The Big Green men's hockey team remains winless in the 2009-2010 season as the team scored just one goal during 14 power-play opportunities while giving up five penalty-kill goals in a pair of road games against No. 5 Cornell and Colgate University this weekend.
Dartmouth (0-3, 0-3 ECAC Hockey) thrashed its way to a 5-1 loss to the Big Red (3-0, 2-0 ECAC Hockey) on Friday as the two teams combined for 22 penalties.
Evan Stephens '11, assistant captain Scott Fleming '11, Connor Goggin '12 and Joe Scali of Cornell all received 10-minute misconduct penalties.
Penalized 3:42 into the second period, Stephens also received a five-minute hitting-from-behind penalty on the same play.
With 17 seconds remaining in the penalty kill, Dartmouth gave up the game-winning goal, as the Big Red took what became an insurmountable 2-0 lead.
The other misconduct penalties came in the middle of the second period after Big Red skater Sean Collins was given a penalty for roughing, and Fleming was called for interference.
Fleming then received a 10-minute misconduct penalty for talking back to the referee, according to captain Peter Boldt '10.
"I was skating to the penalty box and raised my arm because I was angry," Fleming said. "He thought I was giving him a gesture."
The other penalties resulted from the referee's attempts to retain control of an escalating situation, Boldt said.
"One of our players had a big hit on one of their players and he was knocked out for a few minutes," Boldt said. "Their coach thought it was a cheap hit and both benches got really loud. The referees wanted to keep the game under control. The referees tried to deal with it really quickly and made calls that maybe weren't appropriate."
Within a three-minute time frame after the first hit at 9:33, nine penalties were awarded for a total of 42 minutes.
Throughout the whole game, the Big Green penalty kill units allowed four goals on Cornell's seven power plays.
"They have a really well coached power play, and they move the puck really well," Boldt said. "Tonight they found the openings that were our little mistakes. There is a learning curve and we are trying to figure out a new penalty kill system."
Dartmouth only capitalized once, despite its own seven power-play opportunities.
Sliding the puck between the Big Red goalie's legs on the power play, Kyle Reeds '11 tipped in a pass from Boldt to notch Dartmouth's only goal at 5:21 into the third period. The shot was assisted by Andrew Owsiak '11 and ended the Big Red's shutout, bringing the score to 4-1.
Dartmouth goalie Jody O'Neill '12 made 29 saves, while Cornell goaltender Ben Scrivens had 21. The Big Red outshot the Big Green 34-22.
O'Neill has a .863 save percentage so far this season, compared to his .923 save percentage last year.
On Saturday, the Big Green again struggled, losing to Colgate (4-2-3, 2-0 ECAC Hockey), 3-2. The Big Green power play units were equally ineffective in the Colgate game, as Dartmouth this time failed to score during all seven of its power plays.
Colgate scored first in the game, with two goals in under two minutes in the middle of the second period. Dartmouth quickly recovered, however, as Dustin Walsh '13 and Mark Goggin '13 each scored, tying the game at 2-2.
Goggin's goal, assisted by Owsiak, was the equalizer and tied the game with four minutes remaining the second period.
"The puck was in their zone and [Owsiak] was working down low and stole the puck from one of the defensemen," Goggin said. "He passed it to me out front. I was in front of the net and put it in the five hole."
Walsh's goal came off of a pass from assistant captain Joe Gaudet '10 eight minutes into the second period.
"I thought today we really competed hard," Fleming said. "We need to improve on our power play and our penalty kill. I thought the young guys really stepped up."
Both teams were scoreless throughout the first period, despite 16 shots taken by Dartmouth and eight by Colgate.
The Big Green will continue to look for its first win this weekend, with road games against No. 14 Princeton (2-2, 1-1 ECAC Hockey) at 7 p.m. on Friday and at Quinnipiac University (6-1, 2-0 ECAC Hockey) at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
"We need to keep working hard and hopefully things will go our way," Fleming said. "We're a little down, but we know it's a long season. Once we get our first win, hopefully they will continue to come."
