The two wins maintained Dartmouth's third-place position in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference standings. With two games remaining in the regular season, the Big Green has already clinched a spot in the conference tournament and has a chance to seize a top-four seed for home ice in the first round.
"It's great to have won these two games this weekend to be able to control our own destiny," head coach Mark Hudak said.
In a penalty-ridden contest against St. Lawrence, neither team was able to take advantage of numerous power play chances until Foley broke a 1-1 tie early in the second period, scoring her second goal of the game. Saints junior Alley Bero responded with an equalizer later in the period.
The teams reached the second intermission in a 2-2 deadlock. The third period featured eight total power play opportunities, timeouts taken by both teams and 22 combined shots on goal. The Saints outshot the Big Green, 13-9, in the final frame.
In the end, the only statistic that mattered was the game-winning tally scored by Scanlon with under four minutes left to play. Scanlon took the puck from behind the back of the net to the crease and poked the puck past the Saints' red-shirt senior goaltender Maxie Weisz.
"At first, nobody knew that it went into the net," Scanlon said. "Once I saw that it went in, I freaked out. It was the most significant goal I've ever scored for Dartmouth."
The goal was Scanlon's third of the season. Camille Dumais '13 and Sally Komarek '13 were credited with assists on the play.
"It's not a play you are going to see on the ESPN highlights," Hudak said. "It was just a good hockey play. You take the puck to the front of the net and good things will happen."
With just over two minutes left in the game, Dartmouth was called for a penalty for holding an opponent's stick, giving the Saints an opportunity to pull their goalie and create a six-on-four power play. The Big Green weathered the storm, however, and held on for a hard-fought win.
"The final two minutes was nerve-wracking," Scanlon said. "Usually we would sit on the bench, but for that, everybody was standing. When the clock hit zero, it was a huge sigh of relief."
Dartmouth goaltender Lindsay Holdcroft '14 made a career-high 38 saves in the winning effort. The Big Green penalty-kill unit also played an important role in the victory, stopping all 10 Saints power plays.
Dartmouth's task did not get any easier when it took on Clarkson the next day. The Golden Knights had been unbeaten in their last seven games and had defeated the Big Green in the teams' first meeting of the season.
Playing on their senior night, the Golden Knights came out strong in the first period. Freshman forward Carly Mercer put Clarkson on the board six minutes into the game.
Five minutes later, Reagan Fischer '12 tied the game at one goal each with her eighth tally of the season. In the second period, Fischer assisted on a tally by Sasha Nanji '13 to give Dartmouth the lead.
"We came out a little slow in the [Clarkson game] as it was their senior game and they came out charged with energy," Hudak said. "Once we settled down, we had a lot of great individual efforts."
Fischer currently leads the team with 17 assists this season. Nanji leads all defensemen in goals and assists with 13 and 12, respectively.
Foley added an empty-net goal at the end of the game to seal the victory. Foley is now second on the team with 26 points, one behind team-leader Dumais.
Holdcroft was once again solid in goal, stopping 19 of 20 shots. Holding a 12-5 record, she has the third best winning percentage in the conference, behind two goaltenders on the Cornell University team, which is undefeated in ECAC play.
Dartmouth will play its final two regular season games next weekend, against Cornell University and Colgate University in Hanover.
