The women’s hockey team ended its home season on a sour note, falling to St. Lawrence University on Friday night 4-1 and No. 5 Clarkson University 6-1 on Saturday night. Despite the disappointing finishes, the women remain in the running for the playoffs and in ninth place in the ECAC, thanks to Colgate University and No. 3 Cornell University’s wins over eighth-place Rensselaer Polytechnic Insitute.
A three-point weekend by Yale University means that the Big Green (7-18-1, 6-13-1 ECAC) can only reach eighth place. RPI (10-18-3, 6-12-2 ECAC) and Dartmouth are separated by one point in the standings with one weekend to play. The Big Green hits the road to play 11th place Brown University and Yale while the Engineers travel to play Clarkson (23-4-5, 14-2-4 ECAC) and St. Lawrence (11-17-3, 10-7-3 ECAC). The Engineers have a much tougher weekend, but the Big Green needs to tie them in the standings to make the playoffs. The team from Hanover holds the tiebreaker over RPI thanks to a season sweep.
“I think if we have a good week of practice and play our type of hockey, without making any little errors, we have a really good shot at making the playoffs,” forward Laura Stacey ’16 said. “We’ve played really tough all year and been just a few bounces away from winning some games. I think next weekend is a chance to get it together and make a push for the playoffs.”
The women came out firing against the Saints, outshooting the visitors 16-7 in the first period. However, the Big Green could only put one goal in the net. With just under five minutes to play in the opening frame, Stacey won a draw to Lindsey Allen ’16 in the offensive zone. The sophomore fired a shot but could not beat the St. Lawrence goalie. Yet Devon Moir ’17 was in the right place at the right time and buried the loose puck for her first career goal.
“We went into it with a lot of energy, we did not want to have to be fighting back,” Katy Ratty ’17 said. “We wanted to be on top at the beginning.”
Shortly after, St. Lawrence tied it up at one. The visitors scored the only goal of the second period to make it 2-1 going into the final 20 minutes.
“We were playing very well, so we just kept thinking that we have to keep pushing and the goals would come,” Allen said. “We were outshooting them, out-chancing them, and unfortunately they got a couple goals, but we knew that if we just kept pushing we could get the goals and get it back.”
The Big Green’s chances for a comeback were hindered when the Saints netted a power play goal 4:49 into the third period. With just under two minutes left, head coach Mark Hudak pulled goaltender Lindsay Holdcroft ’14, but the visitors sealed the win with an empty net goal 1:23 left in the game.
Dartmouth’s offense again struggled to connect on scoring opportunities. Despite recording 32 shots on goal to St. Lawrence’s 21, the Big Green managed only one goal.
“We just need to bury rebounds and bear down on the puck when we have the opportunity,” Ratty said.
The team also failed to put the puck in the net on Saturday, finishing with one goal out of 27 shots in the 6-1 defeat to the Golden Knights.
Clarkson came out strong in the first period, netting a power play goal 8:22 in and another one 16:44 in, but Dartmouth stayed calm and battled back in the second period, outplaying the highly-ranked visitors.
After being outshot 16-7 in the first period, the Big Green narrowed the margin to 13-12 in the second. Holdcroft stood on her head to keep the Big Green in the game, making numerous point-blank saves, including a sequence in which the captain knocked the puck out of the air with her shoulder and then dove across the net to stop a shot with the edge of her skate.
Almost 12 minutes into the second, Eleni Tebano ’17 scored the only goal of the frame with a laser from the point on a power play. Stacey dropped the puck to the freshman blueliner, who unloaded a slapper that found the corner of the net and cut the deficit to one.
While Dartmouth’s offense controlled the tempo for the second period, Clarkson took it right back at the start of the third. With 1:01 gone in the period and again just over a minute later, Clarkson jammed the puck past Holdcroft twice to extend its lead to 4-1.
“We had in the second and we might have just run out of energy since we’ve been fighting so hard in the first two periods and the night before,” Stacey said. “That’s something we need to focus on because it really did hurt us and it can’t happen. We had played so well, and it just took the air out of us.”
The Big Green could not bounce back from the deficit and Clarkson scored two more times, including a third on the power play, before the final buzzer.
“We just had a couple breakdowns, they got a couple unlucky goals,” Allen said. “A ton of our shifts were extended because we couldn’t clear the puck. We did the little things wrong, and they capitalized on our mistakes.”
Although she allowed six goals, Holdcroft had another stellar game, saving 33 shots.
Following the game, Holdcroft, Lauren Kelly ’14, and Ali Winkel ’14 were honored in a ceremony for their contributions over the past four years, which included a NCAA Tournament berth their freshman year.
Stacey said that the seniors were crucial in keeping the team together through their rollercoaster season.
“A lot of teams would have cracked after what we’ve gone through, and I really credit our coaches and captains with rallying us and keeping us together,” Stacey said. “Although we’ve taken a couple side roads along the way, we don’t think our season is anywhere near over.”
Dartmouth wraps up its regular season next weekend with away games against Brown at 7 p.m. on Friday and Yale at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
