Even though it may still feel like summer, the Dartmouth men's and women's hockey teams are preparing to return to the ice. In the ECAC hockey coaches' media preseason polls, the men's squad was picked sixth while the women's team was selected to finish eighth out of 12 teams.
Defenseman Evan Stephens '11 the fifth-highest scorer on the men's team with 20 points last season earned his second consecutive selection for the coaches' Preseason All-League team.
Last year, the Big Green men were predicted to finish fifth. The squad ended the season tied with Harvard University for ninth place, registering a losing conference record of 7-12-3. Dartmouth fell 2-1 to Quinnipiac University in the deciding game of a best-of-three first round of the 2010 ECAC tournament.
The 2009-2010 season had started with disappointing results for the Big Green, which lost its first six games.
"The season is too short to do that again," Fleming said. "I think last year we put too much pressure on ourselves. This year we are all prepared and expecting big things, but not trying to get ahead of ourselves."
Later victories against highly ranked teams, including then-No. 13 Union College and then-No.10 Cornell University, somewhat revitalized Dartmouth by the end of the season.
Yale University, after seizing last year's ECAC championship, earned the unanimous top ranking in this season's men's preseason polls, followed by Cornell, Union, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Colgate University.
Just a few days after starting in-season practice, the Big Green men will be back in action for an exhibition against Quebec Three-Rivers University on Sunday, Oct. 17, in Hanover. Dartmouth then travels to New Haven, Conn., to confront the Bulldogs in a scrimmage on Oct. 24, and then Princeton in the non-conference Ivy Shootout on Oct. 29.
"[The Yale scrimmage] should be a good test for us to see where we are standing," Fleming said. "We are excited to have those games to give us a little practice to get as many guys in as possible, to see what the new guys can bring and to see what everyone has been doing this summer."
After being slated third in preseason polls for the past three seasons, the Dartmouth women's ice hockey team is disappointed with its eighth-place ranking, captain Katie Horner '11 said.
"It serves as a motivating factor in many ways for the team," women's head coach Mark Hudak said. "I am sure they are looking at [the rankings], saying that we are better than eighth, and we will show people that we are."
Finishing the 2009-2010 season in ninth place with a 9-12-1 ECAC record, the women's team failed to make the ECAC playoffs.
This year's seniors, however, have experience from reaching two NCAA tournament quarterfinals and earning one ECAC Hockey championship during their tenure at Dartmouth.
"I attribute our success in the past when we made it to the national tournament to the strong leadership," Horner said. "That is our goal to provide that leadership and knowledge to the underclassmen who haven't been there yet."
The loss of last year's seniors, including the high-scoring captains Sarah Parsons '10 and Jenna Cunningham '10, will be a challenge the team anticipates being able to overcome.
"We've got to find a way to manufacture some of those points that we are losing," Hudak said. "We have been able to do that year in and year out ... but it isn't something that I, nor the team, is concerned about."
Cornell last year's ECAC title winner garnered the first-place ranking in the polls, while Clarkson University and Harvard trail in second and third, respectively. Hudak said he recognizes Cornell and Harvard as the teams that will pose the biggest challenge this season.
"[Crimson head coach] Katey Stone is telling everyone that Cornell and Harvard are the two people to look out for, and Dartmouth is no longer their rival, so we are ready to show them that they are a little mistaken," Horner said.
The women will tighten up their skates for an exhibition game against McGill University on Oct. 22, before facing Brown and Yale during Homecoming weekend in Hanover.
