colgate.
In the first, both teams had opportunities to get ahead, but the play of Devine and Colgate goalie Mark Dekanich kept the game scoreless. The Raiders outshot the Big Green 14-9 in the period.
The game's first goal would come early in the second period, when Dartmouth got a 5-on-3 power play opportunity. Captain Nick Johnson '08 one-timed a pass from Evan Stephens '11 to beat Dekanich on the short side 2:39 into the second period.
However, Colgate responded just two minutes later when Francois Brisebois got a breakaway opportunity and had just Devine left to beat. Brisebois slipped the puck between Devine's legs to level the score.
The Big Green was able to take the lead before the end of the period on another power play. With just over five minutes left in the period, Johnson was able to score his second of the game when he was able to slip the puck past Dekanich during a scrum in front of the net. Jon Grecu '08 and Kyle Reeds '11 were credited with assists. The score was 2-1 in favor of Dartmouth at the end of the second.
Peter Boldt '10 extended the lead when he scored the first goal of his college career. He slotted a rebound off of a Joe Gaudet '10 shot into the left side of the net which Dekanich had vacated. This was Dartmouth's only even-strength goal on the night.
Jon Wolter '11 also got his first college goal on a power play 14:56 into the period. This goal forced Colgate to pull Dekanich from the game.
"Obviously he's an unbelievable goalie, one of the best in the ECAC, so to put up so many goals on him is a credit to how hard our guys worked," Gaudet said.
Grecu added the fifth and final goal for the Big Green when he scored on a rebound off of his own shot.
Colgate's Ben Camper added a goal before the end of the game to reach the final tally of 5-2.
Devine made 44 saves to preserve the victory for his team. Colgate outshot the Big Green in the contest, 46-30.
Next weekend the Big Green will compete in the first round of the ECAC playoffs at Cornell in a best-of-three series. The Friday and Saturday contests are set to start at 7 PM, and Sunday's game will start at 4 PM, if necessary.
Gaudet hopes that his team can make a run deep into the playoffs and get to Albany, N.Y., where the semifinals and finals will be played, despite having to play in the first round.
"It's unusual for us not to have gotten a first round bye, and I know the older guys are having a hard time with that," Gaudet said. "Our younger guys don't know any different but hopefully this motivates them to want to make it through. Our goal is to get back to Albany and I know we're still capable of doing it."
