Three minutes into Dartmouth men’s hockey’s Friday night home matchup against the Colgate Raiders, forward Hayden Stavroff ’28 stood unmarked in front of the goal. Forward Hank Cleaves ’28 slid the puck to Stavroff, who slapped his stick towards the goal and rifled the shot into the top of the net to give Dartmouth a 1-0 lead. The Big Green never looked back and went on to defeat the Raiders 4-1.
“They were a good team, but we started hot and finished hot,” Stavroff said.
The win followed a stellar performance on Nov. 2 when the Big Green defeated Yale 6-1, with four goals in the last eight minutes of the second period. It also continued the team’s undefeated season, bringing them to 3-0 on the season.
At the end of last year, Colgate was ranked third in the Eastern College Athletic Conference rankings, two slots above Dartmouth. Coming into the game, head coach Reid Cashman was prepared for a tough fight.
“It’ll be our toughest game yet. Their coach, Mike Harder, has always been really big on transition and aggressiveness,” said Cashman before the game. “What Colgate does best is when you turn over, make mistakes … and they tend to have a really good power play.”
Dartmouth won the first puck drop and had multiple shot attempts in a tight first couple of minutes of play, only to be ended in blocks and saves from Colgate. Stavroff’s goal — his fifth of the season — broke the deadlock. A penalty committed by Brock Cummings ’29 at 4:24 gave Colgate a power play for two minutes, but the Raiders were unable to capitalize.
The aggressive back-and-forth shots continued for the next seven minutes of the game, and at 10:04 in the first period, Colgate’s Ryan Sullivan was placed in the penalty box for boarding. Dartmouth took advantage just 30 seconds after, when Foley moved the puck from Dartmouth’s zone through the neutral zone into Colgate’s net to make it 2-0, with Stavroff getting an assist.
The beginning of the second period quickly saw the Big Green on a power play after Sullivan was placed in the penalty box once more after fifteen seconds. The Big Green scored once again at 10:16 when Ryan Schelling ’29 placed the puck in the net off a rebound, his third goal of the season. The rest of the period continued to be fast paced until the end, where play stopped because of a lost glove and a broken stick. Down three goals at the end of the second period, the Raiders struck back when Max Nagel scored Colgate’s only goal of the night with slightly under four minutes left.
Dartmouth continued to dominate in the third period. Over seven minutes into the period, Stavroff won a faceoff and passed the puck across the ice to Cam MacDonald ’26, who scored to give Dartmouth a 4-1 lead. Colgate was unable to catch up and the score remained 4-1 in Dartmouth’s favor to end the game.
“I think Dartmouth looks really good this year,” said Erika Edwards, a Class of 1992 Colgate alumna. “They look very coordinated [and] their defense is amazing.”
Megan Romano and Lucas Salas, associate and assistant professors of epidemiology at Geisel, respectively, found the game “amazing.”
“It’s my first time at a hockey game and I feel encouraged to keep coming,” Salas said.
Despite facing an incredibly aggressive and skilled team, Stavroff credits “winning races, finding the right play, and taking what’s given” as other keys to the team’s success.
Cashman agreed, emphasizing the different strategies the team employed to face off against a really strong opponent.
“We want to be really good in the neutral zone. [Colgate] is such a good transition team, there’s so much skill,” said Cashman.
The team was able to overcome Colgate’s impressive four minutes of power play, a strong point for the Raiders heading into the game.
“The penalty kill was excellent, and any time there was a breakdown, [goalie] Roan [Clarke] ’27 bailed us out,” said Cashman. “The penalty kill and power play were a big part of tonight.”
Clarke was crucial to the team’s victory with 18 saves. Clarke was forced to stay busy against an aggressive Colgate offense, who matched Dartmouth’s tally of 19 shots in the game.
On Nov. 8, the team extended their winning streak to four games with a 2-1 victory against Cornell University. Dartmouth, now ranked No. 19 in the latest U.S. College Hockey Online rankings, is 4-0 in the ECAC and will look to continue their impressive start to the season against St. Lawrence University and Clarkson University this weekend, both games in New York.
