The women’s hockey team plays its last two home games of the year this weekend, facing St. Lawrence University on Friday and No. 5 Clarkson University on Saturday. Earlier this season, the women (7-16-1, 6-11-1 ECAC) fell 3-0 to Clarkson (21-4-5, 12-2-4 ECAC) and 4-1 to St. Lawrence (10-16-3, 9-6-3) on the road.
The women are currently in ninth place in the ECAC and sit just one point out of the final playoff spot in the league. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute currently occupies eighth, but the Big Green owns the tiebreaker, having beaten the Engineers twice this season.
“We’re one point out of playoff contention right now,” head coach Mark Hudak said. “I think the important part for us is to do what we need to do, and we’ll find out what happens after the other teams play.”
The Engineers should be able to pick up some points this weekend, as they host Colgate University, who is 11th in the ECAC. The team also hosts No. 3 Cornell University. In order to stay competitive for the final playoff spot in the league, Dartmouth needs points this weekend before traveling to Yale University and Brown University for the season’s final weekend.
Dartmouth is looking to use the tough play from its 4-1 loss to No. 6 Harvard University in upcoming games.
“We’re just going to try to build off the energy we had and build off the effort, and that’ll help push us through this weekend,” Lindsey Allen ’16 said.
The Harvard game’s final score did not reflect its tone. The Big Green outshot the Crimson for the second time this season and held the Crimson to two goals until the final minute of the game.
“One of the things we did well against Harvard, and certainly something we’re going to try to do again this week, is slowing them down by being both disciplined but also trying to provide a lot of pressure on the puck so that they can’t do what they want to do,” Hudak said.
The team is looking to break a slow streak on offense. Coming out of the winter break, the Dartmouth women have been much better offensively, scoring 21 goals in January. The last two weeks, the team has struggled to put the puck in the net, scoring four goals in three losses.
“We are trying to work on the finishing aspect of the scoring opportunities, but it’s hard,” Hudak said. “You can’t just work on one thing because it really does require you to first get the opportunity to score and then actually put the puck in.”
In Dartmouth’s last game against Clarkson, the team managed just 11 shots on goal. Though the team fared much better against St. Lawrence, ripping 34 shots on goal, the women still connected on just one score.
“A lot of scoring is a little bit of an attitude, and a lot of it is mental,” Hudak said. “It’s tough if you haven’t been successful with it to get that little bit of an edge.”
The Big Green’s offense will once again have to play without forward Karlee Odland ’15, who has been key to the Big Green’s top line this season. Last weekend, the offense clicked against the Crimson, so the team seems to be up to the challenge.
“We’ll be a little short, we’ve just got 15 skaters, so everybody has got to chip in and contribute,” Hudak said.
In the two previous games against Clarkson and St. Lawrence, the Big Green allowed them both to score first and had to play catch-up for the rest of the game.
“Every game we talk about trying to come out and be ready from the start and not let up a goal and then realize we need to start playing hard,” co-captain Lindsay Holdcroft ’14 said. “We’re definitely looking to come out hard from the drop of the puck so there are no early goals that we can’t come back from late in the game.”
The team has progressed since Nov. 8 and 9, when the Big Green traveled to upstate New York to play Clarkson and St. Lawrence for the first time this season.
“We’ve definitely grown as a team, and we’ve gotten a lot better,” Allen said. “We played them a long time ago when we were having a little bit of a rough season, but since the break we’ve really turned it on.”
The Big Green faces St. Lawrence Friday night at 7 p.m. and Clarkson on Saturday at 4 p.m., both at Thompson Arena. Following Saturday’s game, the team will hold a senior recognition ceremony for its three members of the Class of 2014.
