In their first meeting this season, Dartmouth and Colgate each fought hard, with the Big Green emerging victorious, 1-0.
Dartmouth’s win, their fifth in a row, now gives them a 39-38-4 all-time advantage over Colgate, including a 6-3-1 mark in their last 10 match ups.
The Raiders are now winless in their last four games.
The first period got off to a slow start, with both teams unable to capitalize on their scoring opportunities, despite a considerable number of power play opportunities for both sides.
Dartmouth particularly, who entered the game with a power play success rate of 21%, seemed puzzlingly unable to make good use of any of the four Colgate penalties.
“I thought we moved the puck pretty well,†said Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet. “But they did a good job of killing the penalties.”
The second period also saw a dry spell, with both teams unable to make use of several more man advantages, including a five minute game misconduct on Dartmouth’s Peter Boldt 12:42 into the period. The teams seemed relatively evenly matched, with a great deal of play consisting of battles for control in the neutral zone.
The third period finally saw points on the board 52 seconds into play, with Dartmouth’s Adam Estoclet netting a shot from the back door on the power play while Colgate goalie Charles Long was caught on the wrong side of the net by a deflection.
The hard-won goal was to be the only one of the game, with Colgate unsuccessfully attempting to tie the game for the rest of the third period.
“It was a game where it looked like the first guys to score were going to win it,” Gaudet remarked of the game. “You don’t see that many 1-0 games, the first goal was going to be huge, and to their credit they had some good chances,” he went on to say of the Raiders.
The Raiders, who outshot the Big Green 28-23, had several close shots on net, but failed to turn them into goals.
“We did a lot of things that we wanted to, but I guess it boils down to not finishing our chances,” said Colgate coach Don Vaughan. “You have to give their goalie credit… we didn’t get a lot of second opportunities in front of the net.â€
Both coaches saw room for improvement in their upcoming games from tonight’s performance.
“I think the effort is there, but we seem to be a little spread out,” Gaudet noted. “Going against Cornell our consistency needs to be there.”
Coach Vaughan said the Raider’s need to avoid getting frustrated:
“We have to keep our energy up and not get frustrated, hockey is an emotional game but frustration is one that you want to avoid.”
Both teams play again tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Dartmouth travels to Ithaca to take on Cornell while Colgate hosts Harvard.
