The Dartmouth women's hockey team lost to the University of New Hampshire, giving up a season-high eight goals en route to an 8-3 loss Saturday. The loss ended Dartmouth's four-game winning streak.
With Dartmouth playing its last game of a grueling stretch of eight games in 18 days, UNH picked apart the Dartmouth defense. The Wildcats also enjoyed a significant home-team advantage, as their home ice is larger than the rinks that Dartmouth usually skates on.
There were a couple bright-spots for Dartmouth (12-6-2, 9-3-2 ECAC Hockey), though. Sarah Parsons '10 scored two power-play goals for the Big Green, running her career total to 98 goals. Kelly Foley '12 continued her scoring streak, having now scored at least one goal in the team's past three games.
Despite the loss, co-captain Sarah Newnam '09 said she was happy with the team's work.
"UNH was an uphill battle, but we never gave up fighting," she said.
Dartmouth and UNH played a close first period, with UNH out-shooting the Big Green by a margin of 8-5. The only score of the period came right before the halfway mark, when Courtney Sheary scored for UNH, giving them the 1-0 lead.
After the first period, the next frame saw the two offenses explode for a combined seven points. Unfortunately for the Big Green, five of those points were recorded in favor the Wildcats.
UNH began the second period's scoring frenzy, with Courtney Birchard putting a rebound past Dartmouth goalie Carli Clemis '09. While Clemis was able to block the initial shot, Birchard was in position at the far post to put the puck into the Dartmouth goal.
UNH struck again just over three minutes later, when the Wildcats scored the first of their five power-play goals. A second power-play goal followed just three minutes later, with UNH scoring the game-winning goal at 12:14 to make it 4-0.
With four minutes left in the second period, Dartmouth mounted a small comeback.
Parsons scored first for the Big Green, taking advantage of a power play to finally put Dartmouth on the board. A pass sliding over from the right circle found Parsons at the far post. Parsons' first shot was blocked, but she lifted the rebound into the net to make it a 4-1 game. Shannon Bowman '09 and Maggie Kennedy '09 were credited with the assists on the goal.
Dartmouth built on that momentum, scoring again just eighteen seconds later. Foley shot at the UNH goalie, with the puck squeezing out behind her pads and into the net. Newnam and Sarah Toupal '10 tallied the assists on the Foley goal.
A Dartmouth penalty with just under three minutes in the game, however, put the short-lived Dartmouth comeback on ice. UNH scored its third extra-skater goal of the game with 90 seconds left in the middle period to make it 5-2. Less than a minute later, UNH scored again to close out the second period at 6-2, with all of Dartmouth momentum stalled.
The final period saw three more goals scored, with Parsons snagging a second power-play goal for the Big Green. Coming just before the halfway mark in the third period, Parsons made a wrap-around shot to make it a 7-3 game. Julia Bronson '09 and Amanda Trunzo '11 tallied the assists for this score.
The final score for UNH came of a 5-on-3 advantage with three and half minutes left in the game. In all, UNH scored on five of their seven power play opportunities, taking advantage of the larger ice surface to expose a few critical holes in the Dartmouth defense.
This was the first time Dartmouth had allowed eight goals since losing 9-2 at home versus Harvard in 2002.
Dartmouth returns to action on Jan. 30, when the Big Green travels to take on Rensselaer University.
