Women’s Hockey: Union Struggles to Hold Onto Their Play

On Friday, January 20, Big Green Women’s Hockey faced off against Union College at home in Thompson Arena, with Dartmouth pulling off a 3-1 victory after a rocky start. This leaves the team with a 6-15 record thus far.

Early into the game, Union put the pressure on Dartmouth’s defense with a couple of shots on goal. Although Dartmouth would eventually find ways to clear the puck after a Union player sent her stick flying, the aggressive playing by Union led to them knocking in the first goal early in the first period. Unfortunately for Union, the pattern of good pressure followed by things starting to fall apart would just about sum up the rest of the competition. 

After that initial goal, Dartmouth was able to take advantage of the first power play of the match to gain the upper hand in shots-on-goal, something that they would hold for the remainder of the evening. Unfortunately for the Big Green, Union’s goalie made several leaping-out-of-the-net saves to get the team the penalty kill and hold their lead for the time being. At this point in the match, after a referee got hit by a puck, Dartmouth drew another power play and put away two goals to exit the first period leading 2-1. As play resumed, Dartmouth came out strong, still on the power play, to add the last tally to the scoreboard, 3-1. 

From this point on, though no points were scored, Dartmouth found itself in several tense situations after two of its players were sent to the penalty box simultaneously, though multiple impressive saves quelled any chance of a Union comeback. As the second period drew to a close and the third period rolled on, Dartmouth seemed to relax, with fewer shots being taken. Union still pushed on strong, desperately slapping more and more risky shots, trying to change the tide of the game, but to no avail.