St. Lawrence beat Dartmouth four times last season, but the No. 2 Big Green got its revenge on Saturday with a comfortable 5-1 victory. Dartmouth’s offense proved too much for the No. 5 Saints, whose six-game win streak came to an end.
The five goals matched Dartmouth’s total in the four defeats last season against the Saints’ All-American goalie Rachel Barrie. St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan was still happy with the play of freshman goalie Meagan Guckian, who stopped 31 of 36 shots. Dartmouth (17-1-0, 10-0-0 ECAC) brought firepower today that the Saints never saw last season.
“Meagan did really well,” Flanagan said. “Dartmouth is very dynamic and has six of the best forwards in the league. I’m happy with how she played.”
Dartmouth opened the scoring at 5:51 off of a Meredith Batcheller slap shot. The Saints (15-4-3, 5-2-1 ECAC) answered with a shorthanded goal at 7:43 by Emilie Berlinguette, but the Big Green’s Tiffany Hagge put Dartmouth ahead for good at 15:53. Apps earned her second assist of the game on Hagge’s goal to extend her career point total to 99.
The Big Green pulled away with two more goals in the second period. Krista Dornfried’s goal after intercepting an outlet pass for a breakaway gave Dartmouth a backbreaking 3-1 lead. Cherie Piper extended her point streak to 22 games at 13:56 by scoring on a wrist shot off the post.
“We stopped skating after they score their third goal,” Flanagan said. “We didn’t respond.”
Play got a little chippy at the end of the second period when Dartmouth’s Dornfried and St. Lawrence’s Tracy Muzerall recieved hitting after the whistle penalties. Muzerall showed her frustration by pushing Dornfried in the face.
“They manhandled us physically,” Flanagan said.
The two teams would remain physical, but there would be no more penalties after the whistle.
“Both teams played physically,” said Dartmouth coach Mark Hudak. “I’m happy about how we kept our heads. The girls were talking about staying calm on the bench.”
Caroline Ethier rounded out the scoring at 10:55 of the third period for the 5-1 final. Streaking down the right side, Ethier took a hard and impressive slap shot that went in off the far post.
Dartmouth goalie Kate Lane didn’t see as much steady action as the Saints’ netminder, but she played well in letting up just one goal on 24 shots.
“Lane did a nice job,” Hudak said. “She played a good, solid, technical game. She isn’t very flashy, but she made some real nice athletic saves.”
Dartmouth looks ahead to two more ECAC home games next week against Cornell and Colgate. Piper will likely be out for at least one. St. Lawrence will to look to re-evaluate itself as its season continues against Union.
“It’s not a shock. We knew they were really good, but we didn’t expect the game to turn out the way it did,” said St. Lawrence sophomore Crystal Connors. “This is definitely a taking-in period.”
