The Dartmouth men's hockey team has played well this season -- in fact, very well at times -- but because of a string of recent one-goal losses, the Big Green are not as high in the ECAC standings as they should be.
But now the non-conference schedule is over, and all teams in the conference have just 11 games left to show their mettle. In short, it's put up or shut up time for the Green. And the first game of the rest of the season is tomorrow night, when Dartmouth travels to Burlington, Vt. to face the Vermont Catamounts in the dreaded Gutterson Fieldhouse.
For the Green (7-8-3 overall, 3-7-1 ECAC, 10th place), the contest offers a chance to get to an even .500 on the season, as well as to leapfrog past Vermont into ninth place in the conference standings.
And for the Cats (6-13-2 overall, 3-6-2 ECAC, 9th place), tomorrow's matchup affords the opportunity to turn things around in what has otherwise been a forgettable season.
Dartmouth comes off a huge 2-1 overtime win Tuesday over UMass-Lowell in the first-ever game at the new Tsongas Arena, while the Catamounts lost their last contest at Gutterson, a 5-3 loss to Denver.
The Green are working on their best season in recent memory -- they haven't been this close to .500 at the end of January in the past few years -- and they come in on the right track, having won three of their last six games. Furthermore, they have two excellent options in net, as
Perhaps even more damaging was the graduation of Tim Thomas, the All-American Vermont goaltender. Freshman Andrew Allen has filled in admirably, but with a weaker team in front of him than Catamount fans are used to, he has had his problems.
Still, Gutterson Fieldhouse affords the Catamounts a tremendous mental edge, with its rabid, raucous fans, a fact that Dartmouth Head Coach Bob Gaudet '81 is quick to point out. "We're going into a building, where, no question, they have a huge home-ice advantage."
But Gaudet added that when the Green minimize their mistakes and play with a lot of emotion, the team can skate with virtually anyone in the ECAC. No game was better evidence of this than the Green's 4-3 upending of conference leader and national number-nine Yale earlier this month. The Bulldogs will get a shot at revenge next month in New Haven.
Following the game against Vermont, the Green will head to upstate New York next weekend to do battle with Clarkson and St. Lawrence. Dartmouth lost a heartbreaker to Clarkson at Thompson Arena earlier this month but upended the Skatin' Saints the following night.
