Both hockey teams finished their seasons this past weekend, and ended up with their best finishes in recent years. The women’s team made it to the Women’s NCAA Frozen Four, where they fell to eventual champions Minnesota-Duluth 5-2 before winning the 3rd place game against Minnesota 4-2. Harvard was the fourth team in the tournament and finished 2nd, losing 4-3 to UMD in double overtime in the final.
The men’s team wound up its season in Albany, NY, where they headed into the ECAC semifinals needing to win it all to advance to the NCAA tournament. Unfortunatly they started slow and couldn’t recover in time. They fell behind 2-0 to Harvard after one period of play, and it looked to be out of control as they went into the 2nd break down 4-1 and with starting goaltender Nick Boucher pulled in favor of sophomore Dan Yacey. Dartmouth staged a furious comeback late in the game, however, when Hugh Jessiman knocked in a rebound with a little over seven minutes remaining to make it 4-2 and then senior Mike Murray was pulled down on a breakaway and awarded a penalty shot by referee Scott Hansen only three minutes later. Murray deked Harvard netminder Dov Grumet-Morris and scored on a backhand shot to make it 4-3, but that was as close as Dartmouth would make it. Harvard added an empty netter with five seconds remaining to make it a 5-3 final. The other highlight of the night was when the 6′ 5″ Jessiman checked a Harvard player through the glass, knocking the pane into the camera man and providing some classic replays for the crowd to enjoy.
In the sparsely attended consolation game, Dartmouth took out Brown 4-2 in a game that was actually very well played considering how little everyone cared about it. Dan Yacey got the start and earned his first career win. Senior captain Kent Gillings got two goals, including the eventual game winner on a beautiful slap shot from the right point that snuck in just under the crossbar. Senior Pete Summerfelt also notched his 28th assist of the season, tying the team record for most assists in a season by a defenseman.
The win gave Dartmouth a final record of 20-13-1, the first time since the 1947-48 season that Dartmouth reached the 20 wins plateau. By finishing third in the ECAC in both the regular season and tournament, it also marked the best finish by a Dartmouth team since 1980, when the team last made it to the NCAA tournament. This was also the first time since 1974 the team has finished with three winning seasons in a row.
BTW, if any of you get a chance to go to this event in the coming years, I highly encourage it. A fun time was had by all, even given the loss to Hahvahd.
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2003 NCAA Women’s Frozen Four:
#4 Dartmouth vs #1 UMD (Semifinal): Recap : Box Score
#4 Dartmouth vs #3 Minnesota (Consolation): Recap : Box Score
2003 Men’s ECAC Championship:
#3 Dartmouth vs #2 Harvard (Semifinal): Recap : Box Score
#3 Dartmouth vs. #5 Brown (Consolation): Recap : Box Score
The New Digs A change of venue benefits the ECAC.
Hugh-ge Freshmen Dartmouth’s cupboard isn’t bare.
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