Dartmouth defeated Harvard tonight for the first time since 1981 (no - that's
not a typo - it really has been 12 years). If my figuring is correct the
combination of the Dartmouth win and the Cornell loss guarantees Dartmouth a
place in the playoffs for the first time in 13 years. It has been a VERY long
time since I have seen so many happy faces in the lounge after the game. It
was especially rewarding to have this wind come against arch rival Harvard,
who happens to be ranked in the top 5 nationally.
 
Briefly, Harvard took the lead at 17:55 of the first period. Up to that point
both teams had some opportunities, but Dartmouth seemed to be in a daze for
much of the period and was still in the game due to the strong play of goalie
Mike Bracco (35 saves for the evening).
 
I guess the coach Roger Demment had something to say between first and second
periods because Dartmouth came out storming in the second period, scoring a
powerplay goal at 1:47 and then pulling ahead just 37 seconds later on an
unassisted goal from Scott Fraser, who beat Harvard goalie Aaron Israel on a
breakaway to the upper left corner of the net. The rest of the period was
very evenly played with Harvard tying the score with 4:35 left.
 
Unfortunately the rest of the game was marred by some "stupid referee tricks"
on the part of Mike Noeth. I never though I'd say that Pierre Belanger was
actually better than any other referee, but Noeth is pretty poor - calling
imaginary penalties and not calling blatent infractions.... yuck! Refereeing
should not be something you notice in a game.
 
The third period saw Dartmouth skating a man down for at least 7 minutes (it
might have been longer - I lost track) on some very suspect calls.
Nonetheless there was some very exciting hockey. Dartmouth opened the period
short handed. Dartmouth Captain Peter Clark won the faceoff, getting the puck
back to Mike Loga who iced the puck hard into the boards to the left of
Israel. Clark came charging in and shot the rebound into the net 7 second
into the period to give Dartmouth a 3-2 lead. At 3:22, Scott Fraser scored
his second unassisted goal by skating around two Harvard defensemen and
beating Israel again to make the score 4-2. At that point Dartmouth started
getting all these weird penalties, at one point having to kill a full 4.5
minutes down either one or 2 men. Dartmouth survived all the penalties but
Harvard got an even strength goal at 13:50 to make it 4-3. Despite
considerable pressure, though, Harvard was not able to score again due to
some solid Dartmouth defense. Both teams missed some golden opportunities in
the last 6-7 minutes.