The women’s ice hockey team swept the competition this weekend, winning away games at both Colgate and Cornell Universities. With the back-to-back victories the Big Green (13-11-2, 9-9-2 ECAC) cemented its entry into the Eastern Coast Athletic Conference tournament.
On Friday night, the Big Green began their weekend facing off against Colgate. Despite Colgate’s (7-24-1, 4-15-1 ECAC) lower rankings in the ECAC, where they are currently tied for ninth, the Big Green recognized the potential threat Colgate posed. The Raiders managed to defeat the Big Green 2-0 just three weeks earlier.
The first period ended with both teams scoreless, despite a Colgate offense that pressured the Dartmouth defense down low, goaltender Robyn Chemago ’17 said.
The Dartmouth offense came alive in the second period, producing three goals against Colgate’s one. The Big Green women got on the board first with a power play goal by Karlee Odland ’15 just under five minutes into the period. Odland was able to score off of a rebounded puck, after shots by Brooke Ahbe ’18 and Olivia Whitford ’16 failed to find the back of the net.
A few minutes later, the Raiders evened the score at 1-1, also putting themselves on the board with a power play goal. The tie did not stand long, as Odland made her second goal of the night only four minutes later to retake the lead for the Big Green. Odland took advantage of passes from teammates Samantha Zeiss ’15 and Kennedy Ottenbreit ’17 to put the puck past Colgate’s goalkeeper.
Lindsey Allen ’16 extended the lead to 3-1 with her 17th goal of the season, assisted by Ailish Forfar ’16 and Emma Korbs ’17.
With a comfortable lead on their hosts, Dartmouth maintained its offensive dominance throughout the third period. Devon Moir ’17 scored her first goal of the season just over eight minutes into the period.
Colgate refused to go down quietly, and the Raiders answered back with a goal snuck past Chemago three minutes later, cutting Dartmouth’s lead back to two.
With only a few minutes left in the game, Ottenbreit, taking advantage of Colgate’s empty net, sealed the win for the Big Green with a long shot from the blue line. The final score was 5-2, and Dartmouth outshot Colgate 35-25.
The win against Colgate has guaranteed Dartmouth’s place in the ECAC tournament, but the remainder of the regular season’s games will determine the final rankings in the league.
Knowing this, and remembering a recent defeat at the hands of Cornell, the Big Green took the ice in New York on Saturday afternoon with redemption on their minds, Allen said.
Forfar did not hesitate as the puck dropped, scoring the first goal of the game against the Big Red (14-10-3, 12-6-2 ECAC) just 24 seconds into the first period. Laura Stacey ’16 took a point-blank shot at the goal, which was blocked and flew to Forfar at the left pipe, who then slipped the puck in behind the goalie.
“We came out as hard as we could,” Stacey said. “The puck came out front right to me, and I was able to put it on net, and Ailish got the rebound and it was in the net before we knew it. We were pretty pumped about it…It kind of set us up for what happened in the rest of the game.”
Cornell was able to even the score nine minutes in with an unassisted goal by Jillian Saulnier. After a tripping penalty against Dartmouth, Cornell took the lead with a power play goal by Saulier, with assists from Brianne Jenner and Emily Fulton.
Chemago was kept busy at the goal in the second period, making big saves and keeping Cornell from increasing the lead over the Big Green.
With five minutes remaining in the second, Forfar took advantage of another deflected shot, this time Allen’s, to equalize the score.
The third period began with both teams fighting to gain the upper hand. The tie was broken at 6:28, when Allen intercepted a pass between Cornell players and took the puck all the way to the net, slamming a shot in the right corner.
Both teams fought hard the rest of the third period, but neither managed to find success in grabbing another goal and Dartmouth came away with the 3-2 win.
“It was really fun for us… putting in a solid effort for 60 minutes and getting out with a win is a great confidence builder,” Chemago said.
Chemago made a career-high save record in this game, saving 44 shots total. Cornell outshot Dartmouth 46-29, but could not ultimately come away with a victory over the Big Green, demonstrating the outstanding performance that Chemago gave.
“Goaltending was a big thing,” Allen said. “[Chemago] spun on her head, [and] she made a lot of saves. She stood tall for us, which is what we needed.”
Allen said that looking ahead, keeping the game simple and focusing on a productive offense will be two goals for the team.
“At this point, offense is the biggest thing because not a lot of goals are going to be scored from here on out,” she said. “We have to be sure that we do get them when we have the opportunity.”
The Big Green will next take the ice against Clarkson University and St. Lawrence University in Thompson Arena this weekend at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at 4 p.m., respectively.
Chemago made another career-high save record in this game, saving 44 shots total. Cornell outshot Dartmouth 46-29, but could not ultimately come away with a victory over the Big Green, demonstrating the outstanding performance that Chemago gave.
“Goaltending was a big thing,” Allen said. “[Chemago] spun on her head, [and] she made a lot of saves. She stood tall for us, which is what we needed.”
Allen said that looking ahead, keeping the game simple and focusing on a productive offense will be two goals for the team.
“At this point, offense is the biggest thing because not a lot of goals are going to be scored from here on out,” she said. “We have to be sure that we do get them when we have the opportunity.”
The Big Green will next take the ice against Clarkson University and St. Lawrence University in Thompson Arena this weekend at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at 4 p.m., respectively.
