Colgate beat Dartmouth Friday night 9-3 to raise their ECAC record
to 8-3-2.  Colgate scored scored early in the second period on a
goal that should never have happened to break a 2-2 tie, and from
there on out it was a pretty one-sided game.  Mike Harder had a hat
trick (including the tiebreaker), Bruce Gardiner had two goals
and an assist, and Earl Cronan had a goal and three assists for
Colgate.  Dion del Monte had a goal and two assists for Dartmouth.
 
Colgate    2  5  2 - 9
Dartmouth  2  0  1 - 3
 
 
  I came a couple minutes late to the game, and so I missed Colgate's
first goal at :18 scored by Ron Fogarty.  For the rest of the first
period, though, Dartmouth outplayed Colgate.  They had some speed,
and managed to get sustained pressure in the Colgate end on a few
occasions.  They got on the board off of a rush that appeared to
break down at center ice, but a couple quick passes and boom! Dion
del Monte went in all alone and beat Gates for the tie.  A few
minutes later, the Big Green took the lead on the power play
following some nice puck control and passes down low.  Gates
thereafter made some nice saves to keep Colgate within one goal.
  Colgate tied the game late in the period following some good
forechecking pressure of their own, Rob Metz tipping in a Brent
Wilde pass.  Shots in the first were 13-9 Dartmouth.
 
  Then comes the second period.  A minute in, Dartmouth forward
Tony DelCarmine was called for holding.  During the powerplay,
Big Green goalie Mike Bracco stopped the puck behind the net for
his defensemen, then tried to get back in front of the net.  He
made it to the side, at which point he was checked solidly by one
of the Colgate players steaming towards the puck.  Nothing
particularly illegal about the check, other than it was a somewhat
hard one against the goalie who wasn't even in possession of the
puck.  Bracco ended up behind the net, and made no effort whatsoever
to get back in front, expecting the obvious penalty to be called.
Ref John Gallagher (not quite as surprised now, are you) decided
that it wasn't a penalty and let play continue.  After several
seconds the puck popped out in front, and Mike Harder gloved it
down and scored into the empty net.  Bracco was still on the ice
in back of the net.  While admittedly the penalty should have been
called,  Bracco should not have assumed this.  He had plenty of
time to get back in the net before the goal came.  At this point,
of course, Dartmouth argued (legitimately) quite a bit, but the
goal stood.
 
  That was pretty much it for Dartmouth.  After this, they just
sagged totally and looked very lethargic.  Colgate scored again
17 seconds later (Bruce Gardiner in a scramble), Mike Harder scored
on a slapshot from the slot at 13:13, Brent Wilde scored a short-
handed goal at 16:47 on a soft wrister that Bracco just waved at,
and Gardiner scored again at 18:00 on a 3-on-2.
  The referees apparently tried to make it up to Dartmouth a bit,
as from the go-ahead goal on they called Colgate on pretty much
anything that even looked like a penalty, while letting Dartmouth
go.  Many of the penalties were legitimate, and Colgate should have
been called for more than Dartmouth, but it shouldn't have been as
lopsided as it was.
  Unfortunately for Dartmouth, they really couldn't get anything
going on any of the power plays.  They got some long-range shots,
but practically no control time at all.  The second period ended
7-2 Colgate (I forgot to write down the shots).
 
  Mike Loga scored for Dartmouth early in the second on a long shot
from just inside the blue line.  Gates might have been screened a
bit, but probably should have had it.  Cronan scored at 5:50, and
Harder simply took the puck away from a Dartmouth defender and
went around Bracco for his hat trick and Colgate's second SHG of
the night.  That was it for the scoring, though play got a bit
testy for the rest of the way.
 
  Colgate was 1 for 2 on the powerplay (their second was in the last
minute of the game) and Dartmouth was 1 for 10 (or -1 for 10,
depending on how you score it).  Jason Gates played a decent game
in goal, though admittedly he faced little in the way of quality
shots after the first period.  Bracco, well, let's just say he
didn't have the strongest of games.  I had the shots as 33-28
Colgate, but that might not have been correct.
 
  As for Dartmouth, they played a very good first period but totally
fell apart after Colgate took the lead in the second.  Granted, it
was a horrible non-call, but a team just can't let itself give up
like that on one goal.  They were still only down by one.  Instead,
they sagged, and the game was quickly out of reach.
  For Colgate, it was a solid win.  They played pretty well
defensively, and the offense appears to be finding the net again
after a bit of a drought.  They picked up two points on Brown, who
were upset by Yale, and go into tonight's game against Vermont
tied for second place.
 
I'll post the box later on.
 
Carl Lindberg
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]