Amanda Trunzo '11 posted two goals in the middle period to clinch the Big Green's (11-13-2, 8-11-1 ECAC Hockey) victory over the Dutchwomen (5-26-1, 1-18-1 ECAC Hockey) on Friday.
Six and a half minutes into the second frame, the puck glanced off the boards and landed in front of the Trunzo, who sent it through the legs of Union goaltender Alana Marcinko to make the score 3-0.
Trunzo's second goal came with 49 seconds left in the period to put the Big Green up, 4-0. This was Trunzo's 16th goal this season.
The game was not high in energy, but head coach Mark Hudak said he thought that the team executed well.
"We did a lot of little things right," he said. "It was a little bit of a slow-paced game and we outplayed them technically. We did what we needed to do to shut them down."
The Big Green more than quadrupled the Dutchwomen's shots in the first two periods, yet Union held Dartmouth to seven shots in the scoreless third period after making a goalie switch to sophomore Kate Gallagher. She posts a .904 save percentage this season.
After the Dutchwomen's Callee Heywood was sent off the ice for tripping, co-captain Jenna Cunningham '10 finally broke onto the scoreboard during Dartmouth's first power-play opportunity of the match.
Cunningham scooped up the rebound in front of Marcinko's net and sent the puck in for her 17th goal of the season.
Dartmouth earned five more man-advantage chances, but failed to capitalize, posting a .167 power-play percentage.
Between the pipes for the Big Green, Whitney Woodcox '13 pushed aside 14 shots for her first collegiate shutout. She now has a save percentage of .871 for her seven starts this season.
Trailing 3-1 in the third period against RPI (14-11-6, 11-5-4 ECAC Hockey) on Saturday, co-captain Sarah Parsons '10 added her name to the score sheet in the final frame as she cut RPI's advantage to one with 6:52 left in the match.
Two empty-net goals then allowed the Engineers to edge past Dartmouth in the final minute of the heated matchup.
Despite mistakes in the middle period that cost Dartmouth two goals, Hudak said the Big Green fought to keep within a point of the Engineers.
"It was essentially a one-goal game," Hudak said. "We were trying in desperation to get that goal in the final minute." In contrast to the game against Union, Hudak said that the match against the Engineers was fast-paced and physical.
RPI dominated the second period, notching two goals to establish a 2-1 lead, before going up 3-1 with the game-winning goal 8:15 into the third period.
Trunzo put Dartmouth on the scoreboard first on a break-away goal two minutes into the match. Cunningham seized the puck at her own blue line and sent the puck to Trunzo, who went one-on-one against RPI's netminder Sonja van der Bliek. The junior goalie posts a .922 save percentage and allows an average of just 1.9012 goals per game.
The Big Green remains tied with Yale University in the ECAC standings with 17 points each after the Bulldogs (10-14-3, 8-11-1 ECAC Hockey) also split their weekend.
Hudak said the ECAC playoff situation will depend on the final set of games against St. Lawrence University and No. 4 Clarkson University.
"Both [Clarkson and St. Lawrence] are good teams and these last games could really go in any direction," he said.
Dartmouth begins its final weekend of regular-seaon play by traveling south to Potsdam, N.Y., where the team will face off against the Golden Knights at 7 p.m. Friday, before the squad faces St. Lawrence at 4 p.m. Saturday, in Canton, N.Y.