A less than capacity crowd of at Thompson Arena saw Dartmouth drop a 6-3
decision tonite to the Brown Bears.
After sitting for 5 straight games, Ben Heller got the start in net for the Big
Green.
Patrick Turcotte opened the scoring 1:42 into the game with his 6th goal of the
season off a pretty feed from defenseman Owen Hughes. Hughes dug the puck off
the left boards and slid a backhand pass in front to Turcotte. He wristed it
and the puck trickled under the glove of Brown goalie Mike Parsons for a 1-0
Dartmouth lead.
A couple of minutes later the game began to get real interesting. The
puck was dumped behind the Dartmouth net. Behind the net, a Brown forechecker
was swooping in to challenge the Dartmouth breakout attempt. Heller came
behind the net to try to guide the puck along, and a Dartmouth defenseman,
Trevor Dodman I believe, was also back there. Heller collided with the
defensemen, and the forechecker picked up the puck and slid it back to the
slot. Brown's Scott Bradford slapped the puck into the empty net, as Heller
was out of position, to tie the game at 1-1.
Only 28 seconds later Brown scored again. Mike Noble took a long shot
from the point that slammed off of Heller's pads. The long rebound quickly
came out to first-line center Eric Trach who beat Heller through the five-hole.
1:15 later Brown forward John DiRenzo got the puck in the Big Green zone off of
the draw, drove to the net, and shelfed a shot into the upper left corner over
Heller for a 3-1 Brown lead.
At this point, Coach Demment pulled Heller in favor of Scott Baker.
I should note here that the Dartmouth defense was a bit lax during this
period of the game, so Heller cannot be truly faulted for all of the goals.
Yet when Baker came in the team seemed to rally behind him and the play in both
ends began to pick up.
7:30 into the first Charlie Retter brought Dartmouth within 3-2 when he
picked up the rebound of a long Shane Ness shot from the point in front and
beat Parsons through the legs.
Brown extended its lead to two goals 2:44 into the second period on a
fluky goal. A shot hit high off the glass behind Baker and dropped behind the
net. Brown's Damian Prescott swooped in behind the net and beat Baker on a
wraparound inside the left post. I'm not sure how the puck got through, since
it looked like Baker had the post pretty well sealed off. It either went
through his skates or it banked off of his left skate and inside the post.
About 12 minutes into the second, Dartmouth pulled within 4-3 on a
shorthanded goal by Turcotte, his second tally of the game. In a great
individual effort, Turc blocked a shot at the point and then picked up the puck
and raced down the ice on a breakaway. He beat Parsons to the top right corner
on a pretty forehand move.
This was the Big Green's first shorthanded goal of the season.
Seven minutes into the third period, the most controversial stretch of
the game ensued. First, Dartmouth was assessed a bench minor for holding. A
Brown player was checked on the boards in front of the Big Green bench, and as
he tried to pull away, his stick was held by a Dartmouth player sitting on the
bench. The Brown player in response swung his stick at the players on the
bench. Most of the Thompson faithful thought that this constituted coinciding
minors, but only Dartmouth was called for a penalty.
Then Brown scored a goal that just about everyone in Thompson except for the
Brown bench and the referee thought should have been disallowed. On the power
play, Baker made a save on a shot from the point. As Baker covered up the puck
in butterfly position, the ref blew the whistle. But Brown captain Mike
Traggio hacked under Baker and the puck squirted in after the whistle had
blown. The red light went on, and once the ref saw this, he pointed at the net
signalling a goal had been scored. It seemed that the ref was bullied into
allowing the goal by the fact that the goal judge had turned on the red light.
Despite Dartmouth protests, the goal stood, and Brown led 5-3.
Dartmouth got a few good chances after that, but couldn't break through.
Brown added an empty netter with a meager one second left in the game to
account for the 6-3 final.
This is a game that Dartmouth could have had, had a few of the calls broke
their way, but in any event, Brown led wire to wire.
Even though officially charged with the loss, Baker played well in relief of
Heller, and probably will get the start tomorrow night against Harvard.
Box:
Goals:
FIRST PERIOD:
D Turcotte 6 (Buckley, Hughes) 1:42
B Bradford 8 (Kathol) 3:31
B Trach 5 (Thompson, Noble) 3:59
B DiRenzo 3 (Andersson, Flynn) 5:14
D C. Retter 4 (Cancelli, Ness) 7:30
SECOND PERIOD:
B Prescott 1 (Humber) 2:44
D Turcotte 7 12:12 SHG
THIRD PERIOD:
B Traggio 4 (Mulhern, Jardine) 7:36 PPG
B DiRenzo 4 ENG
Penalties:
FIRST PERIOD:
B Traggio (hooking) 9:39
SECOND PERIOD:
D Hughes (interference) 10:20
THIRD PERIOD:
B Merrill (tripping) 3:21
D bench minor (holding) 7:10
B Jardine (elbowing) 9:56
D Butters (holding) 13:31
Shots:
D 10 7 8 25
B 14 9 9 32
Saves:
D Heller 1 x x 1
Baker 10 8 7 25
Penalties:
D 3/6 mins B 3/6 mins
Power Plays:
D 0/3 B 1/3
Attendance 3498
Jeffrey Beyer '98
Dartmouth College
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