Who says that Providence is an unbeatable team? Certainly not the Dartmouth women's hockey team.
The Friars came to Thompson Arena yesterday toting a 24-1-1 series record over the Big Green. The one win came way back in January of 1993, a 5-2 win at home in Thompson.
Yesterday it was time for a repeat for the Dartmouth women.
It was thanks to Dartmouth's top scorer Sarah Hood '98 that the team finished off the first period with a 1-0 lead, a lead the team would never relinquish.
It finished as a 5-1 victory for the Big Green, a score good enough to leave Dartmouth in fifth place in the ECAC.
"We just up and beat them," Head Coach George Crowe said. "There was no luck involved."
Throughout the first period the teams spent nearly equal time in both ends of the ice, each team firing relentlessly on the other's goalie.
But in the end, ECAC second-ranked Providence just couldn't contain the Big Green. Hood's slapshot from the left of the goal came late in the first, with just under three minutes left on the clock.
Plenty of time for a retaliation on the part of the Friars.
And in the second period, Providence's high-scorer Laurie Baker did sink one shot. Unfortunately for the Friars, Dartmouth's Kathleen O'Keefe '99 and Jessica Clark '98 had already put away two more.
Ten minutes into the second period, refs sent Providence's Katie Lachapelle to the penalty box for crosschecking. Myia Yates followed her 30 seconds later with a penalty for hooking.
This left the Big Green with a five-on-three situation. A chance too good to be true, and the team used it for everything it was worth.
Just over one minute into Lachapelle's penalty, Hood sent a slapshot flying to the Providence goal. DeCosta stopped the shot but was unable to get a grasp on the puck. That's when O'Keefe stepped in, swooping up the puck and tipping it over the line.
Two minutes after that goal, Dartmouth's Wendy Soutsos '99 screened Providence to give Halsell the chance to get the puck to Sarah Halsell '99, who passed it up to Jessica Clark '98. Clark took the puck and skated past the defenders to go one-on-one with DeCosta for Dartmouth's third goal.
By no means was that the end.
"[The Dartmouth players] sort of got cocky and confident," Assistant Coach Judy Parish said. "They kept their concentration, but they had fun."
Finishing the second period with a 3-1 advantage, the team was back for more in the third.
Hood, not settling for a goal and an assist, took off from the start, nailing the puck to the back of the net just eight seconds into the period off assists from Emilie Schnitman '98 and Halsell.
Then, with 1:41 on the clock, senior co-Captain Malaika Little took a pass from Hood to finish off the game with one more goal, leaving the final score at 5-1.
Saturday's 6-0 loss to Brown could only be described as an improvement over the first game against the Bears this season when Dartmouth lost by 10, 12-2.
This time the Big Green gave more of themselves.
Brown has been a consistently strong team this season, outscoring their opponents 195-26 going into Saturday's competition.
"I don't know if it was a 6-0 game. We just made little mistakes that they capitalized on," Crowe said.
For instance, Crowe mentioned four or five Dartmouth turnovers that Brown converted into goals.
Siegfried bought the Big Green some time at the beginning of the game, coming up with some key saves and allowing her team "to get their legs," Parish said.
The Bears, however, got a jump on Dartmouth halfway through the first period and never looked back.
It was Brown powerhouses Danielle Solari and Katie King who got their team's first two goals. Solari knocked in the first goal at 9:19 in the first. King was back at the Dartmouth net two minutes later, putting away her first goal of the afternoon off a Jordan Jiskra feed.
"We didn't roll over and die after they scored two in the first period," Hood said. "We could've, but we didn't."
Brown came out strong from the start in the second period. King ripped a slapshot from the blue line low and to the right of Siegfried just 15 seconds into the period to boost her team's lead to 3-0.
From here on out, Dartmouth found itself on an almost continuous power play. No more goals were scored in the second period but refs sat seven players in the penalty box during the remaining 13 minutes of the period, including a 10-minute game misconduct penalty on Brown's Marcie Deering.
The third period saw three more Brown goals over the span of about eight minutes. Solari was back for her second, a low goal from Jill Graat. Sophomore Carly Regnier had a one-on-one breakaway with Siegfried. Her shot jumped Siegfried's stick for Brown's fifth goal.
The final goal came at 12:30 in the third. Graat deflected a cross-net pass from Deering to put the puck in the left corner.
"We had some lapses but overall it was a much better game than last time," Siegfried said.
Brown's Alison Brewer was steady in goal and earned a shutout for the afternoon, tallying the 14th shutout this season for Brown.
"They are just strong all the way through. They have no weaknesses," Crowe said.
The weekend's results leave Dartmouth seeded fifth in this coming weekend's ECAC Tournament. Dartmouth will take on Northeastern in the quarterfinals this Saturday.
And how does that game look for the Big Green?
"The team we're playing next week better watch out," Pinard said, "because we're on fire."
