The 16th-ranked Dartmouth men's hockey team hit the road this weekend, playing its final regular-season away games. The Big Green lost to Colgate University on Friday night, 5-3, before falling to Cornell University in overtime on Saturday, 3-2.
Dartmouth (15-9-3, 11-7-2 ECAC) struggled early against the Raiders (7-23-2, 4-14-2 ECAC). The Big Green penalty kill failed to stop the Raiders midway through the first period, and Colgate took a 1-0 lead off a power play goal by senior forward Francois Brisebois. Colgate struck again less than five minutes later, securing a two-goal advantage heading into the second period.
The Big Green's luck did not improve after the intermission, and the Raiders were able to capitalize on another Dartmouth penalty to widen their lead to three goals.
"We had some really good chances they just had some good, lucky breaks," defenseman Taylor Boldt '14 said. "One of their goals went off one of our skates and the other bounced off a helmet."
The Big Green finally found some momentum toward the end of the second period, when Dustin Walsh '13 stripped the puck at center ice and moved in to attempt a hard shot on net. Although Colgate freshman goalie Eric Mihalik was initially able to stop the puck, he could not turn away Matthew Lindblad '14, who pounced on the rebound to record his 11th goal of the season and bring Dartmouth back to within striking distance.
Dartmouth entered the third period trailing 3-1.
"We stayed confident that we were going to pull it out," Lindblad said.
The Big Green was then able to knock in a power play goal of its own, when Walsh secured the puck on the right side of the boards deep in the Raiders' zone. He passed to Lindblad, who found Connor Goggin '12 at the top of the circle. Goggin ripped the puck past Mihalik to cut the Raiders advantage to one.
Colgate scored again, though, reclaiming its two-goal advantage over the Big Green midway through the third period.
Dartmouth brought the game back to within a goal late in the third period. A shot by Mike Keenan '13 rebounded off Mihalik before being tipped in by assistant captain Adam Estoclet '11.
The Big Green continued to press the Raiders until the very end, pulling goalie James Mello '12 in favor of an extra skater.
With 15 seconds left in the matchup, the Raiders snuck through the Dartmouth defense and capitalized on the empty net to bring the score to 5-3.
The Big Green next traveled to Ithaca, N.Y., to play Cornell (13-11-3, 11-7-2 ECAC) on Saturday in front of an energetic Big Red crowd.
"Some of their chants and just the overall atmosphere in the rink was unbelievable," Lindblad said. "They had a lot of school spirit and got really into the game. It was a really fun game to play."
The first period was a showcase of offensive talent and defensive determination, as both teams created several scoring opportunities that were turned away.
The Big Green got on the board early in the second period when Nick Walsh '12 was able to capitalize on a pass from Doug Jones '12, giving the Big Green a 1-0 advantage.
Cornell evened the game with less than 30 seconds to play in the period, however, as a tipped puck barely found its way past Mello.
The Big Red took the lead early in the third period when junior forward Locke Jillson secured a loose puck at center ice and skated in uncontested on a breakaway. Jillson slipped the puck past Mello to give Cornell a 2-1 lead.
A few minutes later, senior forward Joe Devin also managed to secure a loose puck and skate in uncontested. Mello stood tall, however, stopping a hard shot to keep his team within striking distance of the charging Big Red.
The Big Green tied the contest with less than five minutes to play when captain Scott Fleming '11 netted the equalizer.
The goal was Fleming's 100th point in his Dartmouth career. Fleming is only the 34th player in Dartmouth history to reach the milestone. The last player to register 100 points was Nick Johnson '08, who now plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
"It definitely means a lot for me to reach 100 career points it is a big accomplishment and later on when I look back at my career, it will mean a lot," Fleming said. "Many great players have done this so it is nice to be in that group. I have been lucky to play with many great players here and would not have been able to do that without them."
The game remained tied at the end of regulation play and the contest headed to overtime.
The Big Red capitalized early in the sudden death overtime period to score and end the game. The win was Cornell's fourth overtime victory of the season.
Dartmouth is now tied with Cornell for third place in the ECAC, and the teams remain in contention for a first-round bye in the conference playoffs.
"We are excited about this weekend," Fleming said. "The first-round bye is in our hands so we just need to come out and have two solid games and get ready for playoffs. We want to get back on the winning track after an unlucky weekend."
The Big Green will play St. Lawrence (10-17-5, 6-13-1 ECAC) on Friday at 7 p.m. before playing Clarkson (14-16-2, 8-11-1 ECAC) on Saturday at 7 p.m., the team's final regular-season games.
