Well, Dartmouth started out this game where they left off against Cornell in
overtime on Friday night. As you may recall, Cornell scored just 7 seconds
into the overtime period. Saturday night, Colgate started off with a goal by
Earl Cronin (from Fogarty and Gardiner) just 8 seconds into the game and
followed quickly with another goal at 29 seconds by Gardiner (from Fogarty).
Things settled down a little (at the initial rate Colgate would have won by a
score of 120-0!) and play seemed to be evening out when Dartmouth gave away
the puck again on their own power play resulting in an unassisted shorthanded
goal by Ron Fogarty (a three point first period for him).
 
After allowing yet another goal in the first minute of play of the second
period (Cronin from Fogarty and Craig at 23 seconds) to make the score 4-0
for Colgate, the Big Green began to wake up and play the kind of hockey they
are capable of playing. The second period showed Dartmouth outshooting
Colgate 16-6 and with goals at 6:09 by Turcotte (from Hughes and DelMonte),
7:53 by Brent Retter (from Burkhart and DelMonte), and 18:52 by Ruzzo on a
power play, the period ended at 4-3 Colgate.
 
The question at the beginning of the third period was whether Dartmouth could
survive the opening minute without giving up a goal and then come back strong
to win the game. They DID survive the first minute but the Colgate goal at
7:55 by Sam Raffoul (making it 5-3) proved to be a backbreaker.
 
So what have we learned from this weekend? The Big Green have not been in a
situation where they were EXPECTED to win games since at least 10 years ago.
It was a new situation that the players had to deal with. I think the lesson
learned is that they still have to play the games to win them. Their record
last year was gotten through a great deal of hard work and discipline and
perhaps the team started off this weekend forgetting that. In the second
period of the Colgate game Saturday night, Dartmouth started to display the
discipline they had at the end of last season and outscored Colgate 3-1
during last part of the game. In particular, there was a virtual
disappearance of the unfortunate give-aways of the puck that plagued
Dartmouth's play up to that point all weekend. It was also encouraging that
two of the Dartmouth goals were scored by freshman. Next weekend Dartmouth
faces Vermont in a home and home series. It will be a good test for the Big
Green.
 
Bob Gross