Men’s and Women’s Hockey Take Ivies

By Brendan M. Neff | Thursday, March 1, 2007

Pulling together for the season’s stretch run, Dartmouth’s Men’s Hockey team rode heady specialty teams and Mike Devine ‘08’s hot goaltending to the Ivy League title and the number three seed in the ECAC post-season tournament. While basketball failed to translate early season momentum into a serious run at the Ivy League title, and skiing continued its mechanical destruction of everyone and anyone in their way, Dartmouth hockey provided the excitement and intrigue for this winter’s sports fan. In our midseason sports report, senior Dan Shribman described the team’s goal in the second half of the season as just “playing winning hockey in February and letting the rest take care of itself.” It can certainly be said that the men in green accomplished this goal, making most of their own luck, and putting themselves in a great position as the post season begins.

Nothing was a given for the Green coming into the month. After righting themselves on home ice against Union and RPI, Dartmouth took to the road on consecutive weekends to play some of their most challenging, and ultimately compelling, hockey. Dartmouth’s stretch run began with a Friday night shootout in central Connecticut, as the Green downed a Quinnipiac squad that was well ahead of them in conference at the time. Dartmouth’s first line of captain Tanner Glass ‘07, David Jones ‘08, and Nick Johnson ’08 combined for four goals as the Big Green held on for a dramatic, 5-4 victory. Twice giving up leads, only to rebound for the vital win, Dartmouth was beginning its ascent up the ECAC rankings. Dartmouth suffered a setback the next night, running into some hot goaltending and succumbing to Princeton, 3-0. A tribute to this team’s mettle, they would not lose another game for the rest of the regular season.

— Goalie Mike Devine ‘08 came up with 51 saves against Yale. —

The Green started their run by dismissing Brown in Providence by a one-goal margin. Next, the Green had a nationally televised tangle with Ivy League foe Yale. On this grim New Haven Sunday afternoon, Mike Devine made a tremendous 51 saves as the escaped with a vital Ivy League win, 3 goals to 2. The contest seemed headed for a draw after Yale evened it on a unfairly awarded penalty shot, but the Green were again to tally the final score, as with just over five minutes left, sophomore Rob Pritchard found the net through traffic for his second, and game winning, goal. With the win the Green closed the gap in conference, putting pressure on Cornell and Quinnipiac barely ahead of them. Just as importantly, they earned a tough Ivy League victory and embarrassed television-viewing Yalies everywhere.

This past weekend, the men in green returned home to an invigorated Thompson Arena crowd. The great energy of the Hanover home ice advantage was back in full effect, as student and townie alike knew what was at stake. Seeming to will the Green to victory, the crowd witnessed Dartmouth take its first Ivy Title since, amazingly, 1980, when current head coach Bob Gaudet ’80 was between the pipes for the Green. Given the recent success of the program, few students realized it had been since well before they were born that Dartmouth could claim the championship, or that current coach was actually on the ice at the time as an undergraduate, but that knowledge only made the moment that much more sweet. Five different Dartmouth players found the net as the men in green posted a resounding 5-1 victory. Amazingly, Cornell held a significant advantage in shots, carrying the play at times, and had a man advantage ten different times, yet were unable to score. The result and championship is a testament to the quality of goaltender Mike Devine and senior blue liners Grant Lewis, Mike Hartwick, and Ben Lovejoy, who have allowed Dartmouth to escape their high number of penalties virtually unscathed this season.

The final game of the season took on a celebratory feel, a packed house on hand to send off Dartmouth’s seniors and celebrate the Ivy title won the night before. The crowd was raucous all night, led by a group of nine green hued undergraduates, lettered and arranged to form the name of this great institution, and who began a wave that lasted for the entirety of the Dartmouth power play that closed out the second period. And, of course, the Green prevailed, weathering some nervous moments thanks to clutch netminding from Devine. Freshman wunder-kind T.J. Galiardi would get the game winner with barely two minutes left on a beautifully placed wrist shot from the circle. Nick Johnson would add his second a minute later into the empty net, securing the 3-1 triumph. The win was Dartmouth’s eighth in their last nine contests, a spam that saw the men in green outscore their opponents by 10 goals, and ensured a first round bye in the ECAC. Dartmouth is now off for a week before hosting the ECACHL Quarterfinals on March 9-10 in a three game showdown against either Ivy foe Princeton or Brown, in what certainly promises to be an epic, sporting scene.

On the women’s side, the Big Green continued steamrolling competition to rack up an Ivy League title of their own for the ninth time in program history. Needing two wins to secure the title, the women downed Brown and Yale on the final weekend of the regular season, continuing a conference unbeaten streak dating back to November 11, when they dropped a tight match, 2-1, to an upstart Colgate team. On Friday, the Green manhandled the Bears, 6-0, in front of goaltender Carli Clemis ’09, who stopped all fourteen shots in route to her fifth career shutout. Five different players found the twine for Dartmouth, including a goal from all four lines, and two for captain Gillian Apps ’06.

— Women’s captain Gillian Apps ‘06 potted two game-winning, overtime down the stretch to lead the team to the Ivy League Championship. —

The following afternoon, with the Ivy League title on the line and Dartmouth in control of its own destiny, the squad squeezed out a tense 3-2 victory over Yale. After a scoreless first period, sophomore Shannon Bowman stole the puck while shorthanded and slung in a shot that bounced off the back of the Yale goalie and into the cage 2:49 into the second. Yale answered with a power play goal at 10:49, evening the score going into the third period. The Elis claimed their first and only lead of the game early in the third with a shortie of their own. With Apps in the sin bin for a late hit three minutes later, Bowman assisted classmate Maggie Kennedy on Dartmouth’s second shorthanded goal of the game, knotting the contest at two, where it would remain until the end of regulation. Apps, who buried the overtime game winner against St. Lawrence on January 27, again proved to be the hero, slamming home a rebound halfway through the extra frame. Classmate and fellow Olympian Cherie Piper was credited with an assist on the play, the 100th of her career.

The next weekend, the Big Green women hosted number eight seed RPI in the first round of the ECAC playoffs. In the first game of the best-of-three series, RPI jumped out to a 1-0 lead less than four minutes in, but Dartmouth responded by netting two of their own of the sticks of Bowman and Katie Weatherston ’06, to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. Weatherston added to her tally with another marker just 56 seconds into the second period. Seven minutes later, with Apps in the box again, senior defender Meredith Batcheller stripped the puck at her own blue line and skated unopposed into the RPI zone. She threw a shot on net from the top of right circle and it beat the RPI keeper low on the blocker side for what would prove to be the game winner. RPI dominated the remainder of the second and went into the break trailing just 4-3. Weatherston went into the third and finished what she had started, notching two more goals, to give her four on the day, and a 6-3 victory for the Big Green.

The second tilt was a see-saw battle that saw the game knotted at one apiece at the beginning of the third period. Early in the final frame, Maggie Kennedy ’09 stripped the puck in her own zone, skated towards the RPI goal, and rifled a game-winning slapshot between the legs of the RPI goalie. Junior Nicole Ruta added an insurance tally 15 minutes later on a pass from Weatherston, her sixth point of the weekend.

The women are in action again this weekend for the final rounds of the ECAC playoffs. They face off against Colgate in the semis on Saturday, with the championship game slated for 2 PM on Sunday. Thanks to their #3 national ranking, they are guaranteed a bid to the NCAA national tournament, but can improve their seed by sweeping the weekend. The men’s team earned a first round bye with their sweep of Cornell and Colgate, and will be in action again next weekend for the second round of the ECAC playoffs, when they will take on the winner of the Harvard-Yale series in Thompson Arena.

Men’s and Women’s Hockey Take Ivies

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