Against the Catamounts (3-10, 2-1 America East), the Big Green (4-6, 1-3 Ivy) showed offensive power that had been lacking in its recent games. In its previous two contests, Dartmouth had scored a combined five goals, while on Tuesday two individual players had five.
After scoring the first goal of the game, Chris Costabile '13 added four more. Co-captain Ari Sussman '10 also had five goals and two assists, to lead the game with seven overall points.
Head coach Andy Towers, who had previously criticized himself for the offense's play, said that the team concentrated on getting itself into scoring positions.
"The biggest change for us was that we focused on dodging to score," he said. "We made the goalie earn every save."
As for the play of the two leading scorers, Towers said that this is simply the way Sussman has played all four years he has been at Dartmouth and that Costabile tests the goalie with every shot, making nothing easy.
Casey Hingtgen '10 also posted a strong performance, as he spurred a much needed improvement in the Big Green's faceoff game, winning 12 of 15 faceoffs. Hingtgen also managed to score two goals in transition offense the first time all season that a long pole scored for the Big Green.
Co-captain Andy Gagel '10 said Hingtgen's play helped to enable the offensive explosion.
"We played a lot more offense than defense, which allowed us to get opportunities," he said.
The game was not an early runaway for Dartmouth, as the Catamounts pulled within two at halftime entering the break with the score at 8-6.
"At the half we made adjustments to make the defense simpler," Gagel said. "We played a lot better in the third quarter."
Dartmouth scored nine goals in the third quarter, with Costabile again notching the first a mere two minutes into the half. Vermont, on the other hand, scored one goal in the quarter.
Over the course of the game, the Big Green outshot the Catamounts 59-33 and committed only 12 turnovers, eight less than its season average. Eight different players scored goals for Dartmouth and two more notched points.
Fergus Campbell '12 had a team-high eight saves. Michael Novosel '10, who also saw time in the game, got two saves.
With the score at 17-7, Vermont made a push with six goals in the final 10 minutes, but it was not enough.
Assistant coach Jon Torpey, who runs the defense, said that his initial game plan was too complicated and that a simple approach would have better.
"In the second half, guys started playing faster and smarter," he said. "We mixed it up a little bit on defense, keying in on a couple of guys who are going to be threats."
Co-captain Towny Swiggett '10 agreed that the defense started to play a more comfortable game in the second half, adding that the win gives them much needed momentum going into Saturday's game against the University of Pennsylvania (5-7, 1-4 Ivy).
"This game proves what we can do," he said. "We have our entire season ahead of us, and we will take it one game at a time."
While the Big Green only has two games remaining on its schedule, the games will decide whether Dartmouth will reach the Ivy League tournament, the winner of which advances to the NCAA tournament.
Dartmouth needs to win both of its remaining Ivy games, and No. 20 Harvard University (5-5, 1-3 Ivy) needs to lose one of its remaining two.
"We are all going to be ready to play on Saturday," Gagel said.
Towers called the win against Vermont a turning point in the season.
"We felt like this was a great opportunity to create momentum going into a big game against Penn," he said
Dartmouth will play at home against the Quakers at Scully-Fahey Field this Saturday at 1 p.m.
