The Dartmouth women's hockey team fell to McGill University in a hard-fought 3-2 loss in an exhibition match Friday night at Thompson Arena. Currently ranked fifth in the nation, the Big Green skaters took on a McGill squad that is the defending Canadian Interuniversity Sport National Champions to tune up for the start of the regular season, which begins next Friday.
Sarah Kennedy '10 was optimistic about what she saw from the team.
"Despite the loss, there were a lot of good things out there," she said. "This year we are using a forecheck that's new to the whole team, and so it's not only the freshmen who are trying to learn the system. During the game the forecheck had its kinks, but it came together surprisingly well."
The game opened with a scoreless first period, as both squads took turns testing the other side's defenses, but neither was able to capitalize.
The scoring opened up in the second period, when Dartmouth got on the board first with a goal courtesy of Larissa Roche '11.
Big Green forward Alyssa Boehm '11 brought the puck from the half-boards past the goal line before finding Roche at the top of the crease to hammer the puck home.
Halfway through the second period, Dartmouth underwent a goalie change as Mariel Lacina '10 replaced Carli Clemis '09. Lacina soon came under heavy fire as McGill leveled a steady barrage of shots on the junior goalkeeper.
McGill would tie the game up again at one goal apiece with just 46 seconds remaining in the second stanza. The visitors from Quebec bore down on the Big Green defenders, and Ann-Sophie Bettez fed a pass to Marie Leclerc-Auger to squeeze it past Lacina.
McGill would score again just 22 seconds into the third period. Bettez took a shot that Lacina blocked, but Vanessa Davidson was there to punch in the rebound to give McGill the lead, 2-1.
Two and a half minutes later Davidson would score again to give McGill a 3-1 cushion over the Dartmouth squad. Davidson, assisted by Marie Leclerc-Auger, tallied her second goal of the game on a McGill power play after Dartmouth's Roche was sent to the box for interference.
"Our penalty kill is new to everyone but the seniors, and being able to practice that against a strong team allows us to iron out any kinks before the season starts," Kennedy said. "McGill also has already played eight games, and this was our first, so it will help us get our season started."
Dartmouth got its own power-play opportunity when McGill's Allysa Cecere was called for boarding. Kelly Foley '12 capitalized on the opportunity at 4:17 into the third period, netting the rebound off of a Sarah Newnam '09 shot. Co-captains Newnam and Shannon Bowman '09 were both credited with assists.
McGill and Dartmouth both had five power-play opportunities, and both squads managed to only capitalize on of one these opportunities.
Down a goal in the third period, Dartmouth worked hard to find an equalizer, with numerous opportunities thwarted and several great shots blocked by McGill's talented goalie Charline Labonte.
Labonte, when not goalkeeping for the McGill women's hockey team, also plays for the Canadian National team and won a gold medal with the squad at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.
Dartmouth had an extra-skater advantage for the last 1:43 of the game after Bettez was called for tripping. The Big Green's efforts were thwarted by the McGill penalty-kill unit and Labonte's strong goal keeping.
"The biggest positive to the game was that it showcased the depth of the team this year," Kennedy said. "All 24 players dressed for the game and every line is strong. Without a doubt we will be a strong team this year."
Bowman had a similar assement of Friday's contest.
"Putting the score aside it was a great game for us," she said. "We learned a lot, and it's always different going from practice to actual game situations."
On Saturday, McGill faced Dartmouth's arch-rivals Harvard University, falling to the Crimson, 3-2, in Cambridge.
Dartmouth will travel south to the Garden State to open its regular season against Princeton University at 7 p.m. next Friday at the Hobey Baker Rink in Princeton, N.J.
