The No. 6 Dartmouth women's hockey team ended the weekend winless on a two-game road trip to Cornell and Colgate University.
Dartmouth's (0-1-1, 0-1-1 ECAC Hockey) inability to capitalize on power plays against Cornell (2-2-0, 2-0-0 ECAC Hockey) left the team the victim of a 3-0 shutout.
"We certainly saw some good things," head coach Mark Hudak said. "There are still some things that we really need to work on, and it's something that we will hopefully address this week."
After two unsuccessful power plays, Cornell capitalized on a third man-advantage late in the opening frame, notching its first goal with 2:51 remaining in the period. The Big Red scored a shorthanded goal in the second period, and eventually rounded out the score to 3-0 with five minutes left in the final period.
"The goals that they scored were individually broken down as opposed to systematic ones," Hudak said. "There is nothing that we are overly concerned about. These are the type of things that we can show the players over video, and they'll understand for the next game."
Cornell outshot Dartmouth in all three periods and held the Big Green scoreless in seven power-play chances.
"The power play did not go as well as expected," Hudak said. "We did not have the right combination of people on the ice."
This was Cornell's first shutout of the Big Green since the 1996-1997 season.
Goalkeeper Mariel Lacina '10 stopped 30 Cornell shots while taking the loss for the Big Green.
"Mariel played very well against Cornell," Hudak said. "She has been the back-up goalie for a few years, and she came out with a ton of confidence and made some great saves.
Dartmouth had little time to dwell on its mistakes, as the team headed to Hamilton, N.Y., to face Colgate (1-6-1, 0-1-1 ECAC Hockey) on Saturday.
The Big Green found its offensive push against the Raiders from veteran forward Jenna Cunningham '10, who broke open the scoreboard with the team's first power play goal of the season.
Cunningham added a second goal just before the end of the period at 19:34.
Cunningham followed up on an exchange of goals in the second period with her third tally of the night, giving Dartmouth a three-point advantage.
Sarah Parsons '10 said that changes made to the power play unit allowed the players to move the puck around and find the holes in Colgate's defense.
"I thought we worked well together, and we definitely played better," she said. "We moved people around a little bit and changed our setup."
Although Dartmouth took an early lead, however, the Raiders fought back, scoring in the final minute of play and settling the game with a 5-5 draw.
Hudak said that the momentum quickly swung towards Colgate's favor once the Big Green became comfortable with its lead in the second period.
"It started happening with our third goal we call it our pretty goal," he said. "After getting the three-point lead, they started thinking that maybe this was going to be easier than they expected. We let up in the last period, and we had a couple penalties against us."
In the decisive final frame, the Raiders chiseled away at Dartmouth's two-goal advantage.
Colgate commenced its comeback with an even-strength strike in the first minutes of the final period followed by a power play goal with 6:19 remaining.
The Big Green converted three of Colgate's seven penalties into goals, while the Raiders went just two for eight on power play chances.
Whitney Woodcox '13 fended off 27 shots against Colgate. Lacina stepped in for the overtime session to make two additional saves.
"Woodcox also played the game well, but she made a couple mistakes here and there," Hudak said. "I felt like she was shaken near the end of the third period."
Parsons said that with more games under their belts, the younger players will have more experience and confidence against the top contenders in the league.
"We have high expectations for the weekend," she said. "It's hard having such a tough schedule at the beginning, but we've all seen the progress we've made, and I think we're only getting better and better."
The Big Green returns home this weekend for another round of ECAC contests. Dartmouth takes on No. 7 St. Lawrence University on Friday, followed by a heated matchup against No. 3 Clarkson University on Saturday.
Clarkson currently occupies the top spot in the ECAC standings.
"Both schools are very good and at top of the league. I think our team was still in practice' competition mode this weekend," Hudak said. "It's now time to start thinking in game-competition mode."
