The first game for the men (8-8-2, 5-5-1 ECAC) against Brown (8-8-3, 5-5-2 ECAC) will be a rematch of an October contest during the Ivy Shootout, in which the Big Green pulled out a 2-1 win. They will look to have the same success when they face off with Brown again on Friday.
"We still have to play our game," forward Mark Goggin '13 said. "They play fast and hard, so we just have to work harder than they do."
The Yale men (8-9-3, 5-6-1 ECAC) are also familiar foes for the Big Green, who fell to the Bulldogs 2-1 in their Ivy Shootout meeting early in the season. Dartmouth will look to break an eight-game losing streak to Yale for its first win against the Bulldogs since 2008.
"We have to get off to a good start," Goggin said. "Play hard and play smart. It's a different year, and we are a different team. Hopefully we can score more goals than we usually do against them. We need to score early and put the pressure on."
The Big Green will hope to ride its momentum from a strong weekend in which it fell 4-3 to the No. 9 Cornell Big Red in an overtime contest and defeated No. 18 Colgate University in overtime the next day by a score of 5-4.
"We feel good," Goggin said. "This should be a big weekend. Two good teams coming in, so hopefully we can continue where we left off."
The team hit a lull with two straight losses before the overtime game at Cornell, but the momentum gained from the tight contest and the subsequent win against Colgate has the team's confidence high going into the weekend against two conference rivals, according to Goggin.
He emphasized that even after playing two ranked teams in a row last weekend, the team is preparing just as hard for the conference games against tough competition.
"We're on the upswing right now," Goggin said. "We're hopefully going to peak at the right time. We haven't played at home in a while, and it will be against two good teams so there's no chance of a letdown."
The No. 10 Dartmouth women (12-6-2, 8-4-2 ECAC) will take on Brown (7-7-7, 4-6-4 ECAC) in their first contest since a tough overtime loss to No. 2 Cornell last weekend. The team hopes to rebound when it takes the ice in Providence, R.I.
"[Brown] hasn't been winning a ton of games this year, but they've been playing well lately, so they're definitely a big opponent, and they're going to give us a good game," Reagan Fischer '12 said.
The Big Green will then head to New Haven, Conn. to take on a struggling Yale team (1-20-0, 1-13-0 ECAC) that is in the midst of a 14-game losing streak.
Fisher said Dartmouth will not take the Bulldogs lightly.
"This year, the league has been so competitive, so it doesn't mean that Yale isn't going to give us a good game," she said. "Their record leaves no reason to underestimate them or treat them any differently from Cornell."
The team will look to create a new run after its eight-game unbeaten streak came to an end against Cornell. With a strong record against both of its opponents this weekend 64-4-2 all time against Yale and undefeated in its past 10 contests against Brown the team's chances look good for kicking off another run.
